Another step forward......

I read the Catholic newspaper on line every week - usually with great amusement but sometimes with real rage. I also listen to 'Sunday' at 7 a.m. UK time on Sunday mornings - you have to know what they are up to!

Greatnan The extract may have come from the Catholic Herald, but I think the nasty little booklet originated from evangelistic America. Surprise, surprise.

P.S. I took this quote from today's Catholic Herald.

And another step back. Here is an extract from a booklet being given out in some catholic high schools. The booklet, entitled Pure Manhood: How to become the man God wants you to be, states that “the homosexual act is disordered, much like contraceptive sex between heterosexuals”
The Education Minister has said that anti-discrimination laws do not apply to the curriculum of schools. Surely schools are the very places where bigotry needs to be nipped in the bud.
I know of no medical research which concludes that this opinion of homosexuality is correct. It is an opinion only and must be distressing to any young homosexuals unlucky enough to be given this booklet.

My youth, too!

Ladies. This is a serious site. You will upset some people!

Bit of mayhem on a Saturday night? Sounds like my youth - as far as I can remember!

Oh, I haven't had a bit of mayhem for years!

Can we all do anything that is not strictly prohibited?
Could be fun; could be mayhem!

Secularism under attack! Eric Pickles has invoked a little known statute that enables town councils to do 'anything that is not specifically prohibited'. I find that very alarming. I hope there will be enough councillors with the courage to challenge this ruling under the anti-discrimination law.

baggy sarky!

Earning?

'Getting paid' might be more accurate.

I suppose he could have a 'firm purpose of amendment' as he is not likely to be in a position to start another illegal war. Cherie is a strange catholic, as she is fond of crystals and rebirthing ceremonies - not really in line with catholic teaching.
Still, he made 12 million pounds last year so I expect he is contributing generously to the church. You may not be able to fool all of the people all of the time, but he is certainly fooling a lot. It is his sickening 'sincerity' that revolts me. And to think I was euphoric in 1997 - I really thought politics was going to change for the better.
Gordon Brown is earning less, because he is not as 'charasmatic' - i.e. slimy.

Thank you for the link to the Polly Toynbee article - very interesting.

As to Tony Blair - so many of his actions were "un-Christian" - maybe he converted simply in order to avail himself of the confessional. Or was it to keep the wife happy?

Ouch! A palpable hit!

carboncareful.....an interesting point. Tony Blair converted to catholicism - I wonder if he confessed to war crimes and mass murder?

Polly brilliant as usual re meaning of secular etc which everyone seems to get wrong these days. However Polly has blotted her copybook since then with her stupid (yes I use the word advisedly) article earlier this week making out that we should have more children to get us out of the economic mess and encourage grown. How ridiculous and illogical can you get? (have put this on another thread)

But I regress. I have only just come across this thread and I am wondering if anyone has investigated the Councils that have prayers to see if they do any better than the ones who don't? By "better" I mean do they help the poor and underprivileged - and all the other things "Christians" are supposed to do???

Polly Toynbee says that 70% of christians are secularists in this article in the Guardian. She concludes with this noble sentiment:
"There is nothing militant about demanding that civic life and law binds us together as equal citizens".

That's right, jeni, put the (rugby) boot in!

Team sports are outside my area of expertise!

Rugby?

Scotland is far ahead of England and Wales in many areas. Beautiful, too, but wet!

Your stories make me feel very lucky. That said, we have been fighting to prevent some of those problems (bus travel for little kids, etc) happening in this area. The Scottish Commission into Rural Education was set up as a result of parents' efforts across Argyll and is happening as we speak.

I can understand parents doing anything necessary to acquire a decent education for their children - even a pretend conversion.

If your local school is good, then that is very lucky, but if it is not, you have no alternative but to do your best to find something that will provide what is needed.

There are some real problem schools round here and parents agonize about what to do - and often the children finish up traveling long distances to find a reasonable school. They even travel over the border into Wales (where there seems to be better investment into education).

Until all state schools offer a good education, all this necessary hypocrisy will continue. I think that one of the biggest problems with secondary schools is their size - the imperative to maintain some sort of order becomes paramount and education can suffer as a result.

I think it depends where you live and what the school provision is in that area, bags. I have relatives who can't use the village school as it's closing down, so the children will have to go on a school bus to the next school 5 miles away. A friend has grandchildren who have been removed from their local comp and will be home schooled because they have been shifted and messed around that much, the children had no class room to go to for one term, and it still wasn't resolved in January - that's two children of different ages, both with no classroom! Some children in their neighbourhood are travelling 3/4 hour each way by bus because there are no places in their local comp. There are plans to buy some nearby land, but they have no room for temporary classrooms to be laid in the grounds, because the playing fields went years ago and there are already prefab classrooms taking up too much space. The school has been assured they will still have the funding, but it all takes time to sort.