24 August 2008
opinion
Kampala — I wish to respond to Kajabago Ka-Rusoke's article titled: "Religion should be taught from science perspective" published in The New Vision of July 21.
The problem is not the teaching of religion but Christian Religious Education (CRE). CRE was the core of character formation in schools at the inception of education in Uganda.
This was the moral foundation of those who have grown not only to hate and denounce Christianity but to hunt it out of the tools for the development of a nation of integrity.
Our cry is not the teaching of religion in school but the end of teaching of CRE. If we were indeed a democratic nation, 80% Christians would benefitfrom their right to study CRE and its role in the development of the nation.
Anyone can study religion from a science perspective. But what would be the goal of such orientation?
The suggestion to study religion from this perspective comes at time when many of us are questioning the relevance of the whole curriculum in our schools and universities. If the Cabinet is to make resolutions on how to teach religion, it should base such decision on research.
The current school curriculum is failing to deliver qualifications that are market-oriented. The departure from CRE as the only targeted subject has become responsible for moral deterioration. This is often done to align our national thinking to that of the international community without assessing to what extent this trend has affected secularised countries.
A further change in the teaching of religion, which seems to be enthusiastically pursued, will only make the moral situation worse.
Our society is slowly experiencing moral erosion because religion has been neglected in schools or at least taught with censorship. The school, the Church and the family are the contexts of moral formation. They work together. When one of the contexts is ideologically confused, the remaining two will operate awkwardly, leading to a morally unbalanced society. Their effectiveness is critically hampered.
Unfortunately all the three complementary contexts of moral formation are under severe attack.
Karusoke's view is a resumption of old theories that sought to take theology from the centre stage of human development about 200 years ago.
For many years, theology was the 'king' of all subjects because theology is the human attempt to relate with God.
God made the initiative and humanity is challenged to respond. Our response results in moral transformation which is the substance for the building of a nation with integrity.
There is a distinction between religion and theology. Religion is people's outward expression of their belief. It is not the content of belief. I am using theology from a Christian perspective of a self-revealed God through the Jewish history and now better understood as the Judeo-Christian faith. From this point, other expressions are simply human philosophies to make sense of our existence.
Stubbornly, such approaches refuse to accept the self-revealed God and go for human expression. Even within Christianity, there are increasing challenges whereby many people desire for outward expressions (religion) rather than the response to the self-revealed God in Jesus Christ.
Making the study of religion an option in our education and its study from a science perspective is not a problem.
The problems are two-fold. First, the change is a progression that marginalises CRE. Secondly, the change throws away the very substance that would bring about moral transformation. This is an absurdity.
The writer is the Principal of Kampala Evangelical School of Theology
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