Religion, stoned

Many are the called and few, less and less, are the chosen ones who sign up for the subject of Religion in Spain.

Religious education in our country has been suffering in recent decades a real ordeal, being the scapegoat for many of the complexes that drag our politicians.

When the leftists govern, because of their outdated anti-Catholicism and, when it is the turn of the rightists, because they wash their hands "lest it seems that...".

The fact is that one or the other has managed to corner a subject that enjoys all prestige in the countries of our environment where it is socially valued and is perfectly integrated into the school curriculum.

With the patience of Job, Religion teachers have been enduring year after year laws that seem designed to dissuade students from enrolling.

An optional subject that has been reduced to the minimum expression in terms of teaching load, that has no serious alternative for those who do not study it and that, to make matters worse, does not count for the average grade, is a subject doomed to abandonment on the part of the students.

Although many would like to see the head of the subject of Religion on a silver platter, the truth is that it is defending itself like David against Goliath. According to the latest data made public by the Spanish Episcopal Conference, no less than 60 percent of the students (more than three million) refuse to sell themselves for that plate of lentils and continue to bet on an integral formation that does not dispense with the religious dimension proper to every human being.

In the 21st century, the old discourse that Religion is a Maccabee's nonsense does not hold water, since it is common sense that our culture, our art, our system of thought and the values we share in the West and that crystallize in human rights have their roots in Christianity.  

In times of fat cows, many wanted to sell the idea that God is not necessary for the development of the person; but then came the lean cows of the economic crisis, the pandemic, the war, and many young and not so young people begin to notice that the welfare society, the golden calf, does not have all the answers.

The slogan "if I don't see it I don't believe it" has turned against those who denied any transcendent dimension, because what many young people really see and touch is the wound of an increasingly unequal world, where the rich are richer and the poor are poorer, where the promises of happiness, prosperity and equality of ideologies are revealed to be more false than the kiss of Judas.

The Tower of Babel that the parliament has become is incapable of finding a consensus solution, that educational pact that parents and teaching professionals have requested on so many occasions.

Meanwhile, the Religion class will continue its long desert journey, going from Herod to Pilate and dodging the Sadducean traps that the different administrations will continue to place along the way.

It would be a different story for education if, instead of stirring up trouble, some government would decide to take the Solomonic decision to respect a subject that, year after year, receives the explicit and countercurrent endorsement of the majority of parents and students in the country.

Catholic Religion, a subject with the face of ecce homo after years of bashing, but necessary to understand our world and, if you have paid attention, each of the sentences that make up this article. Maybe you have already noticed it and decide to share it with those you know will understand it; or maybe you prefer not to do so because it is not worth throwing pearls before swine.