Religion on the Offensive

Darwin or Adam and Eve?

The announcements from the Government of Serbia and the Serb Orthodox Church on the introduction of catechism into elementary and secondary school raised the question whether Serbia will in the future be defined as a civil or a religious state

AIM Belgrade, December 22, 2000

“Our mother of Serb birth, your love is spreading around the Earth, Saint Petka, Saint Petka, you watch over us, because in God, in God we do believe”.

This is the text of a nursery rhyme which since last year children learn in Belgrade kindergarten formerly called Srnic Brothers and nowadays bearing the name of Saint Petka. It is a state kindergarten and the parents whose children go to this and other pre-school institutions were not even given the chance to say whether they are in favour or against introduction of catechism and other religious content in the kindergarten.

Since recently, however, the offensive of religion is acquiring broad proportions. Gordana Anicic, minister of religion in the transitional government of the Republic of Serbia from the Serb Revival Movement (SPO), declared that “definite agreement was reached on introduction of catechism into schools” because Christian ethical values were the best remedy for drug addiction and crime, and indeed it was also introduced in Russia and Republika Srpska.

This intention will be carried out by the new government in Serbia which will be formed after December 23 elections, but there is already a proposal of the Ministry in charge to introduce religion classes as a regular subject into elementary schools and an optional one in secondary schools. The Serb Orthodox Church, however, has the ambition to make catechism a compulsory subject both in elementary and secondary schools as of 2001 already. The grades should be descriptive because – as Archdeacon Radomir Rakic, professor of English at the divinity college observed – “one should have in mind the negative experience from the time before the Second World War when due to bad marks many pupils and students started disliking Christianity and became communists instead”. What about the others?

In regions where the majority of the students are of Muslim or Roman Catholic creed, religion will be taught according to the textbooks prepared by the Islamic or Roman Catholic community, or with their approval. Teachers of catechism in these regions will be Catholic priests and Muslim religious functionaries who have Muslim religious training. Belgrade Archbishop France Perko, welcoming the initiative on introduction of religion into schools, said to Blic daily that it would be best if in mixed environments catechism was taught simultaneously to children of the Orthodox, the Roman Catholic, the Evangelical and Islamic creed. Belgrade mufti Hamdija Jusufspahic proposed that the state determines a few schools where the children of Muslim creed would be taught catechism and announced that textbooks from Bosnia & Herzegovina would be used. Jusufspahic, however, pointed out to the most important thing – that “everybody in our country should get acquainted with the religion of others because ignorance is our greatest enemy”.

The mentioned arguments have not met with general understanding. The Helsinki Committee of Human Rights in Serbia believes that introduction of religious education seriously compromises the principles of a secular state because “it threatens to set down the Church dogma as the foundation of moral up-bringing”. The Church sharply responded by stating that the mentioned assessment was “the fear of Satan”, and that the Serb Orthodox Church would “never impose anything on anyone, but just offer the beneficial word of Christ's Gospel”. The questions have already arisen in public what will happen if the “beneficial word” contradicts the word of science, which word will be more valid: that of the teacher of catechism who praises a pupil for knowledge on Adam and Eve, or the biology teacher who gives the pupil a bad mark because he refuted Darwin's theory of evolution by the story of Adam and Eve?

Vukasin Petrovic, activist of Otpor says that this movement has no official stand on catechism, but that he personally thinks it should not be in school but in church. Mirko Djordjevic, publisher and editor of Republika biweekly, warned in an article in Danas daily that creed could not be taught but revealed and that it would be best if the existing subjects – literature, sociology, philosophy – were supplemented with contents on religion – but not religious content. Known professor of Belgrade University Ljubisa Rajic puts the key question: will this be a school subject aimed at creating new believers or getting the children acquainted with the fundamentals of religion... “At the entrance of school there are other things standing and waiting - human rights, computer science, knowledge of the media, protection of the environment... Who will decide which has priority and on what basis?”

Schools in Serbia are in a terrible state: they work in two or three shifts, there are up to 50 pupils in a class, teachers of main subjects are insufficiently educated, the schools are badly equipped... In such circumstances, “the demand to introduce catechism is an intentional skirting of real problems and willing continuation of the practice of the former regime”, says Prof. Rajic revealing in the end the essence of the problem: “Essentially there is only one big political question and it is whether Serbia will be defined as a secular, civil state, or as a religious Orthodox state. Development of a modern state in the whole world goes towards a secular state. Going back to a religious state is an element of religious fundamentalism, but it is in fact just a means for achieving goals outside religion”.

Roksanda Nincic

(AIM)