Religious Education ‘not suitable’ for NI society, study suggests
We will acknowledge one unintended grain of truth in the above BBC headline, and it is this. What passes for ‘Religious Education’ in Northern Ireland, is not suitable for anywhere in the world, never mind here!
The Core Syllabus for Religious Education in Northern Ireland is jointly defined by the Department of Education (DE) and the representatives of the four main Christian churches in Northern Ireland (Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Anglican, and Methodist).
Thus it is an evil ‘homogenisation’ of modernistic and liberal theology and idolatrous superstition and man-made traditions!
I always find it utterly unreasonable that those who feel that they had to leave, or even flee, from their homeland, for one reason or another and seek refuge in the United Kingdom, feel it necessary to immediately begin to try and transform our land into that from which they felt they had to get out of.
That to me is very strange indeed!
However, that said, there is a great need for educating Northern Ireland on matters religious from the Word of God, the ‘only rule of faith and practice’. Martin Luther is quoted as saying: ‘The true rule is this: God’s Word shall establish articles of faith, and no one else, not even an angel can do so.’
The RE syllabus used in the schools in Ulster has been drawn up by anything other than angels and certainly is not fit for purpose!
BUT THE BIBLE IS!
“The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward,” Psalm 19:9-11.
“BETH. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes,” Psalm 119:9-12.
“MEM. O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day. Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts. I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word. I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me. How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way,” Psalm 119:97-104.
“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. . . . Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me,” John 5:39, 14:6.
“And when they were come to him, he (the apostle Paul) said unto them, Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews: and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house, Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ,” Acts 20:18-21.
“And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,” 2 Timothy 3:15-16.
THE ONLY BOOK
The Bible is the ONLY syllabus anyone, never mind schoolchildren, requires in order to know the way of truth and salvation!
What is offered in schools here is certainly not suitable but not for the reasons the ‘Bible-rejectors’ of Queen’s University of Belfast, put forth.
The BBC article states: ‘Well over a third of respondents (38%) said they were unhappy that primary school children were only required to learn about Christian beliefs and practices in RE.’
Their reasoning is based upon the foolish notions of atheistic parents and followers of the many pagan religions now found in Ulster.
The religious convictions of former generations are to be cast aside under the objections of rejectors of God and those who have migrated here, bringing with them the dark notions of a pagan world, a world to which, in the past, Ulster sent out missionaries with the Gospel.
TURNAROUND
This reversal of the central tenet of Christ’s command to “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature,”(Mark 16:15) is taking place before our eyes. It is to be seen as that spoken of so often in prophecy — the rejection of the world of God by those professing belief in it!
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away,” 2 Timothy 3:1-5.
“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry,” 2 Timothy 4:2-5.
“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; and delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished,” 2 Peter 2:1-9.
The present campaign, by those opposed to God’s Word in Belfast City Council, to bring in a law that would curb street preaching, is another sign of the changing spiritual atmosphere here in Ulster.
I suppose that we owe a measure of gratitude to QUB for stating the obvious regarding RE in Northern Ireland schools, but, of course, we recognise that they were not seeking a return to the Bible, but rather a complete abandonment of it in favour of an ‘ecumenical ragbag’ of falsehoods and deceit!
AWAKE
Christian, awaken to the spirit of this age and recognise that we need to “Be . . . patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh,” James 5:8.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
4th December 2025