The teaching of religion in schools in Rio

It should be sanctioned this month by the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, the bill authored by Municipal Administration authorizing the hiring of 600 teachers to give religious instruction in schools of the municipal of education; supported by Catholics, but criticized by Evangelicals.

The bill states that teachers should be trained in undergraduate and at the same time, be accredited by a competent religious authority.

According to the project, teachers, yet linked to any religious institution, will have to offer religious education plural, non-sectarian, with a view to recovery and the visibility of the different religious practices, something that already exists in state schools. But the classes, according to what establishes the Constitution, shall be optional to students, who can then watch them or not.

The position against the bill, expressed by the evangelical bench in City Hall, comes from the thought that the measure would benefit mainly the Catholics, who constitute the majority in our country between those who claim to have religion.

Another voice against the project, based, however, on other grounds, is the City Council on Education, an advisory body of the Department of Education, which is well positioned with the express purpose of reaffirming the secular character of public schools. Indeed, in this sense, the Supreme Court clears an action of unconstitutionality against federal law passed in content similar to Rio.

Spiritists have still not expressed themselves so far in the matter, but it's good to know that there is, with respect to this issue, a precedent that gave indeed rise to a classic of Spiritism in Brazil - the book Religion, authored by the late Carlos Imbassahy.

At that time what was being discussed, and was the focus of the book mentioned, was the religious character of Spiritism, as the authorities in the field of education did not regard Spiritism as a religion and therefore spiritists would be excluded from administering, as the Catholics, the teaching of the spirit doctrine in public schools.

Imbassahy showed the mistake of the authorities, but at the same time proved that the religious nature of Spiritism, he had reminded spiritists that we should not have the slightest concern in using such an instrument because the place in which to teach religious education to our children is primarily the home and in the background, the spirit houses.

With respect to public school, everyone knows the difficulties it faces, as the scarcity of resources, lack of teachers and, often, the precariousness of the facilities themselves, the reasons can seldom realize what it is expected from school.

Add to this list the responsibility to teach religion to little children is therefore an idea that should not even be contemplated, since it is right to leave with families and religious segments a task that belongs to them and nobody else.