The first few paragraphs of the excerpt given by Norm Geras of Barack Obama's autobiography had me nodding with admiration for his mother and his view of her. "Religion was an expression of human culture, she would explain, not its wellspring, just one of the many ways that man attempted to control the unknowable and understand the deeper truths about our lives." Then he disappoints with his 'why I nonetheless joined a church', because he wanted to belong to a group. So mundane. As I said in my letter published a couple of months ago in the Financial Times (cough cough):
"Sir, Although the new Commission for Integration and Cohesion will not be looking at the issue of faith schools, there is no doubt in my mind that Amartya Sen is right ("Multiculturalism: an unfolding tragedy of two confusions", August 22) that the impact of faith schools on the values we as a society want to teach our children must be considered.
Based on my own experience of living overseas as a child and the work I do now in helping people to adjust to different cultures, it is clear that cultural values are formed at an early age - from about five to 12 years old. After this age, it is increasingly difficult to change one's values. Instead, the overwhelming motivator is to "belong".
That is why fundamentalist groups find rich pickings for converts at universities, when a young person has moved away from home and is trying to find a new sense of belonging. If that young person has already absorbed values which allow him to see other groups as less than human, it is a dangerous combination. I hope therefore the commission takes a two-pronged approach.
First, a check that the values promoted during our children's formative years do not include any sense that people of other faiths (and of course other ethnicities) are less worthy and do include western liberal values such as the one that Prof Sen highlights, of "being able to reason freely".
Second, that despite Britain's class-ridden tradition, our society finds ways to provide all young people with a sense of belonging and access to the networks that provide good jobs, education and a rich social life. I strongly believe the kind of mentoring schemes Ruth Kelly, the communities and local government secretary, mentioned would be an effective way to do this."
One of my best friends at my Oxbridge college was a working class Goth who loved French literature and whom I met singing Haydn in a choir. The God Squad got her in her second year, and I believe she was vulnerable to their 'charms' for the very reason I liked her - she had so many supposedly conflicting identities. So she never really belonged to any one group and that had ultimately made her feel unhappy and lonely. They offered her unconditional belonging. Well not entirely unconditional - I believe she had to confess to all her sins at a prayer meeting, which were many and involved a lot of sex and drugs - they should have sold tickets at the door.
Not wishing to sound too cynical, but I would imagine that having chosen a 'public life' as Obama puts it, belonging to a powerful and motivated group such as an African American church must be helpful. More helpful than becoming an Arthurian, which is what my Goth friend became after she lost her faith.
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