Christian schools

OK, this is getting ridiculous. I had heard of the Bible Belt, of course, and thought I understood what that term represented. But I'm starting to feel slightly nauseous from the frankly creepy way in which this simplistic, moralistic, sub-Victorian strand of Christianity appears to seep into every aspect of life here.

Today I went through the listings of private schools in the phone book (I'm not qualified to teach in the public school system) and checked out the websites of many of them, in order to get contact details so I could write offering my services as a musician and teacher. I wasn't surprised that a good proportion of them (well, nearly all of them in fact) were religious-affiliated - I'm well used to that in the UK, and have no problem with it. But the websites were mostly crammed full of quotations from Scripture, references to 'walking with the Lord', 'affecting lives for the Kingdom of God', 'educating the whole person to glorify God' (should that be 'forcing'?) and general insinuations that you had better sign up to their way of thinking, or else.

I'm all for toleration and religious freedom. But the impression I get here is that these people are not. I would have no problem with working in a religious-affiliated school of any description, if I felt that my employers would be willing to respect my own liberal scepticism in the same way that I would be willing to respect their own fervent beliefs. Who knows, we might even both learn from each other. But the impression I get is that that kind of mutual respect isn't really on the cards. Oh well, if any of them respond to my speculative letters, we shall find out!