According to a study, (reported in The Times) funded by the Jerusalem Trust, a Sainsbury family charity, Jesus has been turned into “a very nice secular humanist, a nice chap, who wanted everyone to be nice to each other”.

Researchers at the University of Exeter surveyed nearly 500 children. They included children aged 7-11 in ten junior schools and children aged 11-14 in one comprehensive, one Church of England, one Methodist and two independent schools. Nearly half the children were Christian and nearly a third were Muslim.

The aim of the research, part of a project started in 2000 and led by Terence Copley, a former teacher, is to help with the production of teaching materials for religious classes. While most of the children knew that Jesus had a reputation as a caring person, fewer than one in ten believed that Jesus was, or is, God. A third found Him “a bit confusing” and more than a quarter thought him “hard to believe in”. The children struggled to understand Jesus’s death and Resurrection, (don’t we all struggle with that at times, wonderful though it is?) and resorted to the language of magic to describe him, linking the miracles with the magic tricks of Paul Daniels.

“There is a perception that the Church and Christianity has an image problem and is perceived as, at best, outdated and, at worst, weird,” the report says. It also exposed differences between the faiths. “The Christian influence on non-Muslim children is different to the Muslim influence on Muslim children, for whom there is a much stronger and positive identification with their faith tradition.”

Christian children would say: “I believe in God.” A Muslim child would say: “I am a Muslim.”

A Muslim child would say: “I am a Muslim.” And there is the difference, between the personal relationship with God, and the orthopraxic blind obedience to a set of rules and membership of the ummah. Summed up in one tiny sentence.

Six of the group were atheists who said that they did not believe. None of these was Muslim. Many of the other children were guarded about faith, describing it as “too fantastic” or saying there was “no evidence”. This is the age when young people question and can express their doubts. I wondered the same thing at that age. They need to keep questioning to strengthen what could be a lifetime faith.  I would not want a child of that age dismissed as a confirmed atheist just yet, which is what could happen.

Professor Copley said: “They weren’t anti-Jesus. The best way of summing it up is ‘pallid respect’. They thought He was important but He didn’t excite them.”

A CHILD'S-EYE VIEW OF CHRISTIANITY

These are howlers, no more, I don’t think they show a lack of belief, just confusion with longish words. They make me  chuckle rather than despair.

Q: What does the Bible say about the birth of Jesus that makes Christians believe he is special?

A: Jesus is the prophet of Allah (alright that one isn’t a howler)

Q: Why is the cross an important symbol for Christians?

A: Because he was crossified on a cross

... Because Jesus was crusified on one to replenish our sins ...

Q: Why do you think Jesus chose fishermen like Simon and Andrew to be his disciples?

A: Because he liked fishing. And fishing is a wise sport. (fishing is indeed)

...To fight for him

Q: According to the Bible, why did some people want to arrest and kill Jesus?

A: Because everybody thort he was a wizard.

... Some for shopping the cheats, and one for money.  (these are not actually wrong answers, just a bit limited; I can see hope there)

I tell, rather than teach, bible stories to pre school children at a toddler and baby club. At that age I really want the children to absorb a sense, a memory that coming into he church premises can be fun, that it’s a good place to visit, and receive an underlying sense of God that they may not even realise is  there when they hear the more formal teaching of Sunday school and RE.

I do worry about the blandness of RE teaching for young people. We have gone to the trouble of employing a youth worker and a children’s worker at our church, caring hardworking women who try hard, but are products of a dumbed down system which so far fails to inspire. The most successful activity is run by a gifted amateur who has a spark in her which does catch the soul. We have to thank God for men and women like her. Who can inspire excitement about Jesus, and love for him, beyond "pallid respect".