From: The Mail on Sunday (London, England) | Date: June 17, 2001| Author: Fowler, Alice | COPYRIGHT 2001 Solo Syndication Limited. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

Byline: ALICE FOWLER

In 1898, a Yorkshire schoolteacher wrote to resign his post. He had, he explained, a 'perfectly friendly, but irreconcilable difference of opinion'. As a non-Christian, he was unable to prepare his pupils for confirmation; without this, he would never be eligible for promotion. In that God-respecting age, there was no room for compromise. 'For a dozen years, I carefully concealed from my friends that I was not a Christian,' the teacher was to write...