It's easy to look at events on 6th Jan at the US Capitol & say (as I have) that it shows how important high quality education about religion and worldviews is in order to unpack what went on

But I'd love to hear the views of RE teachers in Eng & Wales on it. #REchatUK @TeamRE_UK

There are certainly loads of fascinating things to look at with respect to religion & the attack on the Capitol (the hashtag #CapitolSiegeReligion has lots of them collected together). But what does it actually mean for RE in England & Wales (if anything)?

Does the way that RE is taught provide what's necessary to understand the fusion of religion, race, & nationalism that the insurrection was an expression of? Would the Xtianity of those who attacked the Capitol be at all recognisable in the Xtianity taught in RE?

Should RE in this country be concerned with religion in the US (or elsewhere)? Is it simply beyond the scope of RE's limited time to get into these Qs? If it is beyond the scope, what are the international things that should be in RE and why them and not this?

Are there domestic versions of these Qs that we should be asking? ie do we equip pupils to look at the intersection of religion, race, & politics in the UK? What would the Qs be for a UK context? Would something like Labour & antisemitism, or the Cons & Islamophobia be egs?

Do we do enough to unpack what the established church means for identity in England, and explore the complex relationship between conservatism & the CofE? Or the ways that different political movements have drawn on religious & secular roots? Should these things be part of RE?

RE teachers sometimes lament when pupils want to talk about conspiracy theories, but does a look at QAnon in the US show the relevance of understanding conspiracism in a religious context? Does a turn to worldviews mean we should consider the paranoid & conspiracist worldview?

Do we *need* to have pupils understand the complexity and challenge of conspiracy theories better? Is that a vital part of worldview literacy that will equip them better to deal with these sorts of questions which, regrettably, they seem more and more likely to be encountering?

Or is it the case that understanding conspiracy theory matters, but it's just not RE? Or is that an odd position in the case of conspiracy theories that appear to have significant crossover with religion? What does it mean that we think RE *is* if we exclude these things from it?

Finally, is it dangerous to get "distracted" by things like the attack on the Capitol? Is it another in a list of things that take us away from that which has to be covered? Is there already too much content in RE & is worrying about understanding the US just too ambitious?

Or would it suggest that something is wrong with RE if it doesn't offer enough to help understand significant things that happen which clearly intersect with religion. If RE doesn't particularly help explain these things, what does it imply about the purpose of the subject?

I'm not sure I have the answers to all of these questions, but I think they're worth asking. I'd be fascinated to see the extent to which RE teachers and other RE experts agree or not on their answers!