In the tranquil valley of Erschmatt in Switzerland, a storm is brewing. The predominantly christian community has to deal with a shocking development that threatens the very fabric of their existence.

What has happened? In Switzerland religion is a subject that is taught in all schools. Presumably, the curriculum contains information about the world’s major religions. Edith Inderkummen, a catholic, has a degree in religious pedagogy from the University of Lucern, and was teaching religion and ethics at a local state school. Then she decided to convert to judaism. She was fired for this (warning: article in german).

The Bishop of Sitten revoked her license. He seems to believe that someone who has a degree in ethics and religion is unfit for teaching after committing the vile act of converting to a different religion.

This opens a couple of questions:

• What exactly is taught in these religion classes? More importantly: what does the Bishop think is taught in these classes? Information about religions, or catholic indoctrination?
• Officially the stance is that only someone who believes in gods can teach religion. Isn’t that like saying only someone who is a child can be a pediatrician? Or that only blind people can become ophthalmologists? But even if – the woman still believes in essentially the same god; it’s just that the belief is sold by a competitor.
• Why does the Bishop think that converting to judaism makes someone unfit to teach Ethics? I agree that religion makes a bad ethical foundation, but does this Bishop really believe that his own bronze-age morals are better? I’m sure that – unlike the Bishop – someone with a degree in Ethics can differentiate between religious ‘morals’ and truly ethical behavior. All the Bishop has proven here is that he is unfit to teach ethics.

A lot went wrong here. But what went wrong most of all:

How the hell can a Bishop fire a teacher employed by a secular school?