And Todays Lesson is... Sin Eating...

[the_leander]

ONE of the aims of the New Life Baptist Church in Northallerton, Yorkshire is to help young children:

Meet with God and have lots of fun.

Here’s one of its really “fun” ideas: make kids apologise to God in writing – then EAT the piece of paper.

This is what happened to seven-year-old Luis Mullen, pictured here, when deranged church members gained access to pupils at Ainderby Steeple primary school near his home in Northallerton.

From The Freethinker.

Northallerton isn't all that far from me.

 

[Robert]

the incident has left her son so disturbed that he now refuses to sleep on his own and scrawls pictures of the Devil.

I imagine they'd see this as a result.

 

[the_leander]

I imagine they'd see this as a result.

Very possibly.

Don't know about you, but the religious ed I got at school can be summed up as "Here is Christianity in all it's glorious forms," and at the end of the term "and there are a bunch of other religions too".

 

[Robert]

Very possibly.

Don't know about you, but the religious ed I got at school can be summed up as "Here is Christianity in all it's glorious forms," and at the end of the term "and there are a bunch of other religions too".

Quite the opposite, I'm afraid.

Despite attending a supposedly "non-denominational" primary school, we were led in Christian prayer every morning.
In fact, the conditioning and brainwashing worked so well that I can still remember most, if not all of, "The Lord's Prayer."

We were told that God, Jesus and all the rest of that made-up, fantasy, gobbledygook was indisputable fact.

We were also taken to church services at Easter and Christmas.

Then in first year of secondary school, also "non-denominational," a friend and I were reprimanded and told to copy out the European Declaration of Human Rights (I didn't fully appreciate the irony of the punishment at the time) for refusing to ascend the assembly hall stage and accept a "bible" from The Gideons.

We claimed, in front of a couple of hundred pupils and staff, to be atheist.

As you can probably imagine, this went down like a cup of cold sick.

As it happens, we were being a little mischievous because I didn't actually think I was atheist. I was twelve years old and thought I was agnostic.
(In hindsight, I think I was possibly already atheist but simply didn't understand what that meant. It wasn't until a couple of years ago, on this very site, Fluffy pointed out to me that I was actually atheist. He was absolutlely right. :-D)

After the atheist-gideon-situation, I managed to opt out of God-bothering events until switching to another "non-dom" school, halfway through second year. The new school didn't go for the Christianity-down-the-throat approach, thankfully.

 

[the_leander]

We were told that God, Jesus and all the rest of that made-up, fantasy, gobbledygook was indisputable fact.

Had that too - our secondary school RE teacher was a former nun.

Then, in order to comply with the curriculum we were told (over the course of the last three lessons of term) about the dozens of other faiths out there.

We were also taken to church services at Easter and Christmas.

Same at my primary school. Stopped after I went to secondary. Turns out taking a bunch on bored teens to a building with lots of nooks and crannies isn't the brightest idea.

After the atheist-gideon-situation, I managed to opt out of God-bothering events until switching to another "non-dom" school, halfway through second year. The new school didn't go for the Christianity-down-the-throat approach, thankfully.

I on the other hand thanked the gideons for supplying me with a handy supply of rolling papers. This too went down quite badly

Our secondary school was such that you had to attend RE lessons for the first three years until you picked your GCSE courses. However JW's and others were allowed to opt out of assembly due to the requirement of mainstream Christian prayer as part of it.

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

(In hindsight, I think I was possibly already atheist but simply didn't understand what that meant. It wasn't until a couple of years ago, on this very site, Fluffy pointed out to me that I was actually atheist. He was absolutlely right. :-D)

I was meaning to talk to you about your dues.

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

Here’s one of its really “fun” ideas: make kids apologise to God in writing – then EAT the piece of paper.

And the parent moved the kid to another school but the churchies go there too and she feels like there's nothing she can do? She can show up at the school when the churchies are there and make sure she gives them a piece of her mind right in the classroom. Damn straight that's what I would do - partly because I'd be fuming and mostly because it is important for kids to see that not all adults believe these stupid fairy tales.

Maybe some Freethinkers can put together a "roadshow" and demand equal access.

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

Had that too - our secondary school RE teacher was a former nun.

My school we had morning assemblies with prayer and we went to the local church for harvest festival. Easter and Christmas were holidays so we weren't in school for those.
RE was the first three years of secondary school and our RE teacher was East Indian. I seem to recall we started with animism and magic. In the second year we looked at the Greek and Roman beliefs. Third year was the Abrahamic faiths.

It was actually pretty interesting. It's also a great way to end up not believing in any of them. I highly recommend such an RE curriculum like that.

Ironically, my wife being nominally Catholic but not actually believing a single one of the Catholic creeds insisted our kids go to the Catholic school that she was sent to. Since it didn't seem to take with her - except that she still uses the label it's mostly just money down the drain. Academically it turns out these schools are pretty good but my daughter's RE classes consist of watching recently released Hollywood movies and listening to the teacher talk about her attempts at trying to find a nice man.

 

[cecilia]

We claimed, in front of a couple of hundred pupils and staff, to be atheist.

As you can probably imagine, this went down like a cup of cold sick.

I'll bet it did!
I wish I had been there to see the look on their pasty faces
Thanks for the visual......it made me laugh out loud!