not to contribute to the Shoebox Appeal

[teamboleyn]

because it has a Christian message 'attached'? I have nothing against Christianity but can they not do a charitable act without having an ulterior motive?

[WorraLiberty]

It depends on which shoebox appeal you're talking about.

The one for Romania that my DS's school is doing, has nothing to do with any religions.

[Sirzy]

Surely the important thing is the people that will benefit not the fact it is a Christian organisation arranging it?

But if you don't want to give then dont.

[HomeEcoGnomist]

Well the shoebox appeal we do is run by a Christian charity, so I imagine they feel it's ok to spread their Christian message

[DowagersHump]

Operation Christmas Child has no respect for other people's religions or beliefs and is a foul evangelist organisation that I wouldn't touch with a bargepole

[ouryve]

YANBU.

There's plenty of charities doing worthy stuff. Not all are overtly Christian and proselytising.

There was a huge debate on the shoebox appeal, here, last year. I'll see if I can find it.

[MrsBungleBear]

I've just done one with DD that the Samaritans are running.

[EmilyIrish]

What Dowager said

[Sirzy]

Dowager do you have more information about that? I am intrigued as to why they are so bad as I, naively it seems thought they were a decent organisation.

[DowagersHump]

There are tons of threads on it here Sirzy - it comes up every year (bit like Xmas )

[ouryve]

OK - the one that we got the leaflet for, last year, was operation Christmas Child - that's the controversial one

A thread with lots of info from 2 years ago www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/1067819-Those-shoebox-appeals/AllOnOnePage

[Flojo1979]

I usually do operation Christmas child so I'm shocked to hear this. How exactly don't they respect others religions?
Don't every child get a box in their area regardless of religion?

[JudeFawley]

I share this dilemma.

I am a (catholic) Christian and my son's school supports Operation Christmas Child.

He's really keen to do his shoebox, I don't want to spoil his fun.

I have (twice now) asked the school to look at other (non fundamentalist) schemes we could support - with no response.

[SisterMaryStigmata]

But... it's for Christmas. A Christian festival.

[dearprudence]

I did Operation Christmas Child once. Then I found out more about them. I won't be doing it again.

[DowagersHump]

Here's another one with lots of links to alternatives (and including a link to a thread where an MNer received a shoebox )

[Flojo1979]

Sorry x post.
But had a look at first page of thread and basically u have a problem because they r religious and might stuff a bible in the box too?
That's a crap reason not to help the children.

[PatriciaHolm]

Operation Christmas Child is duplicitous, at best, bigoted at worst. And that's before getting into the whole Winter Solstice thing ;-)

[Flojo1979]

Why tho? What makes them bigoted? Everyone seems to have an opinion on the other thread but doesn't explain what they have done wrong? I don't understand.

[PatriciaHolm]

"But had a look at first page of thread and basically u have a problem because they r religious and might stuff a bible in the box too?
That's a crap reason not to help the children. "

There are plenty of other ways to help without helping an operation controlled by a man who thinks that Islam is a "a very wicked and evil religion"

[MyCarHasBrokenDownAgain]

YANBU! I did it once, then read up on it - never, ever, again! Would rather give my money towards water purification, vaccinations etc than send a box of useless plastic tat in to which someone is going to sneakily add a religious pamphlet! Ugh!

[Wigeon]

Good info from the Humanist Society on why Operational Christmas Child isn't just a lovely Christmassy thing to do, and positive alternatives to it.

Those on the thread who didn't know that it was controversial - just google "operation christmas child controversy" or "Samaritan's Purse controversy" or "Franklin Graham" (the founder of Samaritan's Purse, the organisation which runs Operation Christmas Child" and you will find all sorts of links giving more info. The Samaritan's Purse Wikipedia page gives some links to why it's not altogether a good thing.

I was very relieved to see that my DD's new school does Link Romania shoeboxes - a Christian organisation, but one which doesn't link evangelising with the boxes.

[DoodleAlley]

I think people need to look into this before making sub claims.

They give the boxes to any child irrespective of their religion. They prohibit anything religious within the boxes so as to not cause offence. They check the boxes to make sure this is complied with.

They do not require children to sign any pledges and do not force them to take materials. On occasion they make a booklet about the message of Christmas available but it is not in the box and is not a condition of receiving the box.

If you don't want to support a christian charity then fair enough but don't defame it out of mistaken assumptions.

I'm not affiliated in any way with operation Christmas child but I got tired of these errors being spouted as fact.

[hermioneweasley]

SisterMary, I think it's pretty well established that the Christians just took over the existing pagan holidays and there is no reason to think that the historical Jesus was born on 25December.

My work are doing operation Christmas child, but apparently I am one of many who have raised objections and so they won't be supporting them next year.

[WelshMaenad]

With you, dowager.

DD's school used to do OCC, until she started and I met with the head and gave him a sheaf of info.

They now do them for a nondenominational Romanian operation.

Little strides

[DowagersHump]

How do you know that DoodleAlley? That isn't what all the other sources say, nor is it what the MNer whose child received a shoebox said.