for not wanting my 5yo DS to be subjected to the horrors of the bible?

[mostlyhappywithsomelowpressure]

We ummed and ahhed about sending our DS to a C of E school as we aren't avid christians (as it were) but it is the best school in the area and academically it was good, also i do like the ethos of C of E schools.

Since he started last year the headteacher has been replaced by the wife and daughter of vicars and the religious aspects of school life seem to have increased.

The crucifixion story went into all the gory details and my (bit sensitive) then 4yo was fixated on the fact he was stabbed in the stomach while he was on the cross.

At the time i thought that a little extreme as primary age children don't really need to know so much detail (i didnt know jesus wore a crown of thorns till i was in high school!!)

We had a very interesting conversation one bed time about the devil recently too! Not something i wanted to have to discuss with him till later.

This evening he has told us about how in assembly today they were taught about the plagues God sent and how jews were made to put lambs blood on their doors and finally how all the boys were killed.

Being 5 he obviously doesn't know the ins and outs but he has remembered all the gory details.

AIBU for feeling that just because it is a story from the bible doesn't mean it's suitable for children. They wouldn't read exerpts from a stephen king novel or let them watch 'The Passion of the Christ' in golden time!!

I think it's way too much for an infant. I work in a C of E school and our assemblies are about being good friends, or overcoming adversity or keeping calm in a crisis. Nice positive life affirming stuff.

NacMacFeegle

Glad to see the standard of religious education in NI hasn't improved since I were a lass (and by 'glad', I mean 'depressed but not surprised')

For GCSE we were supposed to cover three different religions; we did CofE, Baptists and Sally Army. Huge diversity there you'll agree!

I don't know if YABU.

Children do like gory stories. Hansel and Gretel? Red Riding Hood? These both seem worse than the crucifixion as they involve children. DD's favourite fairy tales are The Golden Arm and Mr Miacca (from the English fairy tale book). They're both very macabre.

If I were in your position, I'd simply tell my child that it is all made up (or at least made up in the sense that fairy stories are. It isn't made up in that people have been crucified, eaten by wild animals and abducted and murdered, but I don't feel a need to go into that when reading a fairy tale). If you believe that it is true and want your children to believe it is true, then I don't think there is any more or less appropriate age to tell children that the son of God died in agony on a cross because of the sins of the human race. That is central to Christianity. A lot of people walk around with the cross or crucifix around their necks, and it is an instrument of death and torture. It is also on the wall of very many schools.

I'm as hardcore atheist as they come, and provided you pick and choose carefully - i.e. preferably not all the slaughter and the people being chucked into furnaces and so on - there is a lot for children to enjoy in the Bible. Provided they enjoy it all as "just stories", in the way they would the fables from any other mythology.

Unlike Unquietdad I am a Christian but I totally agree with the sentiment he gives...that is entirely the way to deal with anything faith related in which you do not believe. It has to be that way. People with faith do it all the time - faith, even within one denomination is rarely the same. It is not a big deal.

The issue to me seems to be more that the delivery is age inappropriate. I would never at that age deal with e.g the stoning of Stephen or embelish on the graphic of a crucifixion any more than I would let my 4 yo watch Harry Potter.