To feel a bit [hmm] about 'Christianity Day' at school

[nameforaday]

Regular MNer, namechanging because this identifies my son's school.

He is in year 7. Now their end of year exams are over there are a lot of special projects, away days etc...One of the compulsory events is 'Christianity Day' which as far as I can work out is a whole day run by these people...groovy young evangelical Christians who are basically doing missionary outreach work in schools - their aim is to bring more young people to Jesus.

I don't think it is appropriate; it is one thing to teach children about different religions, but another to give over teaching time and premises for an evangelical group to peddle their wares for a whole day. They didn't even send home a letter saying what they day was going to be, and giving people a chance to withdraw.

Any advice on what to do? If if it was primary school I'd go and have a chat with the Head, but secondary school is so much more intimidating! I don't think it will harm my son, I just think its a bit off.

My children wouldn't be attending. Schools are not the place for this sort of thing . People are free to attend whichever church, sunday school, youth group they wish and practice whatever belief system they wish in private.
I would inform the school that they either make alternative arrangements on that day or I would keep my child at home.

just out of interest would anyone object if it was another religious group doing a similar thing

Yes, certainly, if it was for the whole day and it was the only such group doing it. The idea of having a day when representitives many religions plus humanists etc came in would be OK.

I

Or an atheism day..'hey kids, creationism is wrong...let's sing a song about physics!!'

fingandJeffing someone asked about other things being taught in school which were not necessarily proven and I was commenting that climate change and global warming was one of these things. Some scientists do not agree with this theory.

It is fashionable to be mocking of christianity in our society.

Grimma - yup we read the Q&A together tonight. DS said 'my eyes hurt from rolling them too much' . Trying to teach him to be politely critical rather just a narky pre-teen.

My C of E primary school have a Divali day (not sure of spelling), so why not a Christianity day? In fact I am sure there are other religious days that are celebrated but I can't remember all of them - Jewish, Hindu and Muslim. It is teaching our children about all the faiths, which includes Christianity.

Pingu - if they're having a day for each of the faiths covered in the SACRE then indeed they should have a Christianity day, it'd be bizarre and discriminatory not to.

I'd be kicking up big time about this. ANd probably priming DS with plenty of awkward questions to ask.
Another serious cause for concern with people who enthusiastically peddle Christian crap (as distinct from people who just happen to be Christians, which is just a harmless bit of silliness in otherwise nice people, like having crap taste in music or whatever) is the aggressively evangelical types are usually more inclined to sexism, homophobia and racism as well.

Not sure the 'racism' is fair, a lot of evangelical churches have a high proportion of black members. The sexism and homophobia arise mostly from fundamentalism - not all evangelicals are fundies.

I am a practicing Christian and I would object to this on the grounds that the group sounds incredibly dull and patronising. I don't know why church groups like this feel they need to be 'down wid da kidz' - there are better ways to witness or minister to young people than trying to be groovy in this kind of cringe-worthy way. Many of which don't involve putting people's backs up by coming into schools.

Whoever said that this is really 'Protestantism Day' is right on, although I'd probably say 'Loony Theologically Illiterate Protestantism Day' tbh. The answers that they give to those questions are for the most part within orthodox Christian belief (if really badly expressed), but the answer to the volcano question is total bollocks and just utterly heartless. If I heard that being preached in a church I would walk out. Some evangelical churches are theologically very sound, but others are not.

Personally if I had a child in that school I would prime them with lots of awkward questions about their theology and possibly go along to enjoy watching it.

Pingu mentioned Diwali... In defense of Atheism Day, don't the religions pretty much all have their own days (Eid, Christmas, Easter, Diwali, Passover)? In fact most appear to have lots. They even get a day off for loads of them. Can't children make paper lanterns, menorahs and eggs on those days and us non-believers can have another day? I vote for a gloomy day before spring kicks in so that everyone has a fun day before the clocks go forward.

Perhaps spiritual/beliefs day would have been better and then those children with sound minds could talk about evolution and being atheists!!

I'm an atheist and don't feel the need to talk about it, being athheist doesn't mean having a belief so an atheism day would pretty much be the same as any other. Unless you're Richard Dawkins.

alistron1 Ooh an atheist camp fire sing-along We could sing The Big Bang Theory theme song? or that one from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life?

FairPhyllis I think a lot of Christians I know would object to this group's way of passing on the message, Protestants included. I think the concept of free will and the message that we are all individual autonomous moral agents is an important one to believers and non-believers alike. Any religious teaching worth its salt would stress this point if it is interested in educating as opposed to indoctrination. Blindly following or 'emulating' as phrased in Islam is not to be encouraged, it does not deepen one's faith or relationship with God to view him as a dictator you have no choice but to follow.

MrsTerryPratchett I vote for your Atheist day before Spring!

Have been looking for child friendly atheism resources on the web, and have come up blank.

At the momment DS feels a bit put upon by the school's approach to RE and has picked up the idea that 'crtiticising religion is racist'. His atheism is fairly uninformed and is part of the narky teenager part of his identity. I would quite like to show him that there are other adults who take his viewpoint seriously, other than me (he was interested to hear the MN response to my AIBU)....can anyone can think of any good websites, books for this?

And/or anyone want to help us with thinking about good 'difficult questions'?

I am also a practicing Christian who thinks this isn't on. Nothing good to add, though :)

do we need to teach atheism? seems like a strange thing to do. It just IS, isn't it?

No, we don't need to teach 'atheism'. We need to teach ethics, critical thinking, some philosophy alongside learning about religions. Its obvious from some of the threads recently on here that there are adults who can't grasp the idea that religion is neither necessary nor sufficient for moral behaviour.

"Well i hope your children and young people are more tolerant than some of you on this threAd. Using abusive or insulting words about other people s faiths is unnecessary. You can disagree with people or ideas or ideologies without calling people nutty, God botherers, cult like, fucking awful, Shit, weirdy, preying on the weak, happy clappy ( to use just a few examples from thsi thread)"

KristinaM - but they were Happy Clappy, those teachers at my non-denominational school. They'd invite in their Christian 'rock' ahem group friends to assembly or for an hour in the afternoon, and stand by the side of the stage, clapping along and, well, looking Happy. I mean, very glad for them that they've found their own personal Jesus and all that, but wtf did they think they had the right to impose that on students at a non-denominational school?

Am with HellAtWork - why does nobody respect the beliefs of atheists?

OK not resources 'teaching atheism' per se, but showing that it is intellectually respectable, not just 'rebelious' to question religion...like Dawkins or Hitchens for an 11 year old reading age...is there anything like that?

Maybe we should write the book ;-)

Agree with Grimma about the need to "teach ethics, critical thinking, some philosophy alongside learning about religions."

Humanism is atheism and agnosticism, but a step further ie. from defining your beliefs in the negative/opposition in atheism "I don't/am not sure whether I believe in this" becomes "I believe in this". It is a positive encapsulation of atheism. It shows that to have a moral compass and make moral decision you do not have to be have a religion guiding you.

Nameforaday check out the British Humanist society website - just had a quick peek and there might be some resources/reading on there for DS? www.humanism.org.uk/home

I was very lucky to have several brilliant RE teachers at school, one was a Reverend and at GCSE level was keen to teach critical thinking. Another was a gay non-religious bloke who was very good at debating and keeping discussions on topic in class. Neither of them (faith or not) saw any threat in discussing religion critically at all.

sorry - typo should be:

beliefs in the negative/opposition in atheism religion/faith

am roffling at 'my eyes hurt from rolling them too much'

We had a group like this come to my secondary school. They leapt about the stage yelling 'JIM! I've got Jesus In Me!'. Oh, how we smirked. Smutty innuendo aside, we just went . I am a Christian, btw. I doubt the students will see it as anything but a break from the old routine, but if you feel strongly about it make your displeasure known. Personally, I think DC are much more influenced by their parents than school.

Nameforaday You can even email the British Humanist Society and they too provide speakers for schools - perfect for your Faith Fair next year
www.humanism.org.uk/education

They also have resources for parents, students and educators and offer VI form prizes for essays and publications etc. See if DS is inclined to have a go at the competition? Maybe the school would like to get all students to have a go at entering the competition? Last time I looked at the website was to consider having a naming ceremony for DS - religion taps into lots of things humans want and like to feel comforted and ritual is one of those.

I'm all for celebrating "rites of passage" birth, transition to adulthood through puberty, promising to stay with another person for life, death - religion doesn't need to have a monopoly on all that. Same as celebrating change of seasons (Easter/Christmas) - organised religion has done a great job of imposing itself over the top of previously established human social practices (seasonal celebration was previously pagan and about nature - the rebirth of spring becomes the resurrection of Christ)

Am just trying to think if there were any good books I read when I was younger. How old is your DS OP?