To have written to the school about the Christmas shoebox scheme?

[gastrognome]

Just had a look through the leaflet sent home from DD1's school about the Christmas shoebox scheme that they are involved in.

Turns out the organisation adds religious literature to the boxes before they are distributed.

I love the idea of filling and sending a Christmas shoebox for somebody less privileged than us, but I really don't like the fact that these schemes are used as a means to evangelise. Of course Christmas is by its very nature a Christian festival but I don't think that it's right to "spread the word" by stealth.

So I just wrote to DD's school and suggested that next year they look for a similar scheme that isn't so evangelical in nature. I said I'd be happy to help research any organisations they could work with.

Do any others feel the same way, or have I turned into Scrooge?

Also, this scheme has been around for years... it's amazing that it's still sucking schools in. There are so many better ways to offer charity.

Good point made there by MdmLindor. I can't for the life of me see how transporting thousands of bulky shoeboxes about is the best way to help anyone. It must cost a fortune just to get the boxes to their destination.

Aside from that I would be happy to give something, but I don't keep shoeboxes. Who has the space? Where do you get empty shoeboxes from?? I did ask in a shoeshop once but the answer was no.

marfisa I think they're probably very good at marketing in the right places, and well funded for it compared with more local charities?

The school my DC attend support these dreadful shoebox appeals. thanks for all the information which I can reply to them with.
I would far rather we supported something local - lets face it there are loads of needy children in poverty these days; OR we could support a specific charity or school/orphanage in another country.

Several parents wrote to our school about it last year, and the school are doing it again next year. This year I've just not bothered doing one. Simple.

YANBU - I did this for a work friend once (to be fair I didn't read the info she sent properly, just thought it was a nice thing to do) and was then totally about the religious element of it.

And for those saying it's nice that religious organisations make a child feel cared for, they could do it without putting the religious info in!

Barnowl is right, I think that there is a lot of misconceptions out there about shoeboxes esp the Christian element. The idea that people would be unaware that OCC is a Christian organisation seems a bit ridiculous when it is all over their leaflet/website. It does make me wonder whether people fiercely protect their own children from any trace of Christianity at Christmas time or whether they do allow them to be exposed to things like nativity plays and Christmas carols?

An estimated 2 million children die every year from diseases that can be prevented by an $8 course of basic vaccinations.

I would rather give £5 to pay for this

I agree OP.

I have attached a link which mentions some 'shoebox schemes' which don't have any religious connections. We don't take part in our schools' scheme for the same reason as you.

www.humanism.org.uk/humanism/humanism-today/humanists-doing/charities/samaritans-purse

Not a link, a cut & paste thingy - sorry

The whole point of this is that it is a CHRISTMAS appeal. A religious festival. It's like saying the school should carry out Christmas celebrations without mentioning Jesus.

If you don't want to do it you don't have to, but to say you don't like a Christmas shoe box to be associated with religion is daft.

And I'm not religious.

QuickLookBusy
Which is fine if they were distributing the boxes in Christian countries. But they are not.

And it still doesn't answer why anyone would send a box of cheap tat to a child in Africa rather than paying for a course of vaccinations that could save that child's life.

I am a Christian. I have real problems with evangelism based on non genuine relationships-eg giving a child something and hence creating an opening for giving the message. However, I do believe that Christians have a duty to serve and help the needy-lots of places on the bible where this is stated. I just wish the two weren't so often mixed up. This is what has happened with the shoebox thing if evangelistic literature has been given out with the boxes. It's about the motivation for the act. So yanbu.

I'm curious how people would feel if a Muslim organisation did a comparable thing - if you couldn't afford gifts/were hungry/ were in a "poor" country, and you got a gift package to celebrate a Muslim festival and your child was thereby reminded of being "precious to God" or whatever comparable equivalent there is..? Or if your child's school invited an organisation in to tell children about headscarves, how it's lovely to be modest, or something like that - thinking about it from that point of view might help frame what these things are like for people who aren't Christian. What if the school's administrators chose a Muslim festival, a Pagan festival, or a Jewish holiday? The thing is, that's unlikely, because the assumption is that the UK, most of the parents, and so on are still basically Christian. So I think this all really depends on the cultural context where it's being received. Personally I would say YANBU to write to the school with your concerns about the scheme.

Quick others have probably said this, but...

Christianity is not the only religion in the world - and these shoeboxes are sent all over the world. What gives us the right to tell other people what their religion should be?

Christmas day was celebrated as a winter festival way before Christians hi-jacked it and called it a Christian celebration.

Don't you think it's a little bit patronising to think that to accept a gift, a child should also have to accept somebody elses' religious beliefs?

Actually that's a good point. Suppose a Muslim charity started going into schools in deprived parts of the UK and picking children whose families were on benefits and were handing out evangelical literature and shoe boxes?

Things
Yes I would think "it's a little bit patronising to think that to accept a gift, a child should also have to accept somebody elses' religious beliefs?"

But then I would also think it was a little patronising to assume that a child in Africa would get a Christian leaflet and think "Oh I believe every word of that, I will become a Christian immediately"

I would assume that most parents/children would take one look at it and dispose of it, like I do when I get any unsolicited religious post through my letterbox.

I get our village Church newsletter through my door every month, I also get Jehovah's Witnesses putting things through my letterbox all the time. I don't have to read it, I don't have to believe it. Does everyone think the people of Africa are so niave that they cannot decide for themselves what religion they decide to be. And they are so gullable they would read one leaflet and can't help but change religion?

I participated in this scheme through my work, as a company we have donated hundreds of the shoeboxes this year. I find it heartwarming, and everyone was very conscious of putting in useful items (such as toothbrushes and toothpaste, hats, gloves, socks etc) as well as little toys and sweets.

I have heard conflicting arguments on the 'converting by stealth' aspect of this, but a search on here threw up a thread where a lady who lived in a predominantly muslim country came on to a thread much like this and said that children in her area were given the boxes, they contained no Christian literature, they were given out at a church, but this was advertised in the local schools etc and was used purely as a distribution point, there were no attempts to indoctrinate the children and that the Muslim parents were more than happy for their children to receive the shoeboxes as they brought so much excitement and happiness.

That sold it to me personally. I agree with the poster who said some people like giving something tangible rather than a few coins chucked in a collection tin, that you have no idea how will be spent or distributed.

YABU. They're making all the effort to organise the shoebox scheme and they want to share something positive with others.

No-one has to read the leaflet if they don't want to - it doesn't contain some magic spell that forces someone to become a Christian!

For me Quick the point is that the organisation are trying to push Christianity on these people. Whether they throw the leaflet away or not is not the point IMO.

there are several issues here:

the conditionality of the gift dependent on whether you sign up to the religion - ie go to church/whatever - which makes me really uneasy -quite apart from anything else, Christianity is about unconditional love;

the putting in of evangelising literature - also uneasy but where it happens I suspect much will get thrown away and in any case if in English, not understood;

the economic waste - shoe boxes are an inefficient way of giving - with which I agree;

scrutiny - which I actually think should be done, because people put in, for example, war related items, as well as trying to equalise between boxes and remove other unsuitable bits;

that much of the stuff is "tat";

"shrinkage" - highly likely at some point of the chain - and whether some children who don't need them will get the boxes

but for me, the first two can be avoided by going down eg the rotary route
and the others are outweighed by a child receiving presents who might not otherwise - and my ds always liked tat - and children here realising in a fashion that they can grasp that most children are not in their fortunate position.

So IMO, YANBU to feel uneasy but there is a balance and finding another way to achieve the two last is one option, or going down the non religious box route another.

TheRealMrsH
Scroll down this thread a bit. WelliesinPyjamas has posted that her children received a box in their Bosnian school. And that the other (wealthy) parents were bemused why their children were being given boxes of stuff that they could buy in their own town.