to think this is just not on? (schools, religion and bribery!)

[EXmrsmascarahead]

my son has come home from school today, they held a Jubilee party and all the children got to join in the celebrations, all well and good.

He has just handed over a book to me, 'New testament, to celebrate the queen's diamond jubilee 2012'. Not a lot wrong with that, I suppose, but he has also told me that in order to get the children to take a copy they have been using bribery, 'you can have a cake only if you take a book'.

none of this sits right with me, I know the queen is head of the church of england but not all the children this is handed out to are CofE, religious or celebrating the jubilee. And in order for them to get the children to take the book they have to bribe them. AIBU?

fleurdebleurgh - spot on.

ClaireDeTamble -

"Books are extremely important. The written word is the only link we have to our past. The ability to document our history and our art is what sets us apart from other animals. You don't have to respect the views of others, but respect the fact that they cared enough to put pen to paper."

Really, do you treat your phone book or the Argos catalogue with such reverence? Its not like we are talking about destroying the last copy.

There is no need for the willful destruction of trees to print half a million copies of a book that no one asked for, many already have a copy of and which is online in full for reference purposes.

Cassettetapeandpencil

That's ok. No offense taken.

I don't think it is ignorant to say it though, it just gets boring because it derails conversations.

It is offensive to draw a picture of the Prophet Mohammed in many circumstance because it is not considered right by many Muslims to draw pictures of living things at all. There are discussions about whether it is OK to draw pictures of Mohammed but a lot of Muslims disagree with this. Therefore it is offensive (to some). I think that is what she was talking about.

x-posted with everyone in the world...

MrsTerryPratchett - thanks, yes that was what I was talking about.

Eating cake off a bible, drawing a picture of Mohammed, calling god a 'sky fairy' = offensive to some.

Obviously if you don't want to offend them best not to do it, but it is not in itself 'rude' or 'derogatory' or 'ignorant' because you can't be rude or derogatory to a piece of paper, a picture or a mythical creature.

X-poring? Is that when you miss the glass

This will be a localized initiative by some evangelical buckethead or other. A complete waste of time, money and paper, of course - the DC growing up in Christian-myth-following households will already have bibles, the DC being raised on the Sikh/Hindu/Jewish/Etc myth brands won't want them.

And it's actually quite important to be able to say, freely, that religion's a load of old cock and your imaginary friend is your problem, not mine. Religious belief is no more inherently worth of respect than being a Justin Beiber fan or a Marxist is. I respect people's right to believe bullshit, but not the bullshit itself.

SGB - Its a CoE mainstream initiative and I don't think they are doing it to convert, more for brand recognition.

I.e. You can give out free bibles by giving them to an evangelist with a megaphone to stand on the high st. But it makes you look like a loony fringe concern.

But what organisation wouldn't want the Queen to endorse their core product and tie it into a major national celebration AND have teachers in schools handing it out and telling children it is something deserving of a special kind of respect. You can't buy that kind of sponsorship.

Hmm. Wonder if DS will be coming home with one tomorrow. Or if the school will remember that they have a massively multicultural mix of pupils, at least some of whose parents would find it deeply inappropriate...

I was also thinking why did they need to be bribed. When I was at school we had the Gideons come round every year and give out their bibles. We just took them, said thanks and then either threw them away or kept them. No big faf over it.

My dd1 has her Jubilee party tomorrow, she'd love it if she got given one.

Wherearemysocks - I guess because they are jubilee themed so they have to get rid of them by Monday.

Thanks to everyone who answered my question yesterday, was interesting reading the responses.

Just to make it clear, I only picked the Dawkins book as it is the most high profile denouncement of religion there is. Personally, I can't stand the idiot. He's made a religion out of being non religious and seems to be driven by hatred rather than science.

I am not at all religious - , anti-religion in fact, but I would rather the kids had a book - any kind of book - from school, than a cake - plently of obese kids about, and plently who haven't any books...

I suspect that he just got the words wrong - if you are handing out things to a long line of children they don't all get the right message and probably the ones at the back were like 'Chinese whispers'.

Richard Dawkins on Bibles in school his comments were on the free King James bibles in schools, but equally hold for kids getting New Testaments. Getting a bible is not going to make anyone a Christian.

Even if we had no RE in schools, we would still have religion especially Christianity because it is entwined in Western Culture (as is Islam and Judaism, never mind Roman gods etc.
Personally I am in favour of RE as taught in most schools, as the more we learn about others belief systems the greater chance for tolerance.

I find it replusive having a union jack on the front as the bible is for all nations of the world.

I don't see how this initative is any better or worse than giving kids the gideons we used to have at school.

There's not really a union flag on the front of the bibles, is there? Seriously?

I'm confused

I thought each school was getting a free bible, with a nice foreward from Gove in it?

Where have all these squillions of bibles come from?

Who have they been given to? My DD1 got a coin which was a nice surprise - some got mugs - is it different surprise things for different ages?

And it's just the new testament? Eh? That is severely peculiar.

Anyone on here go know if these were also distributed at the non christian state schools?

This link shows a picture with the union jack.

starttheweek.typepad.com/stw/2012/04/diamond-jubilee-new-testament.html

I feel it excludes british people who aren't christians. Being British and being Christian are completely seperate things.