To refuse the offer of a bible from local church for dd to commemorate starting school?

[Norfolkbumpkin]

I have just received a round robin email from the school where dd has just started in reception. It says that as per the last few years the local church will be giving each child a bible to commemorate starting school, and to advise the office if for any reason you do not wish for your child to have one. I have replied saying no thanks as feel rather uncomfortable with this, but is this normal practice? I know that the school follows the standard guidelines for R.E. etc, but I am aware that the deputy head (who teaches one of the reception classes) is very active in the local church. She runs bible lessons after school one afternoon a week, and the church have an active presence at the school by doing the gardening in the flower beds and odd maintenance jobs. Am I reading too much into the bible thing or is it a tad pushy?

Nice isn't it?

'Here is a little gift, of course you are free to say no.'

But do be aware that if you do say no you will be seen as unreasonable, 'making a little stand', drawing attention to yourself, being precious about your PFB etc...

clemetteattlee Tue 16-Oct-12 13:39:26 - :)

Dueling - I was quite happy to accept you're not intolerant, and then, ooh, a bit of a rant crept in there.

The OP, and any other parent at the OP's school, is quite able to say no thank you without drawing attention to themselves or being judged. By broadcasting via AIBU, then of course the comments will fly in.

Hi Crikey, I need to keep this brief:

Sheol and Hades are not the same thing, actually. Hades was a convenient substitute when the Hebrew texts were translated into Greek, but it's misleading, and the two words have very different connotations. Certainly by Jesus' time, the idea of sheol with areas for the righteous and the unrighteous was well established. Honestly this isn't complicated. The assertion that Jesus made up Hell is just rubbish, as only a the most cursory amounts of research will show.

Secondly, Jesus was the fulfillment of the old testament laws, which I admit is not quite the same thing as abolishing, but in practice it works out pretty much the same. He's done the work. Again, this really is theology 101, basic Christianity.

The Ten Commandments and the Levitical laws are different things.

But look. I'm happy to debate Christian theology, but there's no point when your grasp of it is so lacking, and yet your views so adamant.

You might want to try Christianity for Dummies for starters.

"If you lived your life as a good Christian woman, following the Bible as you should, your life would be total shit" I try to, and it's not. Far from it. Nuff said.

I don't cherry pick, but I do use my intelligence to try and get to the point behind the scriptures, and live accordingly. As do most of my Christian friends, including clergy, respected theologians and regular, run of the mill 'trying-to-work-it-out' Christians. That's not cherry picking though. Its understanding what the bible is and we're supposed to do with it.

And of course we consider Christianity 'special'. Otherwise we wouldn't be Christians, would we? (Musilims presumable consider Islam 'special'. Jews consider Judaism 'special'.) By which token we obviously think everyone else should too, whilst accepting that not everyone will. If we believe that it's true then it's true for everyone, by definition. It's not presemptious, it's the obvious, logical view if you believe something to be true.

There are of course ways and means of doing this, which respect people's right to reject what you're saying. And offering a commemorative bible with an option to politely decline is hardly bashing them over the head, is it.

But by all means f* off. You have free will, and you can do whatever you like. It's the Christian way, dontcha know.

db
xx

I tollerate the religious, as in if they want to have faith in something then that's absolutely fine. No worries. Good for them and their lives.
When they start trying to push it into my life or my child's life then I find that annoying and I find that behaviour hard to tollerate as it's uncalled for.

Happy to tolerate you too DuelingFanjo

If everyone who stood up and voiced their objections to things they really don't believe in was branded as making a little stand it would be a sad world. Thank god people with strong beliefs stand up and say so rather than think they may be drawing attention to themselves .

No brandy, I have more than one child so don't feel I am being pfb. I have also politely refused the offer of a bible by email direct to the school office as instructed. I did not give reasons why, and I haven't spoken to any of the other parents about it. It is my personal decision, but the beauty of getting opinions on here is that this is an anonymous forum, so I am only drawing attention to my username

My little sister accepted a free bible that was offered at secondary school. When I asked her why she accepted it (as she is pretty openly atheist) she said she wanted to sell it on ebay

A fledgling capitalist