To not let extremists into primary schools

[BombayBadonkadonks]

www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/parents-outrage-extremist-religious-cult-2254926

www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/school-bosses-kick-out-extremist-225779

A friend's DCs go to this school and she is horrified about this and the books they received this week.

Surely telling kiddies that if they don't believe in God only bad things will happen and that 'homosexuality is a sin' is wrong.

[livinginwonderland]

Surely telling kiddies that if they don't believe in God only bad things will happen and that 'homosexuality is a sin' is wrong.

but that's the message in the Bible. To get into heaven, you need to believe in God and follow the Bible and the 10 commandments. If you don't, you will go to hell.

[EsTutMirLeid]

YANBU of course your not... No one is going to say you are.

IMO ALL religious preaching of ALL faiths and beliefs should be banned from ALL schools. Religious Studies okay, preaching not.

[EsTutMirLeid]

And living I won't be going to hell thank you very much for not following the commandments (maybe prison for the stealing one if I suddenly decided to be a thief)... It doesn't exist.

[livinginwonderland]

I know EsTut I'm atheist. I'm just saying that that's what it says in the Bible.

[EsTutMirLeid]

Oh sorry... I thought you were being genuine with your going to hell comment.

I agree that what you said is mainstream Christian belief. Mainstream - not even extremist. It doesn't belong in schools.

[LaurieFairyCake]

That's thankfully not what it says in the bible.

People are saved through faith according to most Christians, not through deeds or following a set of rules.

There are of course loads of gay Christians too - in a liberal church there is no anti- homosexuality at all.

Christianity is a very broad church - loons at one end, liberals at the other - much like standard humans

[justanuthermanicmumsday]

I don't believe in homosexuality and I believe belief in one god is a must to be deemed a Muslim. But it's the same with Christians and Jews so to you it may be wrong to me it's not. I've not read the article I don't read the daily mail trash.

It's fine to teach kids about different religions as long as the kids are made aware which religion is being spoken about rather than statements being made as if it is the truth without telling the children which perspective it's coming from. At the same time kids should know mainstream atheist beliefs that the majority of the uk and USA seem to follow ie homosexuality is fine, belief in one god is crazy, it's fine to do anything you like as long a you're happy, sex before marriage is a great. Kids should know clearly where this stance comes from, to me that's indoctrination too. Simply blaming so called organised religion is an unbalanced view.

[LaurieFairyCake]

And those loons shouldn't be in school.

As a liberal Christian I don't believe church and state should be intertwined in education.

[ToysRLuv]

Laurie: If only everyone thought that.

[LaurieFairyCake]

It would be great if everyone thought that.

Unfortunately with free will there are always going to be numpties who don't 'believe' in homosexuality.

[Crowler]

Dear me I saw an episode of the Duggar show (I forget the name. I watch it when I run out of Eastenders) and they visited in the creationism museum in KY. Hilarious. They're seemingly really nice people, they just need a more streamlined approach to thinking.

[justanuthermanicmumsday]

Dont misuse the word extremist. Not believing in homosexuality doesn't make someone an extremist. Maybe bizarre to some or discriminatory or narrowminded, but not an extremist. This language is propaganda lingo created by the western media to attack Muslims. Because extremists have always been around but the word has never been used in such a prolific way prior to 9/11. Hey any Muslim woman who covers her body is deemed an extremist, any man ith a beard is an extremist to me that is a disgusting hateful view coming from a so called civilised society. In all fairness it's from a minority.

[LaurieFairyCake]

Not believing in homosexuality in Britain is an extreme view as we have laws and a tolerant society to protect people from discrimination.

Why do you not 'believe' in homosexuality ?

What does it mean? There are plenty of gay Muslims obviously so Islam is a broad church too.

[LadyClariceCannockMonty]

just, surely you mean 'not believing that homosexuality is OK'? Because there's no point not believing in homosexuality: it exists.

I wouldn't be so concerned about schools letting this particular group in if it was in the spirit of comparative religious studies and they also let in different Christian groups as well as Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist groups etc.

[Offler]

How can you not believe in homosexuality? It exists, plain as the nose on your face.

You can believe it is wrong, but you can't believe it doesn't exist surely?

[LessMissAbs]

South Lanarkshire council chiefs also launched an investigation into the sect’s eight-year involvement in the East Kilbride school. And they admitted that the group had infiltrated another school in the area whose pupils have learning difficulties. Unbeknown to many parents, several of the extremists worked as classroom assistants. They also helped with homework and performed other mainstream roles*

I find this astonishing. Why on earth has it been allowed to go on for 8 years? Those are children at a vulnerable age, and to prevent biased indoctrination, if they are being subjected to such extensive religious teaching, should cover a broad range of religions in equal measure.

For those who are unfamiliar with it, East Kilbride suffers extreme poverty and deprivation in some areas. I would have thought mainstream education offered the best way out of that. I hope the HeadTeacher is being disciplined for misconduct, as I cannot see how she is acting in the best interests of the pupils (as opposed to her own self interest).

[Pinupgirl]

Eh I know the area and I wouldn't say it suffers from "extreme poverty and deprivation"-certainly not compared to its Glasgow counterparts.

I would be interested to know which was the other school-do you know lessmis?

I find it incomprehensible that the parents didn't know of the affiliation of the school and this church and they couldn't deduce from the name-church of Christ-what kind of ideology they might be peddling.

I think many of the parents are just jumping on the media bandwagon in their "outrage".

[LessMissAbs]

Sorry pinupgirl that first paragraph should have come out as a quote from the article. I have no idea which was the other school.

I apologise if I caused any offence by my comment. I lived in Scotland for a while and have now moved back to Belgium - I had to go to East Kilbride a few times and saw some sights there which gave me that impression. I also vaguely recall seeing something to do with an organisation that might have been this church in the old village/town centre of East Kilbride, very prominently.

[ErrolTheDragon]

I've not read the article I don't read the daily mail trash.

Justa - its not daily mail. Its a Scottish newspaper.(unless they're the Scottish branch of DM?)

They are extremist fundamentalist in their views - extremism doesn't mean terrorism.

It's fine to teach kids about different religions as long as the kids are made aware which religion is being spoken about rather than statements being made as if it is the truth without telling the children which perspective it's coming from

This is exactly what wasn't happening. They were being taught fundamentalist, anti-scientific, homophobic crap as if it was the truth, and had had it impressed upon them that it was 'very important'. You should read the articles before commenting. The behaviour of this group was totally underhand. The behaviour of the school in not informing parents was also completely out of order. The parents only realised what was going on when the kids started bringing home literature.

[greenbananas]

Yes, what Laurie said... ^

I don't believe dinosaurs are a hoax. Good grief, I don't have to suspend all my critical faculties to be a Christian!

And I'm quite sure that God takes just as much of a benevolent interest in homosexual people as he does heterosexual people. The bible does state that certain kinds of homosexual activities are wrong - gossiping and not respecting your parents are included in the same paragraph, so which of us has a right to judge, hey?

Totally agree that hard-line bigotry should not be allowed in school.

[HavantGuard]

Bigots in schools. Joy.

[HavantGuard]

8 years? This went on or 8 years? I thought they'd had them in for a few weeks or something! The head must have similar leanings.

[ErrolTheDragon]

You'd have thought some of the other staff might have raised concerns. Maybe its because people seem to have to be so careful not to 'offend' religious types?

[HavantGuard]

It sounds like lots of the other staff were members of the weird group. The article says 'Unbeknown to many parents, several of the extremists worked as classroom assistants. They also helped with homework and performed other mainstream roles.' It seems that the books given to the children were the trigger because they took them home and their parents saw them.

[HavantGuard]

Trigger for complaints.