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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

About Bibles being given out at school.

203 replies

BlingBang · 03/12/2013 22:12

Son has just told me that they have to line up and take a bible and say thank you - seems like some group is coming to the school to distribute them. AIBU to be surprised and think this is strange? My son doesn't believe in God and doesn't particularly want a bible or have to thank someone for it. Is this common practice then?

OP posts:
LifeofPo · 04/12/2013 13:49

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

plainjanine · 04/12/2013 13:51

The bible may well have plenty of lovely stories in it, but it also has a lot of very violent, disturbing annd vicious behaviour in it.

Have a look at this lot, for instance...

Skeptics Bible

I'd say it was not suitable for under 16s, myself.

Beastofburden · 04/12/2013 13:57

I don't agree that having a printed bible is a useful way to check cultural references. Most bibles have crap indexes. The only way to check stuff is to read a whole chapter. Much quicker to google it.

I am surprised its still allowed, to be honest. We got one at school in the 1970s but all kinds of weird crap went on in the 1970s.

Chippingnortonset123 · 04/12/2013 14:13

Why is it suggested that RC schools are exempt? Why would the be?

LifeofPo · 04/12/2013 14:14

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Lesshastemorespeed · 04/12/2013 14:15

plainjane You would have to look hard though, to find those lines, wouldn't you? Or maybe do some serious googling?

curlew · 04/12/2013 14:16

"Jesus walking on the water, the loaves n fishes one. Pretty good stories from a child's point of view I think."

Really? Well those two are covered in about, IIRC, 8/10 verses........wouldn't make much of a bedtime story!

Lesshastemorespeed · 04/12/2013 14:20

And your point is?

curlew · 04/12/2013 14:23

My point is that people are always going on about what wonderful stories there are in the Bible- and it's not actually true. Not in the actual Bible- they can be rewritten and expanded to make a decent story......

Snowbility · 04/12/2013 14:25

"I'm not convinced that a child of 10 / 11 is not simply parroting his parent's beliefs when he says he doesn't believe in God. Does he even know what it is he doesn't believe in - I'm guessing not if there are no religious books in your house."

Having been brought up Catholic - my lack of belief materialised when I was 10 and my lack of belief was firm and real. Don't patronise kids, they have beliefs that should be respected. Unfortunately for me, my DM continued to shove me into church every Sunday till I was 18 and it's left me with a deep resentment of religion.

ABitterPIL · 04/12/2013 14:26

Curlew. Even if you dont have a taste for the religion you have to accept there are a few good stories in it. Healing, resurection, baptism, voyages of self discovery, judas.

ABitterPIL · 04/12/2013 14:29

For me the bible is a bit like Shakespear. Difficult to read in the original text but on the whole decent stories.I would take Shakeapear any day though

Lesshastemorespeed · 04/12/2013 14:34

Fair enough but you wouldn't know this if you had been denied access to it in the first place. I'm not religious, but think that denying your child access to any academic literature wrong. With the possible exception of jaqueline Wilson

The grimms fairy tales can be equally dark and scary, similarly the hobbit. Aesops fables are also quite short, but I wouldn't refuse them entry to the house. The bible is just another book with good bits and rubbish bits.

Beastofburden · 04/12/2013 14:35

But the thing is...

If the Bible has been drummed into you already and you know all the stories, fine, you can look stuff up. I know the text pretty well from many years of singing, mainly, so I can do that. I studied the renaissance and there were some biblical stories I knew, but for classical my tutor told me I needed Betty Radices who's who in the ancient world.

But if you are not from a religious background at all, being given a bible at school won't help you find a reference. For a start you may well not even know that's it from the bible as opposed to, say, myth.

Google knows, though. And if I had gone to Uni post google, I wouldn't have been told to buy either the bible or Betty Radice. I would just have googled it.

It's old fashioned. It doesn't help people that don't already know the bible. And I dislike it, as its just another way for religion to be pushed at our children when they are at school.

curlew · 04/12/2013 14:35

No I don't. There are some outlines of good stories. I can't imagine anyone reading the actual Bible for the entertainment value!

Lesshastemorespeed · 04/12/2013 14:48

Laughs at self describing Jaqueline Wilson as academic literature.

Lesshastemorespeed · 04/12/2013 15:06

And... Why does religious knowledge always have to have been 'drummed into you'? I would, and have, had a go at reading the bible. It wasn't brill, but to refuse to have one, just because you can google it, is like saying you won't have a dictionary or cookery book either.

The Gideon bible is a tiny little book. Shove it on a shelf; it's there if you need it. That's the point.

Beastofburden · 04/12/2013 15:24

No, I am not refusing to have one just because I can google it. I don't mind having one in the house.

I dont want one handed out in schools wihtout the option, because I disagree with this casual assumption that the Christian faith is something all our kids ought to agree with and be part of during school hours.

On the google point, all I am saying is its a bad argument to say, oh, let them give the kids a bible, it will help them understand culture. It won't, because the index in a bible is rubbish, you can't look something up and see what it is. You need to have read it before. If all you want to do is understand culture, it's better to google it.

Especially if you don't actually know if the reference you don't recognise is a myth from the bible or from a different religious system such as Greek or roman mythology.

BackOnlyBriefly · 04/12/2013 15:26

Giving out bibles can be dangerous in another way of course. They might read it. That's how I became an atheist - because I read what it actually said.

That's why I wondered if they only gave out New Testaments now. I don't think it's actually in the churches' interest to have people read the OT.

Fortunately for them most people don't read it all. They get a list of 'inspiring passages' and read those.

plainjanine · 04/12/2013 15:28

Lesshastemorespeed those are just the bits in Revelations. I just wanted to illustrate that the Bible really isn't a good consistent guide on how to live your life, and as such is a poor choice to give to children.

curlew · 04/12/2013 15:35

I'm not denying my child access to the Bible. They have been well grounded in the religions of their culture As I have said repeatedly, we are atheists,, not barbarians.

But I do not think that it is appropriate for a state school to let an overtly evangelising organisation,whether it be Christian or anything else, in to give bibles- or anything else- to children.

eightandthreequarters · 04/12/2013 16:09

A Bible being handed out by the teacher to be read as part of RE = no problem.

A Bible being handed out by a religious group actively seeking new converts = no, not in the school.

It's a pretty easy call, I should think. It's amazing to me that so many people have been handed a NT by the Gideons in school.

Original poster
BlingBang · 04/12/2013 16:11

Well it has been interesting reading, I do find religion very interesting. Some good points raised, I will have a talk with my son and tell him it will do no harm for him to have a bible and that it might help in RE subjects and any future debates on religion. Just wish it contained the OT as well - in for a penny, in for a pound and all that.

OP posts:
TheCrackFox · 04/12/2013 16:26

I was given a Gideon bible, at school, when I was about 13yrs old - I just put it in the bin when I got home.

About 10yrs ago I was a manager of a new hotel and one of the Gideon's got quite huffy with me when I politely declined her kind offer of 150 bibles.

shil0846 · 04/12/2013 19:32

OP, I'm not making too many assumptions - see your post yesterday where you mentioned that "we don't have religious books in the house".

By the way, I entirely agree with your suggested way forward.

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