To think the parish newsletter is not appropriate

[NikoBellic]

I'm not talking about the notices regarding the horticultural society, nor am I referring to the village "300 Club", or Gwen's amazing contribution to the village hall this month...

...I realise that unless you live in a rural area, much like fibre broadband, you won't get this...

Each month the parish council post a newsletter through my front door. A quaint little wedge of folded paper with some useful information on local gas safe engineers and who is raising what for which charity, interspersed with reminders to pick up dog poo. The outer cover is usually a lot quality 1995 clip art file along religious lines, printed onto coloured paper of some sort. This month, for the start of spring and the Easter period, its a sort of yellow. Its the cover that I'm not completely comfortable with...

We always hear, particularly from the type of person who lives in a village and reads the parish newsletter, that children should not be subjected to images of violence, sex, and general "bad stuff"...

SO WHY IS OK TO POST A PICTURE OF A BLEEDING MAN BEING CRUCIFIED THROUGH MY LETTERBOX!? (Even if it is in 1995 clip art form).

If I were to post an image of a man being hung through someone's front door I'd have to face, at the very least, a police caution. Seems like double standards from where I'm sat.

In an area where Nigel Farage gets a pat on the back (a man who is offended by seeing a breastfeeding mother in a pub...) why does religion get special dispensation?

Is it OK because its, you know, Jesus?

Am I being unreasonable?

In that case Binkybix it is entirely appropriate. OP needs to make it clear she doesn't want one.

I am sure pre christians would have celebrated this time of year and that much of the symbology is pre christian.

Oh sure, spring was a big deal after the darkness of the winter. Winter was hard in those days - if you hadn't been able to store up enough food to see you through the winter months then you starved. That's why the winter solstice had such significance. It marks the start of lengthening days and the return of light and life to the earth.

Some of the dates marked within the modern pagan Wheel of the Year do have genuine, proven pre-Christian origins, most obviously the solstices but there are others. For example, the festival known as Imbolc, at the beginning of February, is believed to have had significance in Ireland since the neolithic period, as suggested by the alignment of various megalithic monuments, and it's believed to have marked the beginning of spring. It's suggested that the word in the Old Irish means "in the belly" and refers to the time when the ewes are pregnant, although it's not entirely clear that this translation is accurate. An alternative is that the fesival was actually Oimelc, meaning "ewe milk", but although the etymology for either name isn't clear it would seem to have been connected with the lambing season.

The problem I have with Eostre/Ostara is that, if Bede's error is discounted (and Bede did acknowledge that some interpretations were his own, rather than generally agreed) there is no evidence for a pre-Christian festival celebrating this goddess in March/April. It is entirely possible (and even probable) that Easter customs do echo older festivals that we don't know about, but that's the problem right there - we don't know about them. In neo-pagan terms it works well to hang Eostre/Ostara on the spring equinox though, just as Mabon (a name coined for the festival around 1970 by Aidan A. Kelly) is hung on the autumn equinox as a harvest festival.

Now we have established that the Parish Magazine is produced by the church ( they generally are in my experience) it is up to OP to ask not to have it if Easter images upset her.
It seems very weird to say that you want a magazine from an organisation that you don't agree with, but you want it done your way.

soup So?

Queen My respect is earned. You have precisely no right, of any kind, to insist or even suggest that I respect what you decide I should. And how dare you suggest otherwise? Keep out of other people's thought process, please.

Oh the irony.

I can't see where the OP has confirmed it is published by the church? I have been through all the pages. Has it been deleted?

Such a shame, SoupDragon, that in adult debates an attempt at a witty repartee is not generally accepted as a substitute for refutation of the other person's argument.

This issue has absolutely nothing to do with the OP's agreement or otherwise with the organisation behind the leaflet, Mehitabel6. Except her disagreement with one of their decisions of course, namely to put this image on the front/outside of the material. And except for that fact that, if we're to go by this thread, if she were in any particular agreement with the organisation as a whole then we would expect her to suffer from any or all of the following: terrible reading comprehension; inability to think critically; terminal cognitive dissonance.

I seem to be having problems with this site, I could only see three pages and suddenly there are 16. Don't know where the other 13 were hiding.

OP said was produced by Anglican Church. I don't agree with Jehovah Witnesses so I don't let them leave me a magazine. I don't take a magazine and tell them to change it. If they just left one it would go straight in recycling.

They will put whatever they like on the front- it is an entirely appropriate image for Easter- for them.

embarrassing

That's really interesting Chille

I kinda like the fact that so much of the pagan religion was passed on by word of mouth and I see it as a strength not a weakness. It would have allowed for changes to have been made along the way, nothing would have been set in stone.

If Jesus really existed, why does the date of his death vary each year based on the Solar, pagan and Jewish Festival calendars?

If Jesus really existed, why was the date of his birth not settled upon until Christianity began to interact with the north European Winter Solstice festivals?

sovery I missed your previous comment to me.

I don't need to look up the things you suggest - I already have, many, many, many times

And I can tell you that they do not, even slightly, indicate the kind of evidence you are suggesting they do. Not even slightly.

So here's my advice to you....YOU look them up. YOU read them. I know that you haven't because the rest of your post proves it. You have been told that they show and prove XYZ and you have taken someone's word for it. Not wise.

Afternoon folks. This is all getting a bit hot, cross and bunfighty. We're happy for people to express their views on any religion, but could we all try to do so in a polite and civil way? The thread does also seem to have wandered very much off topic. We've come along way from junk mail to the existence or otherwise of Christ! Could we keep responses relevant to the original post, if at all possible? Thanks!

IonaMumsnet-would it be possible for you to indicate the sort of posts that are considered unacceptable? I genuinely can't see anything reportworthy on this thread - but I fully accept I may have a cloth ear when it comes to giving offence to religious people.

I love Parish Councils.
They are one of the most effective forms of Government.
City dwellers do not realise what they are missing.

Many PCCs (Parochial Church Councils who actually deal with church accounts) are dying as their attendees do.
Putting a picture of the little nailed up man on the cover made you look at it.
Job done.

I take very great exception to you deleting my post. I have a perfect right to defend myself from the "Have a bit of respect" brigade - for the reasons I gave.

There is nothing AT ALL disrespectful, impolite or rude about stating facts. And I am astonished (although, admittedly unsurprised) that you would support the view that there is.

Very silly indeed.

And to those who hit the report button...a good argument instead would save you the trouble. Think on that.

It's interesting that people get so hot under the collar about the faith of others...

Hello again,
Hi Hak - we've only deleted the one post, which we thought was just a bit personal and unpleasant in tone and therefore was a personal attack (hopefully that anwers your question, too, CaffeLatte - it was really about tone rather than content). We didn't feel anything else was worthy of deletion, but we did think the tone of some of the posts was getting a bit heated and also we felt a bit sorry for the OP whose thread seems to be getting slightly hijacked here. As a general rule of thumb though, we tend not to delete criticisms of any faith, but we will delete if it's a criticism of people who follow that faith, if you see what we mean. So 'Christianity is awful' = fair enough, that's an opinion. 'Christians are awful' = not fair enough. We've not had any of that here, we really just posted as a polite reminder that it's nice to be nice.

Thank you for the clarification, Iona.

It was never supposed to be about views on Christianity. It was a simple post about junk mail.
OP gets a magazine through the door from the church (now established that it was the church and not the Parish Council) and she has never asked for one. She actually finds some of the information useful but doesn't like the cover - she finds it 'inappropriate' dispite the fact there will be Good Friday services- it being a big day in the church calendar and in some places the crosses will come right out of church into the community. Therefore it is highly appropriate. You wouldn't have Easter Sunday without Good Friday.

The obvious thing is to ask not to have it delivered- or to volunteer to help in the production and have some say in the graphics.

It is appropriate to the church and congregation - it may not be appropriate for others- but it is optional.

I have never found a child pouncing with excitement on a Parish Magazine, I doubt if they even notice it and worse things are very often on front of newspapers.
It seems to have passed people by that most children will have had the Easter story at school - but probably haven't mentioned it. It is bound to come into collective worship.