To object to a religious song at a baby class?

[SecondTimer2019]

I take my baby (6mo) to a baby sensory class and this week the theme was 'rainbows'. At the end one of the songs played was 'Who put the colours in the rainbow?', which I remember from my childhood.

It asks who created all the amazing things in the world and ends by saying things like 'It can't be chance' and 'God made all of these'.

I'm not religious and think this environment should be secular. Obviously my baby can't understand the lyrics yet but I still feel it is inappropriate.

I'm thinking of contacting the organisers to let them know my feelings.

AIBU?

I am not religious but feel terribly sorry for all these kids being brought up without religion and thus the knowledge and background to much of history/art. I think the total blackout of religion in their lives will leave them uneducated in this area and i certainly want my daughter to know songs, hymns, our cultural background, how to behave in church and other religious settings. I pulled her out of her old school as all the (very much middle class) parents protested against the weekly prayer in assembly and thus had it stopped and because of the lack of religious reference during dumbed down nativities, Easter celebrations etc and put her in a much more 'down market' C of E school which is amazing. Don't all our top (prestigious and expensive) schools have their own chapels/choirs/religious education which is rigorous? Why then educationally disadvantage your own DC because you aren't a fan of religion? It will be up to DD to make her own mind up, but she won't be ignorant or disadvantaged by my denying her the opportunity to learn about and understand a hell of a lot of what the UK is based upon, no matter what my own views may be.

"But unfortunately that isn't the country we live (yet)."

Hopefully it will stay as it is

OP, YANBU in the slightest. Religious content in a secular environment is unacceptable. It doesn't matter if it's nursery rhymes for babies or literature for adults.

@BertrandRussell Someone losing an eye, eh? What, on ever so "naice" mumsnet? Surely not! That did make me laugh. Look up amblyopia, though you might already know of it.

@ButterTarts Banning Christmas? What a tremendous idea. I lived in a country where officially Christmas wasn't celebrated for a bit. Didn't stop the shop assistants dressing up in Santa suits on Christmas Eve and having a bit of a sing-song at the customers...

I'm a total atheist, but I think there's a big difference between singing a song that mentions god and pushing religion on people. If babies and children can hear songs about monsters, talking animals, aliens etc without growing up to believe they are literally true, then I think they can probably cope with hearing god made rainbows. It's just a song.

@cannycat20- just an expression!

I went to a Catholic school. I can confirm that children who go to Catholic schools do not behave better.

@MrOnionsBumperRoller - my son's being "brought up without religion". As in without adhering to a certain faith. There's a world of difference between that and not educating children in a factual sense about what different faiths practice, their customs and history etc. Unfortunately my experience is that we're absolutely abysmal at the latter. Instead, religion tends to be taught as fact, when it's anything but.

As can I @bellinisurge . Too many of them lack critical thought though.....

@BertrandRussell I know, I was just being a bit mischievous! Anything to delay doing the washing up for another couple of minutes...

If it was baby sensory then I felt the same. They are a franchise but sue the same music and lesson plan, so are all over. I think a couple of times they had God songs I thought

-*use

Is this a secular group? If so, the song's being used as 'cultural'. If it's church-run, I'm afraid that comes with the territory.

Yes, exactly.

Also, as others mentioned.... What about Christmas songs? Easter? Trying to keep those secular would feel very artificial to me....

Btw, we had to sing religious songs during assembly (so various times a week), dud recitals, a nativity (aka 'The Christmas Play'), Michaelmas etc. Most of my old friends seem to be atheists (or agnostic, politely disinterested etc) nowadays.

At least as far as I know. (well, there's one exception. She did become a pastor....)

a pagan festival 'winter solstice' was hijacked by christians and renamed christmas as has been other so called 'christian related' events i.e easter. As a pagan i could really take offence at all of that but what the heck

I here this trotted out a lot as well, but can't find any factual reference for it. There are many different opinions about the origins of Christmas, this is just one of them. Maybe it should only be repeated if you start with 'some people believe that...'

I here this trotted out a lot as well, but can't find any factual reference for it. *
*
^^Really? You can't find any historical information about the ancient pagan festivals and the Roman festival of Saturnalia? Did you try, you know, actually looking? It's there you know, same as any historical information!

I’m a church going Christian with 2 children at faith school.

I also run pre school music classes, that parents pay to attend. One of my classes is in a church, another in a church hall.

I am incredibly careful that I don’t use any music that references God or Jesus. It’s simply not my place. To the extent that when I found a brilliant action song that randomly mentioned Jesus in the middle (as out of context as ‘I’m going to shake my head then pat my knees because Jesus really really loves me’) I used editing software to cut it out.

If parents pay for a group it should be completely religion free. If they want their child to learn faith songs, they will already be taking them to Church or other groups. I feel very strongly that it isn’t my job to do that, even if my class is in church.

And yes, I do ‘do’ Christmas, but mainly as a party with dress up and dancing and games. I agree with the OP that it was an inappropriate song choice.

^^Really? You can't find any historical information about the ancient pagan festivals and the Roman festival of Saturnalia? Did you try, you know, actually looking? It's there you know, same as any historical information!

Yes I have seen people's opinions that there may have been a link, but as the origin of Christmas is disputed then I don't see how anyone can say that it was with any authority. If you 'try actually looking' you also find theories that suggest that it wasn't. So no proof, just theories.

It's not "just a theory" that these pagan festivals existed though - it's historical fact. What can be disputed is the Christian origin of Christmas, dating if it and its links to the ancient festivals, but there is no doubt over the pagan celebrations.

It would annoy me but I don’t think I would say anything.

I’m guessing you live somewhere with no ethnic diversity? There’s no way the non-religious baby groups where I live would sing Christian songs. Most of the people in the room wouldn’t be Christian.

I agree ginyogarepeat. I wasn't disputing the existence of the festivals, just the 'fact' that Christmas derived from them. As you say , it is complicated to pin down the exact origins of Christmas, yet so many people make the link from Pagan festival to Christmas with nothing more than the existence of both to back it up.

I bet you celebrate Christmas too?!

“ Also, as others mentioned.... What about Christmas songs? Easter? Trying to keep those secular would feel very artificial to me....”
Yes, it would to me as well. Because those songs are about Christmas and Easter. Not about how the works was “made”.

Its a song with rainbows in on colour week your massively overthinking it

Better to overthink than underthink!