To be uncomfortable with church people giving out psalms in assembly

[Masmavi]

We moved back from abroad last year. This is the first time my son has lived in the UK. He's in Year 7 at a state school, not church-affiliated.
Yesterday he came back from school with a book of psalms. A religious group/church had attended assembly, given a talk and afterwards given out the books.
AIBU to think this is inappropriate? The school has children of different faiths and this feels like proselytising. Is this considered normal in schools here? I'm not talking about church schools.

It depends on the funding available and how those people are paid to be religious leaders/representatives. A lot of other religious leaders/representatives don't have a big pot of money which makes it difficult for them to go to schools and represent, especially if they have a day job. Also consider the one to many relationship of how many schools there are vs. how many mosques/Hindu temples/Buddist temples vs. how many churches.

Unless you live somewhere very, very diverse there are generally a lot more Christian representatives out there with the time and money to do something like this so it will always be a skewed sample size.

Yes there will be contact with representatives from other Faiths, often visits to a mosque and /or synagogue too.

Jews

Written about 900 years before Christ - so part of the Old Testament

Ex Jews/ converted Christians wrote the New Testament after Christ died 33CE

Exactly. Which is one of the reasons it makes me uncomfortable. If it were a programme of inviting different faith leaders to assemblies I wouldn't mind. But in the absence of that it feels like promoting one religion.

But this is completely different. Your daughter is simply learning about another religion, and that’s great. The OP is talking about a god squad rocking up, and giving out a book of psalms. It’s proselytizing, and that’s wrong.

I’m not sure it’s that different. My kids school barely touches on Christianity. Even the nativity was changed, placed in a different country and different age.
Christmas is all Santa Claus and gifts.

but they are thoroughly learning about Sikhism, Hindu, Islam,

I think having an understanding that there are different belief systems living in the world together is ok, and learning a few facts about how they are worshipped etc ok too.

It shouldn't be though.

I personally have no issue with religious education. Teaching religion as fact though absolutely has no place in any school, and that's absolutely what things like this are about.

I don’t think school, especially secular school, is the place to be pushing cultism. It pisses me off enough when they knock on my door or try and accost me in the street. It’s not appropriate to try and recruit children at school.

Not trying to be superior - I just think you’re being unreasonable.

I find ancient history really fascinating, so to have a collection of poems/songs from several hundred years BC is really cool.

If they were handing out tracts titled ‘how to become a Christian’, I would agree with you.

When I say christian god I mean the one christians believe in now. Clearly he was just god then.
I actually cannot believe that you felt the need to write that tbh - did you think your response made you look somehow cleverer than me?

The U.K. is a diverse society.

Diversity comes in many ways. People differ in terms of race, religion, gender, disability/ability.

The U.K. also has a state religion. Unlike America or France where schools are mostly religion free zones, in the U.K. there is a state sponsored religion and it is a specific type of Christianity.

If you move here from another country and don't have kids then it can be fairly easy to miss.

There are (a very few) schools that have a non-Christian religion and follow that for their daily act of worship etc. there are various Jewish schools en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/JFS_(school)
and I think there might be Hindu and Muslim ones now.

These are all state schools and if your child attended one then the local rabbi/imam would be in very regularly and assemblies would be along the lines of that religion.

Some state schools are also specifically Catholic or C of E and requirements for admission can include baptism in the faith and regular attendance at church.

The school system in the U.K. is heavily entwined with religion.

I think religion has no place in schools, it's indoctrination. I have no issue with religion whatsoever, I'm not an atheist but I do think going into school and handing out religious paraphenalia is wrong.

PP was asking about who gave them out in OPs child's school, not who wrote them.

Absolutely, I agree. Learning about different religions is great, and should be encouraged. But teaching religion as a fact should not be allowed, given especially that the tax payer is paying for the schools. You have Sunday school for that, or pay for a private religious school.

Yes OP, it’s really annoying but there is a religious element to all non-religious-badged schools here. Loads of threads on this over the years, though no reason you’d pick up on them if it’s not where you’re living.

The good news for us secular people is that it’s roundly ignored by pretty much everyone at school - the kids are often affected a bit at primary but generally just let it wash over them and go with whatever is normal in their families. They do “proper” learning and discussion about all religious in RE lessons, and it tends to be much more dispassionate.

Generally secondary schools, unless religious badged catholic schools or similar, seem to have a lot less religion involved - in my limited experience anyway. I do remember us all getting a small red bible but we mostly thought it was funny.

OP, you are not unreasonable to be uncomfortable about this. Those visiting the assembly were not there to share poetry, history or culture, they were there to evangelise and encourage children to join their homophobic, sexist and controlling cult religion. It has no proper place in schools. Parents are free to introduce their children to religion outside of school time if they wish.

This!
If they wanted to share poetry and culture they wouldn't have just brought their flavour of religious text.

Oh sorry 😂I misread!!

Dont be tempted to try and drown out their message by distributing more of your own handouts. You'll never beat them in a psalms race.

At least they weren't handing out Proverbs, all that dogs returning to vomit and the like.......

Yes, I figured that. We all do that sometimes. Just wanted to clarify. :)

An unwanted/unneeded History lesson from me lol 🤐

It will come in handy when studying English literature with all the biblical/psalm references littered throughout so much work.

Agree. Although, I think don’t think RE should be its own subject at school. Religion should be taught in history where it played its part, and in PSE to be taught the tolerance of others/ social/ cultural aspects. The time taken up by RE lessons could be better used for more valuable life skills like money management/ finance or cookery.

Christ is referenced throughout the Old Testament.