Do Christians on here feel that state Church schools should be scrapped?

[nolongeraworriedmummy]

Ok this is a thread about a thread really but I just wondered what Christians thought, to me being a Christian is about living everyday as a Christian but have just read a post on another thread that says if I want Christian ethos and morals for my child I should give them a bible at night and take them to church on Sunday and they shouldnt be allowed to have daily prayers and religious assemblies as there is no place in school for that basically,

What do you think?

As a Christian I feel that state church schools should be scrapped, yes.

I am a Catholic and my dd attends a Catholic school as I did and her father did.It was touch and go aabout a place for some time and I actually felt ill at the thought of her not going to a Catholic school.

Why?

Because both dh and I went to Catholic schools as did our parents and grandparents.I like the way the schools reinforce the catholic teachings that we use at home and I like that my daughter is with children of her own faith.

I realise that she will learn about other faiths (though we did not when we were at school) and think this is a good thing.

I do think that RC schools are more traditional in terms of standards (uniform, no jewellery) and discipline. DH and I are quite traditional and these aspects are important to us too.

Interesting. I'm a catholic too, and went to catholic schools. I think I am steeped in the culture of catholicism in a way that my children will not be. And I'm somewhat torn on that, as (unlike for many) my religion and its culture form a pretty positive aspect of my identity.

But I don't see why the state should provide that religious upbringing for my children.

Because we are part of the state. If there is a need they should provide it.

Equally.So if Jewish or Muslims wanted there own school they should have one.

Its not just the religous aspect that my child attends,its what being part of that, she gains.

Is it actually a need? I really don't think so.

I would have to disagree.

Off to bed now

night and god bless
x

But as a secularist chocolatepeanut where is the secularist school I may send my DC to?
The government has always stopped secularist schools being founded, they are not willing to fund them, though a Hindu school has just opened this term.

EPPM,

You make a really good point about teachers' own opinions.

As a Science teacher, we are required by the curriculum to discuss opinions - our own, the children's, governments (home and foreign), the media etc. One of the most important parts of a science education is to look at evidence and scientific facts, and form opinions. It is also very important to try to understand why other people may have different opinions.

People may disagree whether this is important or not in a science lesson, but it is the way it is. It is known in the curriculum as "how science works". I actually do think it is very important to do this in order to make the curriculum relevent to all students, not just future scientists.

I don't think we worry too much about churching nowadays, Serin (the cleansing of women after childbirth).

Unchurched simply means those in our community who have never been to church more than a handful of times in their lives.

As a practicing Christian, those people are very important to me . One of the most important thing that my church family does is reach out to the unchurched. We do not consider them un anything, apart from not knowing the Lord.

My evangelical infiltration of my catholic school was a very light-hearted comment. I don't do anything against the catholic workings of the school, except perhaps that when we pray in my tutor group, we do it as we are led rather than using liturgical prayers, or prayers written by some kind of expert.

Also, when I pick songs for assembly, I always go for hearty Anglican ones (but they are in the school hymnbook, so OK).

Hearty Anglican hymns are the ONLY ones to sing. I speak as an RC.

I used to go to church but these days I'm a reformed character. I've made an informed and intelligent and rational decision to be "unchurched" and I don't want to be reached out to. Thanks all the same.

Dechurched people are rich pickings too!

?

I am not LDS, you know - of even catholic (not in the universal sense) christian.

Seriously, for Christians to think that atheists are just there for the converting - to see us as a challenge - is deeply, deeply patronising and insulting to our intellectual position.

Well I always tie my rosary to the laptop when I'm on a thread with UQD. Because I know he's trying to turn me.

OK - only as I was asked:

I went to church because I lived in a small village and everyone did, pretty much. A a child, I had no choice. As a teenager, I didn't go every week, but I went to the matins and family services because my friends went and it was a nice place to be sociable.

I don't think it really occurred to me to ask myself consciously if there was a god. I just assumed there had to be "something" because of all these churches and all this hymn-singing and stuff. At university, I went to a few "traditional" chapel evensongs, more out of a sense of duty and because I liked the atmosphere. I met a very sniffy girl from the CU who tried to get me to come to their happy-clappy services - did a few, didn't like them. Her words: "Well, if you think being a Christian is about Chapel Evensong that's your loss." My thoughts: "what a snide little bitch."

In my 20s I started going to church less and less and thinking about it more and more. By my mid-20s I realised that I just didn't have to do this any more. I was consciously thinking about god for the first time and realising there was no evidence, and that my life did not feel any more fulfilled by going to church. It felt tremendously liberating.

Got married in church because DW and her family wanted us to and I didn't mind one way or the other. But that was 10 years ago - since then I've given it a lot more thought and moved from wishy-washy agnosticism to atheism. And never looked back.

I suppose that's why I always tend to agree with the arguments about atheism being on the side of the "thinkers" and the "rational", because my personal experience is that I became an atheist once I actually started to question things and when I stopped just accepting what I was told. I see it as a definite progression, and can never help the association of blind Christian faith with my younger years, when I didn't know any better. Being an atheist is part of moving forward in my life. I have learned to be an atheist in the same way that I have learned to be a husband and a father and to speak German and to "get" mortgages and to be a good writer and teacher - the idea of becoming a person of faith again would seem as utterly ridiculous as "un-learning" any of those other things.