http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=503920&in_page_id=1770&ct=5
How stupid is this?
2007-12-21 02:58:22 · 31 answers · asked by Chipmunk 6 in News & Events ➔ Current Events
Jaco Lioneye - School Nativity plays might be about celebrating Jesus's birth, but Christmas parties are just a bit of fun, very little to do with Jesus. My kids go to a non-religious school and yet they still had a Christmas party and no one was excluded because of their beliefs.
2007-12-21 03:09:11 · update #1
The article does point out this was a council-run school, not a religeous school. These schools are generally populated by children of various faiths or of no faith at all. The Christmas party should have included every child no matter what their belief is, otherwise they should not have had one at all as it is not a predominately Christian school.
2007-12-21 03:33:00 · update #2
oops, that should read religious, not religeous.
2007-12-21 03:34:09 · update #3
This sounds like sour grapes on the school's behalf, just a pity a little boy had to suffer. Christmas parties are absolutely nothing to do with religion. In all the parties I went to over the years I never heard any prayers, no hyms etc. It's just a party that occurs at Christmas time. Does that also mean the school are making him stay on, and employing a teacher to teach him while the rest of us are on 'Christmas holidays'?
And is he the only child in the school who is not a Christian? Or is he just the only child who has opted out of religious education.
Telling a little child at the last minute that he can't go to the party he had been looking forward to for weeks - he must have been heartbroken. Well, if that's a Christian attitude, Christian behaviour or Christian values, you can keep them!
2007-12-21 05:40:40 · answer #1 · answered by threepenny53 5 · 4⤊ 3⤋
This sounds more like a dispute between the school and the parents which spilled over into having this child excluded from the party, it has little or nothing to do with the child's beliefs. Typical of the Mail to try to build this up as an example of petty officialdom gone mad.
2007-12-21 03:56:44 · answer #2 · answered by Huh? 7 · 5⤊ 0⤋
OOOOH there's a shocker you read about in the Daily Mail. Cant win with that lot, first of all they claim Christians arent allowed to celebrate Christmas in Britain and then people that dont believe in Jesus are banned from parties.
How about just not reading the Daily Mail, thats solves a lot of these problems
2007-12-21 05:54:31 · answer #3 · answered by Su Do Crem 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I have sent the comment to the Mail. The school isn't celebrating Christ's birth, it's celebrating Saturnalia!
Trees, decorations, lights, Santa-like figures, gift exchanges, carolling, yule logs, holly, mistletoe - all pagan in origin, adopted by Christians to make Christianity more palatable and celebrated at the winter solstice so nobody would know the difference (or so they thought)!
If this school was serious about Christmas being a religious event, then they should have marked it by putting on a nativity play and holding a religious service. But of course, that would bore the kids and all the parents would complain - not just the non-Christian ones.
In fact, if the headmaster is that religious, he should take a page out of Martin Luther's handbook and not mark Christmas at all. Strict Protestants don't do Christmas - period - because they do not worship a baby - they worship an enlightened being who suffered at the hands of his tormenters, died on the cross and rose up to heaven three days later, and (according to Christians) saved us all.
Can you imagine the uproar if this family had been Jewish or Hindu?
2007-12-21 05:30:39 · answer #4 · answered by lesroys 6 · 2⤊ 4⤋
Well said Bremner8. Don't agree with children being pulled out of any subject, they need to have a balanced education in order for them to make their own choices later in life not the choices their parents decide for them. RE is not just about Christianity.
EDIT: I work at a non-religious state school and several parents stop their children doing RE because of their particular religion, however, they do not insist their children attend any Christmas celebrations either. We celebrate lots of non-christian festivals too such as Diwali and Eid, their children do not take part in those either. You can't have it both ways. The majority of the children do not belong to any religion but learn about all of them and enjoy their celebrations and traditions.
2007-12-21 03:11:24 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 6⤊ 1⤋
can you opt in and out of your convictions?
Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus (whenever it occurred)
a Christmas party is like a 'birthday party' for Jesus
if the parents decided to opt out of religious studies for their child, they obviously had an issue with something the school was doing that they disagreed with, there is no indication that it had anything to do with learning about Christianity
chances are in a primary school it was religions of other faiths, but if that was put in the paper they would look like bigots
trouble is, they can't have their cake and eat it, so the school is probably making a point about their hypocrisy (my take on the story)
the child is upset? do me a favour, he is not a toddler and is probably enjoying this attention
2007-12-21 07:09:56 · answer #6 · answered by Tequila.... 7 · 2⤊ 2⤋
Yes, it is ridiculous and cruel to the children involved. But what is the mother thinking pulling out her children from RE classes, they're part of the education like anything else. It's not as though they have to be baptized and make a commitment to be dedicated Christians. Seems like the head teacher and the parents have something in common after all, stubbornness, and willing to make the kids a pawn.
2007-12-21 03:22:14 · answer #7 · answered by Ern T 6 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Unbelievable! What has faith to do with right to attend a school party even if it were supposedly to celebrate the birth of someone the boy doesn't care about? He does believe in his schools doesn't he? The ban would have been understandable if the party were hosted by Mother Mary in Jerusalam in the year 8 BC!
2007-12-21 03:21:27 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 3⤋
I feel sorry for children and parents because the dont believe in Jesus. jesus died for everyones sins and he is the light and the truth
We celebrate his blessed birth soon and he should be in our minds and hearts during this special period of the year
2007-12-21 20:37:36 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Who went to the press with such a stupid thing really, Have the Daily Scare really got nothing better to investigate than some Christmas party. Just what are the press trying to tell us that we are thick fools and need to be told schools make stupid moves and then do u turns when a parent tells them they are been stupid.
2007-12-21 03:16:15 · answer #10 · answered by BUST TO UTOPIA 6 · 1⤊ 3⤋