Bibles should never be allowed in public schools
St Matthew's in the City, proud purveyor of the above billboard, has come out in favour of secular education.
Tally ho I say.
As a product of a partially-integrated, fundamentalist, ‘it’s okay to keep people as slaves during lunch hours’ high school myself, these issues grate me to no end.
Mr Clay Nelson of St. Matthew's is from the US, so no prizes for guessing where his secular attitudes come from. Despite taking a knife and fork to American politics for its coma-inducing inanity, the U.S. will always be admirable for the separation of Church and State.
Not so New Zealand. There exists a loophole wherein public schools may ‘close’ for up to 20 hours a year in order for religious education to take place.
One of those loopholes was stretched at the edges when our entire Sixth Form was pulled from classes in order to attend a lesson in Intelligent Design (a paradoxical idea and a contradiction in terms), though it was never referred to by name.
Mr Nelson is also fantastically on the ball when posed with the question of parents or students opting out of religious classes. He cites the castration that those students may face from their peers – something I experienced time and time again despite Jesus’ insistence not to judge others, nor to persecute them for their lack of faith.
Not satisfied with indoctrination and the stifling of free expression (or even physical contact with the opposite sex), the school decided, in order to fleece the NCEA framework, it would shave and sacrifice credits (grades) from other subjects in order that Biblical Studies could be workable.
Not content with its official standing as only partially-integrated, staple subjects such as Classics and English were infused with Biblical hair-splitting and dubious parallels.
This is the school that insisted, on my admission, the Catholicism of my upbringing was ‘man-made’ and yet their Christianity was ‘God-made’.
This is the school that banned Harry Potter, citing the usual ‘suffer a witch to live’ line, yet allowed The Chronicles of Narnia to be distributed freely. Because a magical, talking lion is obviously a metaphor for The Almighty.
People in favour of religion in schools point to its ability to teach ‘values’ – yet what are these values?
On paper: to be kind, to love your neighbor, to be charitable to those in need, to be humble, and so on – but these are commonly held beliefs and are not rendered useless without a Godly context.
They’re all fair and admirable. But in real life, these things are accompanied by other attitudes.
Love thy enemy? What an absolute suspension of logic! An enemy is an enemy for a reason.
Consider women in the same category as property? This came over all too well during my school years, and it was no typically-chauvinist kitchen-joke affair, but a fully-fledged and deeply entrenched sense of misogyny that perforated my male schoolfriends.
Then there are the misunderstandings of doctrine: judge not lest ye be judged? I never knew one student who did not live in a glasshouse, yet insisted on clutching a pile of stones, ready to throw.
Humility? No, every Monday morning, assembly was brimming with braggadocio and posturing. ‘Look at how blessed we all are with the glory of the Lord!’ they cry, yet this is nowhere near as distressing as hearing the jeers and tropes against ‘God-less’ people. It’s all bound up with a cynicism not usually found amongst a supposedly faithful selection of believers.
The arrogance is hard to avoid.
Mr Nelson believes keeping religion in public schools is “an imposition on the religious freedom of others”, and I agree wholeheartedly.
Common moral attitudes can be found everywhere throughout our public education system – they don’t need to be taught from a makeshift pulpit.- < Previous
- Next >
Latest
- 9:07 pm Fire at Queenstown bar under control
- 7:55 pm Queenstown blaze now contained
- 7:47 pm MP surprised at lack of promotion from CERA
- 7:39 pm Stranger-danger reminder from police
- 7:29 pm Man killed in accident near Waikuku
- 7:19 pm Councillor sees financial benefits to extended runway
- 6:21 pm Information sought on Chch traffic incidents
- 6:06 pm Dad dead, children injured in Canty crash
- 6:00 pm Immigration scam leads to community sentence
- 5:46 pm Owner of vehicle in Wellington crash located
Opinion
-
Ken Ring
May 14, 11:46 amWhy climate is unlikely to be changingHumans walk at about three miles an hour, and run at around five. It is the shape and musculature of the human body that determines this. We are nei...
-
James Robins
May 15, 2:33 pmAP, DOJ, GCSBI've joined Twitter. Follow me here: @James_ARobins“Freedom of the Press, if it means anything at all, means the freedom to criticize and oppose” – G...
-
On the radar
May 22, 9:08 amBase jumper escapes death after parachute failsA base jumper who has performed more than 180 successful jumps is lucky to be alive.Matthew Gough's latest conquest would have been a 1,000 foot clif...
17 Comments
Bible study does not belong in public schools; it belongs in the home, with the family and in the church. I was raised a Christian, though am now more of an agnostic, and have withdrawn my child from the school's weekly Bible study lesson, because I feel it is just one-eyed brainwashing by fervent voluntary Bible bashers, who come into our children's schools to indoctrinate their "captive audience". If however, if they made it Theology study (i.e. study of ALL religions and their historical backgrounds, effects on society, discussions on how each belief system integrates with other religions in our modern society, then that would be interesting, unbiased and appropriately educational. That's my opinion ... does anyone else agree?
ReplyJames Robins seems to be a bitter, angry person who seems "hell bent" on trying to lead as many people away from God. Feel very sad for you James.
ReplyThis is the same idiot Church group that thinks (Also with a billboard) that God was in human form & had human sex with Mary to conceive Jesus, and poor Joseph couldn't perform as well!! Obviously they have no idea, knowledge or experience of God's Holy Spirit or they would know (especially if they read their Bibles properly) that human sex had nothing to do with Jesus' conception, it was done by the Holy Spirit and thus a truly Virgin Conception. No wonder they don't want the Bible in Schools if they think that, their interpretation is worse than the Greeks if they think God appeared on earth to have sex with a woman. How pathetic, time to grow up and leave childish ideas behind!!!
ReplyWho am I to know but this article is radical to my way of thinking. I would like to see a complete historical teaching including the Bible and Koran and their relationship to the history of the evolution of human society. We are what we have become and those two books (and others) have contributed hugely to our societies. It's inconceivable that we should deny these teachings. There are conflicts between teachings and many of our wars stem from those conflicts. This is our history and theres no getting away from it. We need history taught in schools. When Communism was introduced into the USSR and China there developed sick immoral nations where millions died. That is a consequence of not teaching history that includes scriptures. There is also a huge amount of good that have come from those two teachings and the conflict of recent times show how clearly we need to understand human inability to cope without wise teachings. We live at a time where Christians are reducing in number as non-believer have recently taken on a majority holding in western countries, but hold your breath cause the Muslim community are on the rise, not in money, but in population. Soon the Christian and non believers will be stretching out their hands to the young Muslim men and women for help to just work and pay taxes to support us in old age. The Muslimization of the world is begining and it's time for the world community to read and understand that they are not so different. Get over the fear and embrace your enemy. It aint that bad. The average Muslim's standard of morality may seem unfamiliar to modern western people, but it would have hit a familiar note with an earlier generation. Ask someone old enough to remember the days when parents married and stayed together and had kids. Islam is not that strange.
ReplyIntersting how schools are to teach evolation but cant teach the bible as well. A bit lopsided one would think teach both and let the people make there own mind up. If we all followed Christs teachings this world would be a lot better off but instead humens are greedy selfish and hurtfull to others. Bible best book ever written
Reply