Outside of Evangelizing, Why Teach Kids About a Man Getting Nailed to a Cross?

As I mentioned yesterday, two parents in England are filing a lawsuit because their kids’ non-religious primary school, which is overseen by the Oxford Diocesan Schools Trust (ODST), explicitly promotes Christianity.

Children are told to pray, they’re taught Christianity is true, and there are assemblies in which Bible stories are acted out… including a re-staging of the crucifixion complete with beatings.

When the parents requested their kids not participate in those events, the kids were sent to a room with a monitor and some iPads. It was like a temporary prison. Hence, the lawsuit.

But if the goal of the assemblies isn’t to promote Christianity, as the school insists, what’s the point of reenacting the death of Jesus?

That’s what radio host James O’Brien wanted to know. An Anglican vicar was his guest, so O’Brien asked if there was any other situation in which someone’s torture would be presented that graphically to an audience of eight-year-olds.

The vicar’s response was exactly what you’d expect: A bunch of gibberish.

The vicar struggled to answer but then said “We teach eight-year-olds all sorts of gore, look at Halloween, kids walking around with axes”.

James O’Brien replied that Halloween is “fantasy” and said “you teach kids this [the crucifixion] is real.”

The vicar defended teaching children the story of the crucifixion by saying: “James, it’s eight-year-olds, you don’t dwell on the horror….God loved the world so much that he gave his Son who died on the cross, you don’t need to go into the detail.”

Except they do go into the detail at the school. If you don’t accept the divinity of Christ, then those performances are all about some guy getting whipped, tortured, and suffocated to his death… for no purpose whatsoever. You have to believe in the Christian myth to see that as a story of redemption and hope instead of as faith-based bloodlust.

All the more reason it shouldn’t be taught to students at an ostensibly public school. It shouldn’t be taught in Sunday School either, but Christian parents have the right to warp their own kids’ minds however they want.

(Thanks to @BiffaBacon1 for the link)