We had a report in the press today about a bit of a ruckus in East Kilbride, the town I grew up in. It seems that a bunch of evangelicals have "infiltrated" Kirktonholme Primary School in West Mains and have been volunteering as teaching assistants. Not only that, but they have been handing out books which claim evolution is false and how you can know that God exists. They're real young earthers.
They're from the Church of Christ and think they are missionaries bringing Jesus to the Scottish heathens. They seem to think that in a population of 5.1 million people there are only 700 practicing Christians in Scotland. Yes, 700. Not 7000 or 70,000 or 700,000, but seven hundred. That's it.
They have given pupils two books, one containing a drawing of children with a stegosaurus. They are insistent that man and dinosaurs co-existed
Is it a coincidence that the Church of Christ has 700 members in Scotland? I think not. It seems that only the members of this particular sect are considered practicing Christians by them. This is rather ironic when one considers the defenders of this sect have been making loud noises on my personal Facebook page, not realising that the sect they defend also considers them to be non-Christian. The people I have in mind are young earth creationists, biblical literalists and inerrantists; one is Seventh Day Adventist. The penny hasn't dropped that this cult would have been telling their children that mommy and daddy aren't "real" Christians and are in danger of hellfire. Would they still defend an extremist sect which did this in their child's school? You bet they wouldn't.
What this has demonstrated is that extremists will go to any lengths, including usurping parental authority, when it comes to pushing their beliefs on unsuspecting children. I have no problem with religion, in fact I'm a Christian myself, but I would never push my beliefs onto somebody else's children with or without parental consent.
This is the crux of the matter. No parental consent was sought for this prosletyzing. The parents were in blissful ignorance until the children brought home the two books they had been given. What's worse is, when confronted with complaints, the headteacher defended the decision to hand out these books! Legally, when a child is at school, the school and particularly the head teacher are in loco parentis and it is their responsibility to protect the children from this sort of indoctrination. That the opposite has happened here is a disgrace.
As you can imagine the parents are up in arms over this and are looking forward to a meeting with the school authorities. The headteacher however, has decided not to attend and will only deal with complaints on a one-to-one basis. That isn't good enough.
Here's a link to the follow-up article http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/school-bosses-kick-out-extremist-2257795
You will also find extensive discussion of this matter at this link https://www.facebook.com/groups/secularscotland/
Well written and a position I share. My son went to catholic school growing up even though I myself identify as being an atheist...I can see some value in children learning about religion, but like you, I find the underhanded approach these people employ to be reprehensible...it smacks of so much desperation.
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