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Currently there's a mosque in the way
Currently there's a mosque in the way ...how could i forget that ...am i completely mad! ...don't answer that ...
At the moment we have a thread saying that because religion isn't as fixed as race it's more sensible to allow some levels of discrimination etc and another thread that is suggesting that sexual orientation might be a choice ... but no-one (obviously!) suggesting that it's at all sensible to allow sexual orientation discrimination.
Bizarre.
Here's my take on it. Everyone has certain deeply-held non-negotiables. Some people know they're gay, some people know they're straight, some people don't care. Some people know they're muslim, some people know they're athiests and some people, again, don't care. Some people believe it would be wrong or damaging to force them to act or not to act in certain ways or pretend they're something they are not. Others, again, don't particularly care.
So whether the issue is religion or sexual orientation it's not important why people truly, deeply and genuinely hold a certain image of themselves. What's wrong - deeply wrong - is to force or induce them to act in ways which are inconsistent with that. So generally discrimination on grounds of religion or sexual orientation is extremely unfair because it forces people to choose between remaining true to themselves or pretending in order to fit in. Maybe if we look at it like that it makes almost all of the difficult issues easier to work out - even the religion vs sexual orientation issue: I would say it's wrong to force religious groups who don't want to to accept as leaders, key workers and so on people whose sexual practices don't fit the prevailing moral beliefs of the religious group. There are a lot of religious groups (including Christian and probably Muslim groups) which have moral beliefs far more in common with the prevailing moral norms - but it's not fair to force those whose religions don't to choose between their religion and being acceptable members of society
To a certain extent, i for one believe that every child of every religion should be tuat to tolerate and to understand every religion FROM THE AGE OF 7, when they are into a more conceptual stage and can understand such concepts. I have worked with 5 year olds who have been so confused and upset that they did not know what to believe ther parents who told them of god and the school who told them of 6 other religions.
It is all very well teaching children RE however through this many prejudices can be learned. how many of you were told at school "christians believe...." "jews believe..." and "hindus believe" its all very well generalising to make it easy for a 7 year old to conceptualise however by making it easy you are making it false to make it true it would hours each week to prove a point. Not every religious group believe the same thing.
It could be easy to say "christians go to church on sundays" yet some do not. "jews celebrate shabbat on saturdays at a synagogue" yet some do not. in a way high/good religious education can be more damaging that none at all!
In my school at the moment whch is Cof E AIDED we have a number of jehovah witness children who are taken out of RE, my mate is in a school where a muslim child is taken put of RE, yet if we insist on RE all should be taught, as not every school and LEA will accept the parents of a christian child withdrawing their child from RE.
I feel that religious education and religion should be kept from school and when the chikd leaves the parents care (aged 180 they are free to decide. I cannot see anyone saying that the hindu child should be educated and challenged about other religions.
I sat through the nativity in my school the other day and i sat through the brownies christingle service and i felt a great deal of pride in my class and brownie group as thye are so innocent, the way they celebrate what they believe. I have almost forgot myself whilst being in secondary school (where in my school no one touched at all on christianity - despite the whole school being CofE/Catholic ) i feel that during 7 years of my teenage years i was left to listen to poor RE lessons reading from internet and books about other religions, and to be honest through this i feel that i have learned much false knowledge it is only know at uni where i am learning the true values of religion and what it entails. I feel that RE has become such a minefiled that even the most experienced teacher refuses to touch it. It is now the only lesson a teacher can withdraw from teaching. It is the only subject which is not included in the NC but needs its own syllabus. I feel that through my senior school years my religion was watered down so much that its only now i am starting to see the importance of a balanced curriculum.
It is only know that i realise how innocent children are and to start messing with what they believe can be damaging. I would not dream of entering a school and preaching to the muslim child that his parents are not 100% correct and that he should consider looking at other religions, as i would not with a christian, jewish, hindu, buddhist, jehovah witness, mormon or any other demonination. The parents have done so for a reason and in some religions if you are born into it you stay in it.
Children will believe nything you tell them, i believe that until a certain age some things should be left to the parents who know best at this stage.
I felt something that i had not felt for years he other day when the children were singing and acting and i had helped them to do this, i thought to myself "know this is what christmas is about not just the presents, or the lights or the wars over whether coucils have cancelled it or not, who can sell the cheapest crackers or the biggest chocolate bar, but to these children it is about Jesus who was born a long time ago and that they are able to act it out now!"
I felt great satifaction and pride out of this knowing i had helped them learn their lines the songs and told them how to talk loudly. I had supported them, but at the same time told them of how the chinese celebrate Dong Zhi and jews are celebrating Diwalii and how everyone in places like birmingham and Stoke on trent alongside Eden project are making people aware of this and how we can feel special to be celebrating with them. in fact our class made lanterns and cards to give to the local synagogue to say that during our festival of christmas we are thinking of them. I looked in horror at the Sun trying to "SAVE XMAS" through tacky lights and stupid slogans when christmas is not going anywhere it is very strong in schools and the principle still lies. Its just important to remember others.
Its a shame that in schools we cannot try to teach things without having to offend or pressure anyone into believing or thinking something alien.
OK so I wouldn't use language quite as strong as that, but I do think pre-marital sex should be discouraged, if not actually banned. From a purely practical standpoint, discouraging pre-marital sex helps prevent unwanted pregnancies and STDs. The best protection os to not have sex at all. Marriage provides the most stable environment to bring up children in, so its best to keep sex inside marriage. (Lets not forget the entire purpose of sex is to create babies.)
I actually think God is a bit more creative than that.
And Catholicism doesn't make hatred illicit? If that indeed is the right term to use.
Can't say the Catholic Church has a clean slate for human rights in the past. In fact looking at the Bible you can see why (if indeed the current translations of the Bible hold any validity at all). I mean the Christian God is all merciful... right? Yet he kills his own son.
Look at Exodus (not the Marley song)... Instead of killing the Pharoah(spl?) he/she/it decides to send plagues and then kill the innocent first born of every family... I mean a little kid who doesn't know what the fuck's going on. (Not just the Bible, but Judeo religions in general)
Say, didn't God flood the world because he/she/it wasn't happy with the way people were acting? Oh wait... I thought we had free will.
Genocide... Infanticide.... Guh.
It's sad because many religious texts and ideals are very beautiful, but people use them for their own good... especially people in power.
It's like a hammer, a hammer can build a house to home a family... But it can also be used to kill somebody if it gets in the wrong hands.
Hence if I were a Christian, I'd be a Quaker, they're cool.