Parent's Group Breeds Culture of Fear and Intolerance

One night, when I was a teenager, I was watching a telemovie about the life of Jesus. In no way was it 100 percent accurate; but it was interesting, and, for any non-Christians interested in learning about Christianity, it was a digestible introduction to the religion. 

One such "non-Christian" who had an interest in the life and work of Jesus, was my stepbrother, the son of my father's fiancé. I use quotation marks because my stepbrother was every much a Christian as I am. He may only have attended a few sporadic church services; he didn't own a bible; but he was a Christian because he expressed interest in who Christ was, and what his message was. 

Sadly, his interest had been suppressed by his militantly atheist mother, a woman who feared religion more than she hated it. When she "caught" him watching the telemovie she switched off the TV in such a passionate hurry that an outsider might be forgiven for assuming it was a porn he was watching. 

It is unfortunate that this irrational fear continues today among the wider atheist community. 
 
On Saturday I read of a parent's group known as "Fairness in Religion in Schools" or "FIRIS" here in my state of Victoria, Australia, that is pressuring the education department to end special religious instruction in Victorian schools. Here are some statements from their website: 
 
"We support education about religion consistent with Australia’s multicultural character and believe that families can be trusted to attend to the religious formation of their children. The current school policy is a result of political intimidation by a small number of church activists."


"This policy divides children and school communities by requiring families of minority religions, or of no religion to withdraw their children from school time."

Firstly, a multi-cultural society should not excuse intolerance towards the majority religion
of that society. If we are to embrace all cultures, we would do well to keep the traditions of our own.   

Secondly, there should be no reason to withdraw non-Christians from Christian religious classes. Teaching non-Christians about the history and beliefs of the Christian Church is no more harmful than teaching vegetatarians about where meat comes from. 

These classes don't indoctrinate children. They aren't lessons in abstract brain washing. Only a fool refuses to learn about things with which he does not agree. I am a Christian, yet I know more about Islam than most of my friends, and have long had an interest in the history and customs of the Jews (my stepgrandfather was a holocaust survivor). 

No, it is not the religious classes that are divisive, rather the proposal of "FIRIS" to ban them. It is prejudiced as well as divisive.       

It is prejudiced because it picks on a single religious group: Christians. Groups like "FIRIS" (why do all socially Left groups have such ridiculous acronyms) don't have the balls to criticise Islamic schools; so they harrass the harmless folk who just want to teach children about a harmless religion that has thrived for two thousand years. 

A religion that just happens to be the foundation on which Western democracy and rule of law began. 

A religion that is the building blocks of the values that even disillusioned atheists follow. 

It is divisive because it says to Christian children that their beliefs don't belong in the modern world. That the fashionable religion of "ethics" is prefered over the very much "unfashionable" Christianty. And that's really all there is to it: fashion. 

It's the reason schools that long ago ended religious instruction still force children as young as 5 to learn about the religions of Australia's indigenous people; including the story of how an eagle and a snake created the earth. That's trendy, you see. That's the way of the future; and the future looks very grim.