{"id":4653,"date":"2012-11-02T18:49:12","date_gmt":"2012-11-02T18:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/?page_id=4653"},"modified":"2012-11-02T19:04:18","modified_gmt":"2012-11-02T19:04:18","slug":"diwali1-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/diwali1-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Diwali1-2"},"content":{"rendered":"

WHY THEY CELEBRATE DIWALI<\/p>\n

It is a sad fact that religious education has become a means of indoctrinating pupils with pluralism.\u00a0 By looking at similar beliefs and practices in different religions, children are encouraged to accept the proposition that all religions are similar, and that they present equal paths to God.\u00a0 The claims of Christ Jesus to be the only way to God are downplayed.<\/p>\n

Diwali is especially useful in this way.\u00a0 It is a festival where lamps are lit, so it is presented as a ‘festival of lights’ and compared with Christmas, and other festivals in other religions where light figures.\u00a0 Hinduism is an eastern blend of paganism and mysticism, popularised by the Beatles, and very New Age.\u00a0 Many teachers have an affinity with its philosophies, its astrology and its paganism, or can blend them easily into their world-view.\u00a0 Hindu worship is also very colourful, and children enjoy making multi-coloured ‘Rangoli’ designs and elaborate floral decorations, and lighting their tea-lights.\u00a0 They also enjoy painting their hands, putting the ‘tika’ mark on each other’s foreheads and constructing shrines to so- called Hindu ‘gods’ which can stay in the classroom for the rest of the term.\u00a0 We believe that the powers behind the Hindu ‘gods’ are real and dangerous, and that celebrating Diwali can expose children to the demonic.\u00a0 This paper is the product of an investigation into Diwali in particular and Hinduism in general.<\/p>\n

PARTICIPATION<\/p>\n

It is the element of participation that is most disturbing, although we do not believe that teaching about different faiths is either the function of the state, or appropriate before children are solidly rooted in their own faith.\u00a0 If any faith is to be taught in school in our constitutionally Christian country, it should be Christianity.\u00a0
\nHowever, Christianity only figures for just over 50% of the time in many schools, and even at Key Stage 1, primary school children are expected to learn about Hinduism.\u00a0 Not only are children just to learn about other faiths.\u00a0 The agreed syllabus for RE in Liverpool, for example, states that children must not merely learn about religions, but learn from them.\u00a0 That is dangerous and offensive territory.<\/p>\n

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WHY THEY CELEBRATE DIWALI It is a sad fact that religious education has become a means of indoctrinating pupils with pluralism.\u00a0 By looking at similar beliefs and practices in different religions, children are encouraged to accept the proposition that all religions are similar, and that they present equal paths to God.\u00a0 The claims of Christ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":78,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"template-onecolumn.php","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4653","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t