God 'not welcome' at school advent services
Published: 25 Nov 12 09:45 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/44640/20121125/
Swedish schools are permitted to gather in church premises during Advent but the services must be free from any religious element, according to the National Agency for Education (Skolverket).
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"The law stipulates that Swedish schools are non-confessional," Skolverket's Anna Ekström and Claes-Göran Aggebo underlined in an article in the Dagens Nyheter daily on Sunday.
"That school is non-confessional means that there can't be any religious elements such as prayer, blessings or declarations of faith in education. Students should not have to be subjected to religious influence in school," they write.
Confessional free schools are however in part exempted from the principle.
Ekström and Aggebo observed that the Advent services are part of the compulsory curriculum and thus sought to clarify the situation as Advent approaches and the autumn term nears its end.
"The agency has decided that it is possible to have an end of term service in church and that a pastor can be in attendance. The demand is that there should be no confessional element."
The law is controversial, the pair observed, noting that there are strong opinions both from parents who would like their children to take part in a religious service, and from parents who are strongly against it.
Ekström and Aggebo's article in Dagens Nyheter on Sunday furthermore prompted strong reactions from, among others, political scientist Andreas Johansson Heinö.
"The idea that a non-confessional school presupposes that every religious element is to be erased should best be described as fundamentalism."
But the agency heads underlined that the law does not dictate what a pastor can and can not say in church, pointing out that it is the responsibility for the service that is reserved to the school principal.
"It is the principal who has responsibility for the content even when a school gathers in church. This responsibility can't be handed over to the church."
"If the school and the church can not come to an agreement then the principal has to abstain from congregating in church."
Peter Vinthagen Simpson
news@thelocal.se
+46 8 656 6513
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You can inform children about all faith events, and what they represent, but many schools that have a religious element favour one religion over the others, with teachers being biased or those that create the syllabus not understanding themselves about other religions events.
Its the swedish no-compromise mentality again.
When I was at school we went to a chapel service once a week, we studied Christianity in Religious Education classes, we sung Christian hymns in assembly each morning, and we said grace before every meal. And I haven't turned out to be some fanatical Christian. In fact, I think I'm all the better for it. It's given me a more humble, meek, and appreciative attitude to life - something which a lot of young children today could do with a dose of.
Just how far into the cauldron of religion would you have the school system go?
Religious practice has NO place in a secular education. A topic for academic study, certainly, but as a service or other religious ceremony? No.
The state has no means of distinguishing the mad from the deluded and children are too young to make an informed choice.
God is make beleif, and that's the difference.
What does Gays and lesbians have to do with this? They have not done any harm and if you are a strong believer you could stretch it as far as they are one of Gods creations. You don't need religion to have morals. If you cannot determinate right from wrong than you lack empathy, NOT RELIGION!
Some country somewhere will be the first make an official acknowledgement of the mental addictions of religion and the dangers of theological dogma on soft human minds.
People already do satisfy their dopamine needs through scientific achievement and social accomplishment ... just look at all the people addicted to happy pills (a.k.a SSRIs) and Facebook .... it's making them into social zombies incapable of interacting like a human being with anyone else. If you call that scientific accomplishment, that's scary.
How do they know removing all religions from schools is the moral thing to do? Can't tell me because you believe so. That doesn't count, right?
Lots of things are run by arrogant morons.
thats because gays are eal and your god is fictional. but than again reality isnt big with christians. christians who belive that all gays should be put to death.
religon in private and completely out of schools.
if you want to teach your children the world is flat - knock yourself out. schools are for advancing education - not fairy stories.
#10 absolutely. that includes christian nuns with those silly hats.
#15
you sum up christians perfectly. deluded in the extreme. people like you should be institionalsied for mental health problems.
Im reminded of george harrison singing about "his sweet lord" "I really want to be with you" until he got cancer and spent every second suddenly not trying to be with his imaginary god.
I think any christian that falls ill should be banned from hospitals because their god oobviously wants them to die so why would they anger their creator - the thing they want more than anything else is to be with it.
the wackiest bunch of hypocrites alive.
God is not limited to churches or religious places or even people.
God is Spirit and is in every place and in every person. As one acient poet once said, " In Him we live and move and have our being".
James Kibe Karanja: j.kibe.karanja@gmail.com
Repressing religious behaviour is only going to marginalize believers and give them less reason to support values common to the wider society.