The Tony Abbott Thread

[hmn]

I have been reconsidering sending my daughter to private school lately purely because of religious ed, but there may not be anyway of getting away from it....

Abbott wants students to read the Bible

and

All kids must read the Bible

[DanDare]

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/s...006301,00.html

Boy oh Boy. Go read and then here is the Australian Secular Lobby's response:

Tony Abbott would be welcomed into Anna Bligh’s Australian Labor Party here in Queensland, with his most recent call for compulsory Bible classes in schools.

Largely unknown to most Australians, but particularly Queenslanders, is the sorry state of Queensland’s public education system, where religion has indeed become a major priority in the organisation of public schools, never mind what the federal president of the Australian Education Union, Mr. Angelo Gavrielatos, says to the contrary.

The Queensland public education system is not even a secular system, unlike the rest of Australia’s public school systems, following the successful 1910 Queensland referendum to de-secularise public schools and introduce the very Bible lessons that Mr. Abbott wants for all Australian school students, never mind what their religious beliefs might be.

In 1910, the Christian churches in Queensland managed to force their way into public schools across the state as a result of the referendum decision to introduce both Bible lessons and Religious Instruction classes.

One hundred years later, Education Queensland, with the full support of Premier Bligh and Education Minister, Mr. Geoff Wilson, still allows classroom teachers to teach Bible lessons during school time, from the official Education Queensland Bible Lesson curriculum.

Not only this, but Premier Bligh, the Queensland Studies Authority and Education Queensland also allow and support the teaching of Intelligent Design and Creationism in Science classes, at the discretion of the classroom teacher, and with no explanation required to be given to parents or students.

The taxpayer funded school chaplains that both Tony Abbott and Kevin Rudd enthusiastically support are increasingly taking over the organisation and running of Scripture Union sourced Bible Clubs in public schools.

While many Australians might be shocked at Tony Abbott’s latest attempt to drag religion into politics via our schools, the truth here in Queensland is that Mr. Abbott’s ideas are not so very far from the reality of everyday life in a typical Queensland public school.

Christian prayers at assembly and significant school events, Bible Clubs and lunch time prayer groups, official Bible lessons from classroom teachers, gendered and sexist programs designed by Hillsong Church and run by volunteers, students coerced into RI because of poorly designed forms
and unpoliced policies , and Christian school chaplains, many of whom freely evangelise and proselytise for new converts to their brand of faith, are all to be found in Queensland public schools in the 21st century.

[Annie]

Dan, other than writing to relevant politicians, is there anything the average outraged (non QLD) person can do to help stop this madness? Lobbies such as the ASL on Facebook are crucial but is there anything else people of the non-xtian variety can be doing? Actually, even some xtians might have a problem with indoctrination..... here's hoping. Is the AEU doing anything about this? This has implications for schools nationwide. Ive searced their site but am none the wiser.

[nari]

As an long-time ex-QLDer, it doesn't surprise me about Qld schools teaching biblical concepts. Amongst other reasons, I'd never go back to Qld to live with their parochialism.
(Apologies to any QLD-ers who don't agree)

The idea of forcing all schools to teach biblical concepts is appalling. I don't think the electorate would even contemplate supporting Abbott's notion. Then again, what did Einstein say about human stupidity?

nari

[DanDare]

Annie asks an important question.

At the ASL we are trying to network people together to gather support and skills. At the same time we are starting to meet with politicians and present our concerns fairly forcefully. There are some legal challenges in the breeze as well.

To help I ask folks to try and learn who all the pollies and civil servants are ( a big task so we need to pool knowledge, perhaps via face book?).

Once we know where they stand we begin campaigning, email, phone, face to face, whatever it takes. Along with that it helps if we have a united idea about what we want (or don't want as the case may be).

At the face book group the discussion boards are the way I am hopping to get everyone working their ideas and aspirations. They are a way to find out what our common stance is.

This is necessary because we have all been kept apart for years. Those secularists who are atheists have had to be quiet and inconspicuous, and the theist secularists have not had to review why they think its important. We need to heat up the public debate in the face of other issues like global warming and economic disasters. Come on Aussies!

[notforprophet]

Originally Posted by DanDare

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/s...006301,00.html

All I can say is... GOD HELP US!!!

[Annie]

@Dan - Im heading off over east today for about 3 weeks but will be back on ASL in mid January. You are absolutely right. We have to DO SOMETHING! Have a great solstice.

[LeeC]

Dare I say I am not against the idea of the bible text being taught in schools - I am, in fact, all for it.

I was educated in England and we had RE (Religious Education) classes each week, however it didn't stop on just the bible stories. Since a quarter of my school were muslims, we got to hear many different stories.

From this, I personally concluded that they were just stories from a simple time.

It probably helped me to never believe in gods.

However the devil is in the detail.

I am against what I feel Abbot wants - i.e. a preacher in every classroom for his religion of choice

So - how do we make some noise about this?

I suppose the first question to ask is "Which version of the bible?"

By asking this question first, chances are we will have many Christians on our side making noises as well.

OK... when do we start the march?

Lee

[rainbowings15]

Wow! This is incredible in this day and age! I went to a Qld country high school in the early 80's. Compared to the other high, ours was quite a forward thinking school and we didn't have RE.
We need to get RE out of public education. I dont see the difference between my belief (iceberg roses arn't as nice as federation ruby reds) and their belief ie religion. My belief is not to be forced into the school system and nor should theirs. Its a simplistic example, I know, but religion is only as powerful as humans allow it.

[LeeC]

Originally Posted by rainbowings15

We need to get RE out of public education.

I could not disagree more. You might just as well say you should take out history from the classroom. However, to quote someone famous...

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

My point here is that if you do not teach religion in schools (all of it BTW) then the only exposure a child may get is from a church and that church will not teach the bits if does not like. i.e. how common virgin births are in religions, coming back from the dead, claims that only there religion is right

This is why religion has to be taught in schools - but of course, this isn't the type of education Abbot is talking about.