mercredi 16 septembre 2009

Orthodox Jews, outspoken atheist take stand against ERC course

Extracts from a No Apologies article:
[...]
The Protestant Partnership in Education (PPE) supports the government’s legislation. According to an article on canadianchristianity.com – “Christians respond to education decisions in Alberta, Quebec” – Danielle Dejuenesse, general secretary of the PPE, said the organization “has pressed, with success, to have the viewpoint of Protestant parents heard in the development of the course. ‘And we ask parents and church leaders to be vigilant,’ she said, maintaining that government educational leaders have admitted that ERC teachers will need to receive intensive training to handle the material – and the students – with sensitivity.”

The article continues: “One of the bright spots in the ERC course, she said, is that it encourages students to talk about their own religious experience – what they did in church on Sunday, for example – while recognizing that they are meant to be dialoguing, not proselytizing.”

Discussing personal experience without a truthful and accurate historical context, however, turns Christianity into another false existential religion so it appears that PPE has settled for a mess of pottage and sacrificed a genuine Evangelical Christian witness to the people and government of Quebec.

[...]

“‘Torah law requires Jews to epistemologically recognize the prophecy of Moses as absolute eternal truth, which cannot be contradicted by any other prophet. Therefore, when a Jewish school class studies a belief that is incompatible with the prophecy of Moses (e.g. atheism), the Jewish teacher is obligated to identify the incompatible belief as false,’ the ad reads.”

The article continued: “Rabbi Shalom Spira, the CJEQ’s volunteer executive director, told The CJN the position was arrived at after consultation with 200 rabbis in Quebec, as well as rabbis J. David Bleich and Norman Lamm of Yeshiva University, a leading institution of modern Orthodoxy in New York, of which Rabbi Spira is a graduate. The position represents ‘a consensus of rabbinic opinion,’ he said, backed as well by study of the historic rabbinic response. While it’s not ideal, he said Jewish schools could teach about Christianity, for example, but students must not be left with the impression that it is equal to Judaism.”

Oh, for that kind of forthright declaration among Canada’s Evangelicals. Many Evangelicals, however, have become experts at compromise. It’s a tragedy when that compromise involves the discipleship and, therefore, the very souls of their own children. Many Canadian Christians appear to make up their religion as they go along rather than actually reading and studying the Bible.

Even an outspoken atheist has taken a position on this controversy that is more faithful to Christian principles. John Carpay, a Catholic, and Karen Selick, an atheist and libertarian co-wrote an article for the National Post on behalf of the Canadian Constitution Foundation. They condemned the decision. And they point out that even the secular and humanist Mouvement laique quebecois opposes the ERC course being mandatory for all children.

[...]

1 commentaire:

ChuckJ a dit…

It’s high time to realize that civil governments should not be in the education business at all. Education is not ideologically neutral. It is religious by nature. Quebec is establishing it’s official religion of secular humanism, it very clear here. It’s high priests are their politicians and judges that rule on education, and their public schools are their cathedrals where their worldview is enforced and taught, and children are the sacrifice of atonement.

It’s time to get your children out of there.