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Religion or Culture or Both

A Canadian mom is suing the schools for exposing her kids to a religious ceremony. The school is including the ceremony as part of a systemic effort to include cultural practices of their minority students in the curriculum.

Is this ever legit? Does it matter the minority group or the nature of the religion? Are there instances where religion is so ingrained in the culture, that the only way to partake of the culture, is to partake of the religion and its rituals?

[theglobeandmail.com]

Burner 6 Nov 16
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30 comments (26 - 30)

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Does anyone know what Canadian courts will say?

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People will sue over anything. Should the classroom have went as far as they did? Maybe not. Maybe it could have simply have been explained to the students without an actual demonstration.

Right. Or a field trip to a lodge, to take in more than one thing, so there was some actual cultural exposure, like foods, traditional songs and costumes. Take in the culture as a whole. Not just one questionable ritual, out of context. I mean, is it really any different than bringing in a Catholic priest to the school, to sprinkle holy water all over everything?

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Teaching children about the culture of others, in my opinion, is okay BUT when religious beliefs are entwined into culture and then placed into a ceremonial sense/event, etc, that IS going way beyond merely educating the children.
The minds of children are extremely susceptible and pliant hence they CAN be easily worked on and eventually controlled,etc, which may not always be a good thing, for example, the Hitler Youth Movement warping children as young as 4-5 years of age.
Anything, in my opinion, related to any religious belief whatsoever SHOULD NOT be a part of the FORMAL education of children even in Schools, etc, operated by Religious Institutions,

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this absolutely shouldn’t be allowed. i would encourage teaching kids about the religions and beliefs of others, but that doesn’t mean forcing or leading them into practicing a ritual like this. i don’t see how it could be considered any different from a teacher leading a class in prayer. i don’t have children, but if i ever do, i won’t want them being coerced by a teacher into practicing someone else’s religious practices.

Teaching about something is hardly coercing. I'm very anti anything religious anything in school, but like someone else said, one off seems ok. Also, santa and Christmas trees may seem harmless, but surely they celebrations of a Christian holiday. Inundated with them in school every year.

@NYerinVA i don’t like christmas being celebrated in schools either though. and i’m all for education! it’s very easy to teach about a practice without involving a classroom full of students in it. describe what the ritual entails, maybe show a video of people doing it. with kids or teens, it’s unlikely they’ll want to refuse while the rest of their class is doing something, drawing attention and possibly mockery from their classmates on themselves. i could see this being very distressing for very religious kids, especially. it would’ve been for me when i was young. it’s not their fault they’ve been indoctrinated, and they might have been told that practicing things like this would be evil.

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If 'exposing' means forcing the kids in a way or another to participate in or have compassion with the ideals of that minority's religion then No. Is it legit? Nope! No matter what minority it is. Most religions and ideologies are already implemented in the so called cultures of their followers. You will need honderds of years to again purify the 'culture' from its religion which might never be achieved.

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