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LINK Evangelical Mom in Canada Sues School Over Indigenous Smudging Ritual | Val Wilde | Friendly Atheist | Patheos

British Columbia mom Candice Servatius is suing her school district for violating her children’s Charter rights after local Indigenous leaders demonstrated a traditional smudging ceremony as a classroom learning activity.

snytiger6 9 Nov 15
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5 comments

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1

Well of course it is heathen blasphemous bullshit, those kids should be practicing decent rituals like the cannibalistic eating the flesh and blood of their man god king, and worshiping statues of his bloody mutilated body nailed to a plank!

1

demonstrating and forcing participation are two different things.

1

What is the problem? Can her children not watch and observe without being "smudged?" They do not have to be part of the demonstration.

6

So little time, so much to learn, so many closed people.

2

There should have been notification beforehand allowing ppl to opt out. There could have also been a medical aspect. Not everyone does well with smoke.

You know it is not like a big bonfire.

The school I work at had a traditional smoking ritual performed at it. We isolated out the students with known medical conditions and I sat with them up wind of the ceremony where they could see but not be affected by it. A couple of students exited quietly during the ceremony (one of whom has an indigenous background) when they felt they could not cope with the smoke. The principal sent a letter home not her fault that this woman fails to get messages from school from her children. We didn't send letters home. If students were allowed to exit if they could not cope then they have done what they need to do. This is a case of her being worried about exposure to other ideas, it is typical of people in cults.

@Jolanta, @Budgie

I missed the part of a note being sent home. It probably should have required a permission slip. Public school systems need to be very sensitive to not infringe on students' religious beliefs or lsck thereof. I do not have a problem with the ceremony being performed there, however, and even feel schools should include more from an educational perspective.

Actually in may older traditional cultures, smudging/smoking ceremonies are both a Welcoming to their cultures and lands plus, as in many Australian Aboriginal tribes/clans they are also a ritual greeting to the ancestors.
In ALL cases they are an Honourable act and should NEVER be seen as , imo, that deluded God-mobster sees them.
May she know nothing but Sorrow and Misery, taste nothing but ashes and the taste of dust for the rest of her days for insulting such a ceremony.

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