Skip to main content

God's invitation

by Anna Sublet
May 2nd, 2013


When No does not mean No
Kids love a party invitation. Coloured balloons, a personal message. But 6 year old Leah did not know what to think when she received a special message about God's love in the playground at school last week. This is one party to which her parents had already said no. So how did she come to be invited?

You're special

Leah’s parents chose for her to not take part in Special Religious Instruction classes at their local state school. So, Lara and Mark were stunned when their daughter Leah said "Look what Zoe gave me!" on the way home from school.



An invitation to learn of God's love. Photo supplied by Lara (surname withheld)

Spreading God's love
Leah's parents had requested that she not attend SRI sessions, but here they were receiving messages from children within the SRI class. The 'invitation' prompted Leah to ask her parents about God. They are angry that their daughter has been exposed to such a message. Lara said "if the volunteer is using things like this to spread 'God's love' then it is wrong.  Zoe has been used as a vehicle to spread the volunteer's message outside of the SRI classroom."


 ACCESS Ministries provides approximately 97% of SRI classes within Victoria and volunteers sign an agreement which prohibits proselytising, specifically "Not asking students to proselytize or evangelize within their school." 

 Lara and Mark write "this is exactly what has occurred with our daughter." 

Parents request urgent meeting


 Leah's parents have written to the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) requesting an urgent meeting. In their letter they wrote "This has angered us. It directly highlights the unprofessionalism and thoughtlessness of the SRI volunteer.  Not only that, but it also brings into question the quality of the SRI curriculum." 

 They have asked for suspension of classes within the primary school until the teaching materials have been reviewed by DEECD.

Bibles tell stories 'that are all true!'


 Along with workbooks, CDs and teaching sheets, the SRI teaching materials include ‘The Big Rescue Bible,' distributed by the Bible Society of Australia.

 "Read the BIG Rescue Bible and find out how God saves people and a planet that can't save themselves."

Image supplied by parent (name withheld), used with permission of Bible Society of Australia




 One particular message is definitive-"The Big Rescue Bible is a book put together especially for you.  In this book you will find the most incredible stories to read and think about. And all of them are true!"p.5

This is the Word

In setting up such an unquestioning approach to learning about faith, this publication walks a fine line towards proselytising.
Kids are welcomed to the Bible stories:. "And all of them all true!"
Scan supplied by parent (name withheld), used with permission of Bible Society of Australia


'When people hear about God they start to change and want to be friends with God,' the Big Rescue Bible says. The aim is to spread the knowledge of God's love and invite others to experience this love.

 This is what Zoe's message to Leah was about. Zoe, being a good friend and unaware of her role, has been used to spread the Word.
Children get the message that they should change to be friends with God.
Scan supplied by parent (name withheld), used with permission of Bible Society of Australia



Two prominent academics have recently issued critiques of the teaching methodology and curriculum content of ACCESS materials. Prof Marion Maddox finds a clear aim to convert students stating "My assessment is that the material before me would clearly convey to non-Christian students that...not being a Christian is inferior to being a Christian and that they should...convert." 

Dr David Zyngier has analysed the curriculum finding "The teaching materials do not support the AusVELS, (Aust/Victorian Essential Learning Standards) nor do they reflect the recommended Victorian teaching and learning principles." 

Party on


The challenge now is for parents unhappy with this curriculum to call on the Department of Education to bring ACCESS to account. The Department supposedly oversees these curriculum materials.

 But will DEECD come to the party, and will they invite ACCESS? It remains to be seen who is calling the tune here, the DEECD or the disciples of ACCESS Ministries. It certainly isn't the parents, or their children.

For a further discussion of curriculum issues and the history of SRI, see my blog Ring the Bells.

More information:

 Parents group Fairness in Religion in Schools, FIRIS

 ACCESS Ministries



(c) Anna Sublet
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Widening Crack

The little flame in our forty-year-old wall furnace, the one that was supposed to hold tight, hang on and persist, was being extinguished, again and again. The pilot light had become unanchored, blown away and shut down. We were in lockdown, in a Melbourne winter.  We had been bunkered down in our homes on and off over the last two years. We had sat tight as we amassed days upon days of lockdown. At one stage, the summer came. We had mask-free beaches, we had open cinemas and bars.  But then, another Covid gust gutted us in 2021 and shut us back inside. Here we were, like a little pilot flame, buffeted and blown away but still holding out for better days. I would walk past the heater to find that the fan was blowing cold air into the small home. Each time we re-lit the pilot light, it didn’t last long before it was gone. Still, we kept holding onto hope as we sat through the days of rising case numbers and deaths. The gas technician (essential worker; exemption) was on his hands and kn
Post a Comment
Read more

The Waiting

Morning walk.  I wake too late to do my nature writing workshop so I decide to get out into nature instead! Head off at about 7 am, sustained on half a cup of hot water with lemon, a banana and a snack KitKat. Make it to the backbeach in time to see the gold coming up from behind the sand dunes, flowering light from the lighthouse. Tiny black and white wren on the rocks, the Plover family just foraging. A heavy gull takes off when I approach. It flies past me, sits and waits, and flies back as it senses I’m no danger. I take photos and slow-mo videos. I can hardly make out the flying birds as they rise into the dark clouds.  I keep stopping to look at things. At one point I lie with my back in the sand on the edge of the dunes. All around the waves continue coming in and the birds call. What would I do without this?  At the lighthouse, Galahs wheel and screech, their pink bellies exposed as they fly above me. A couple fall behind, screeching ‘wait for me, wait for me!’ Further around t
Post a Comment
Read more

Currawongs Spinning me Home

When the branches of Eucalyptus botryoides fall, as they often do, they root again and continue to grow. The tree is its own ecosystem. Currawongs, sleek black birds with their flash of white at the tail, build their nests, made of sticks and lined with soft material, high up in trees like this.  Some months ago, I stood in shock as arborists began to cut this tree on the next block down, over two days of vicious chain-sawing and woodchipping. I filmed the screaming tree, as it shuddered, shook and then gave way, limbs falling with the ‘thunk’ of a human body.  The tree danced a ballet for its dying and the currawongs lost one of their homes. Many love the currawong for its song, a mix of honey, with a note of uplift, a soaring whip almost, mellifluous on the updraft, ringing from up high. It sounds like an entreaty, a lament and an invitation. The onomatopoeic word, currawong , depicts the sound of their call.  Decades ago, for me these birds were synonymous with NSW, and it was a st
Post a Comment
Read more