Well, I am from England, and since the topics about AMERICAN schools, then I cant answer.
In my school, we once had people from the Gideon Society hand out Bibles to the whole school (thats a lotta Bibles), but the pupils all started mocking them, tearing them up etc. I went to a teacher and asked him to ask everyone to respect them, and his actual words were 'Dude, its just a book, what does it matter?' I took deep breaths and said 'Actually, its not just a book, its God's book.' Right then i realised that wouldn't make any difference so i added 'If this was the Koran people was tearing up you wouldnt be so happy would you?' He rolled his eyes 'Thats different. If people were mocking the Koran then they would be racsist, and we do not tolerate racsism in any form' Thats when I lost my rag; 'HELLO! LOOK AT THIS SCHOOL! LOOK WHAT THEY ARE DOING! IF THATS NOT RACSISM THEN WHAT ON EARTH IS????' And then I ran off and locked myself in the toilets.
Lol, thats kinda a story on how Bibles are looked at in my area.
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Maybe there is some truth in which she's saying. What may have happened is that those kids ignored the proselytisers, some in a rude manner, and the teacher said, basically, is that the same right those Guideon society members had to give out Bibles, the same right those kids had to reject the condescending proselitising. And probably, what the teacher meant by the Koran remark is that the critics of the kids would be different because they may be based on the rejection they have of muslims as an ethnic minority, which is racism, not of the content and the attitude of the guys itself. Anyway, I always take this kids with a pinch of salt.
The Gideon Society... they made us listen to them for 3 hours when we were 13.
@Burntbush toilet is a bathroom/restroom so is loo. I think its a class thing. I really don't get it and I was born there(don't live there any more though)
People hand out free Bibles at my school a couple of times a year, the next day, there's torn up Bible all over the school, nobody complains.
@Cecile Yep, one stop to a motel and it's rolling papers for a year!
OK, I'm from the UK and there are a whole bunch of things wrong with this; for one, I have several friends who are teachers and I've never heard of the Gideon Society being invited in to a school to hand out babbles. Two, I've don't believe a teacher in England would address a student as "dude". Leicester is spelt right so it's quite possible this kid lives there. In conclusion, it sounds like total bullshit and Yixzy is a lying piece of shit.
It's on teens-4 and it involves a school, the Bible, Christian persecution, and Muslim favoritism. Any of those is a red flag as far as truthfulness. Taken all together. Probably a lie!
My word, I shudder to think about the amount of burn scars this young lady's buttocks must present!
Even though this story is really hard to believe, has respectful British teachers saying "dude" and assumes that there only two "True Christians" at that school lets pretend its happened in some form or other. The ones tearing up the Bibles could have been Christians who are sick of fundies ignoring the message to help your neighbor, ignoring the message to stop preaching on street corners, so sick of people who hand out the Bible to everyone like its a Ikea catalogue rather than use that money to start soup kitches!
When I was in Secondary School, the Gideons society DID give out Bibles (New Testament and Psalms only), and most of them got defaced and torn up. I don't think they came again after that.
So in short, this could have happened.
1) I can't believe a member of that cult site lives in my country, I feel disappointed in my whole country.
2) While that story is obviously blown out of all proportion, I remember when one of my friends was given a copy of the NT bye some preacher at her uni, and her friends did end up tearing it up, so it might have a seed of truth in at the centre.
3) I do think that people should pay respect to things that other people put a lot of important in. You can debate about whether they should or not, but to disrespect it is just rude, its kinda along the same line as freedom of speech I think.
meh, quite possible. The Gideon society came to us in yr 8 and we got those free mini bibles.
we were a lot more subtle about ripping them up though. Think most of them ended up on the barbecue the boarders had that evening
I, too, am from England. At my school, each year we had someone come tell us why we had the privilege of half a day off (the medieval Beast Mart tradition, on or about 10th December). And then we fucked off to the pub for the afternoon and got pissed.
Just a side note, as it actually doesn't come up a lot.
The Bible has not ever been the best selling book. It's maybe the most printed and distrubuted due to these handouts, I recieved two while in elementary school, both garbaged and have one at home that was given to one of my kids.
With the wife, me and three sons we've recieved about eight or more free Bibles and we're all atheists
As has been pointed out, no British teacher would address a student as "dude". Not even an ultra-modern Kim Campbell type (Angela Griffin's character from Waterloo Road). It just isn't done. The only time a British adult will address anyone as "dude" is if they're stoned (in the "high on weed" sense, not the "what fundies want to do to anyone who's not white, heterosexual and preferably a fellow fundie" sense), and even then it's done with a healthy dose of self-aware irony.
Also, Islam is not a race and a teacher (who would be required to have a working knowledge of anti-discrimination law, especially in a multicultural city like Leicester) would know this.
True ending:
I actually agree that the teacher should have told the kids to at least be tolerant. I know at my school every year some old men come and stand around campus and hand out little bibles to the students walking by. I always trash them or leave them somewhere, but I also always smile and thank the men when I take it. Launching violent crusades is one thing, but handing out books is another. It's not hurting anyone. If all religion ever made a person do was hand out books, the world would be a happier place.
But this kid needs to learn to spell. And learn what racism means.
I think this whole story is total bullshit.
I'm English and we would never have been allowed to rip up any books in class, especially religious ones like the Bible.
Also I can't imagine a teacher ever saying "Dude, its just a book, what does it matter?"
See, I would've gotten pissed at these kids because I'm a bibliophile who's been taught to properly respect books. Tearing up a book, no matter your opinion of the contents, is almost as bad as bookburning.
The Gideons did this same thing at my school, and pretty much a similar thing happened. I remeber being outraged as I went to a public school, a SECULAR Institution. They didn't even tell us that they were a christian organisation.
What are the youth of today coming to ?
In my day we'd have said thank you very much for the bibles, glued all the pages together, hollowed them out and used them to hide drugs and other contraband.
We also got Gideon Bibles at school. As far as I remember no-one mock them or tore the books up. In that I agree with the writer; you should respect religious people too. You can wait until they have left and then quitely throw the Bible away, if you don't like it.
I still have mine in my bedside table. It works very well at warding off Gnomes. ;-)
I think the teacher was wrong in saying mocking the Koran would be racist. Islam is a religion, not a race.
Yixzy, why do you end this story with a "Lol"? Was it a fun experience, or what?
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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