Post by ignorantianescia on Dec 19, 2013 19:37:38 GMT
Here and here.
A vicar has caused a festive furore after accidentally breaking the news to a group of primary school pupils that Father Christmas doesn't really exist.
Parents at Charter primary school in the Wiltshire market town of Chippenham were left fielding some very awkward questions after Canon Simon Tatton-Brown explained how Santa was based on the legend of Saint Nicholas.
Some parents threatened to pull their children out of a Christmas concert at his church, St Andrew's, in protest, arguing that they would not barge into one of his services and announce that the story of Jesus was a fiction.
Tatton-Brown's slip came as he delivered his festive address to pupils. A "technical issue" meant he had to work without notes and he told them that many believed the figure of Father Christmas was based on Saint Nicholas, a fourth-century saint renowned for his secret gift-giving.
Yes, the above story is hardly world news. But it can be food for thought.
Personally, (maybe it's boring,) I've never understood the fun of willfully telling falsehoods to children. What do you think are the ethics of lying to children in this benign way? How right or wrong do you think it is to break the truth to children? And how right or wrong would it be to tell to somebody else's children that Saint Nick exists?
Then, let's make the obvious connection and ask a less trivial question: What do you think is the morality of trying to convince somebody else's children of your opinion regarding God?
(My answer to the final question is that something like targeting someone else's children for (de)conversion would be a fairly wicked tactic.)
A vicar has caused a festive furore after accidentally breaking the news to a group of primary school pupils that Father Christmas doesn't really exist.
Parents at Charter primary school in the Wiltshire market town of Chippenham were left fielding some very awkward questions after Canon Simon Tatton-Brown explained how Santa was based on the legend of Saint Nicholas.
Some parents threatened to pull their children out of a Christmas concert at his church, St Andrew's, in protest, arguing that they would not barge into one of his services and announce that the story of Jesus was a fiction.
Tatton-Brown's slip came as he delivered his festive address to pupils. A "technical issue" meant he had to work without notes and he told them that many believed the figure of Father Christmas was based on Saint Nicholas, a fourth-century saint renowned for his secret gift-giving.
Yes, the above story is hardly world news. But it can be food for thought.
Personally, (maybe it's boring,) I've never understood the fun of willfully telling falsehoods to children. What do you think are the ethics of lying to children in this benign way? How right or wrong do you think it is to break the truth to children? And how right or wrong would it be to tell to somebody else's children that Saint Nick exists?
Then, let's make the obvious connection and ask a less trivial question: What do you think is the morality of trying to convince somebody else's children of your opinion regarding God?
(My answer to the final question is that something like targeting someone else's children for (de)conversion would be a fairly wicked tactic.)
