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Religion/spirituality

Obama ctiticises faith schools

(90 Posts)
Bags Fri 21-Jun-13 15:36:24

President Obama has criticised faith schools during a visit to Northern Ireland, the National Secular Society reports.

feetlebaum Fri 21-Jun-13 16:10:27

No wonder the Teabaggers say he's 'the Antichrist' - good for him, I say.

Anyway, he's not. I am...

Elegran Fri 21-Jun-13 16:15:51

Wonder what it will do for his chances of being elected President the next time round? It has already been claimed that he is a Muslim plant, plotting to demolish Christianity and destroy America.

Nonu Fri 21-Jun-13 16:26:37

He cannot be elected again , as he will have served two terms , so that he is done and dusted at the end .

Aka Fri 21-Jun-13 16:50:21

He must have been on GN. Didn't we have a discussion on this very topic not that long ago?

NfkDumpling Fri 21-Jun-13 17:05:37

Feetlebaum grin

nanaej Fri 21-Jun-13 17:33:49

I agree totally with Obama: divisive and unecessary.

JessM Fri 21-Jun-13 17:44:33

Lot to answer for in N Ireland those schools. One of the reasons why I am against them - it is the opposite of a shining example - a disgrace that has perpetuated the divisions in the community.
It used to be the case that people from the North, encountering each other on this side of the Irish Sea, would ask "Which school did you go to" in order to suss out whether they are talking to a protestant or catholic. Maybe they still do.

Greatnan Fri 21-Jun-13 18:08:41

I like the man even more now.

MargaretX Fri 21-Jun-13 19:55:25

Of course it sounds interfering of Obama but in the case of NI, he is right. It would do the authorities good to put all children from age 5 together in one school and leave religion for Sundays.

merlotgran Fri 21-Jun-13 20:31:11

If I bumped into Obama I'd say, 'Good Luck with that one!'

DD1 was married and living in Northern Ireland for ten years. Her ex husband is a staunch member of the Orange Order and although the local primary school had a big sign outside announcing it was 'integrated' it was situated a short distance away from where the kerb stones on one side of the street were painted red white and blue and the ones on the other side, green white and orange. The head-teacher was my daughter's sister-in-law and the teachers were all related. I don't think there were any catholic children in the school and who can blame their parents? My grandsons went there for a short time before my daughter divorced her husband (it took SIX years) for adultery and abuse. Getting her and the boys back to the UK was like smuggling a family out of a middle eastern country. Her ex even threatened to have the children made wards of court (NI equivalent). As a family we had to set up a fund to finance her move and get her settled in a rented cottage in our village.

The boys are settled, happy and doing very well in school in England. They occasionally visit their father but he has remarried and they don't have a good relationship with his wife.

Just when my DD thought they were out of their grasp, the Orange Order is now putting pressure on the elder boy to return to Belfast for his university education and yes, you've guessed it.....they're going to PAY.

Integration? You must be joking.

j08 Fri 21-Jun-13 20:51:58

I agree with MargaretX. Northern Ireland is a special case.

I haven't read the article, but I wonder if it is segregated schools that he dislikes. I would have thought he, being an American, would be all for schools having a strong Christian ethos.

nanaej Fri 21-Jun-13 20:54:48

Not all Americans are Christians!shock

j08 Fri 21-Jun-13 20:56:48

No. But they do that hand on heart thing and I bet God gets in there somewhere.

j08 Fri 21-Jun-13 20:59:02

Yes look!

"The Star Spangled Banner

Oh, say! can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming;
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there:
Oh, say! does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In fully glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution!
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Oh, thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust":
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Send "America National Anthem" Ringtone to your Cell

j08 Fri 21-Jun-13 20:59:44

"In God is our trust". None of this pussy-footing around for them!

j08 Fri 21-Jun-13 21:00:20

Sorry about the "send ringtone to your cell phone" bit.

nanaej Fri 21-Jun-13 21:05:47

God can be Jewish, Muslim and Hindu as well!

Bags Fri 21-Jun-13 21:10:16

I thought the American constitution was all for the separation of church and state (they invented it, didn't they?) in which case religion in public schools is a complete no no.

j08 Fri 21-Jun-13 21:10:57

Yes. I sort of meant that. I should have said, I don't think he would be against there being a strong religious element in schools. Just not segregated ones. Especially in Northern Ireland.

granjura Fri 21-Jun-13 21:11:57

Good for him, faith schools are divisive and have no place in a modern society. Religious beliefs have no place in school in a modern, multicultural society. See what happens in Belfast or even Glasgow. Bravo.

j08 Fri 21-Jun-13 21:12:34

That was to nanaej btw.

Well, they would at least sing that National Anthem in schools wouldn't they?

j08 Fri 21-Jun-13 21:15:43

I wonder if he did actually use the words, "faith schools". Or whether the Nat Secular Soc has put their own slant on things.

He seems to have said, ": "If towns remain divided – if Catholics have their schools and buildings, and Protestants have theirs; if we can't see ourselves in one another and fear or resentment are allowed to harden - that too encourages division and discourages co-operation."

That doesn't sound as if he is against religion itself in schools.

feetlebaum Fri 21-Jun-13 21:16:16

'E pluribus unum' was changed to 'In God we trust' during Eisenhower's presidency.

Also 'one nation under god' was added to the pledge. Many people are upset about it... it's a problem for those who have no gods.

It all dates from the time when Communism was the big fear - McCarthyism and so on.

merlotgran Fri 21-Jun-13 21:18:39

When you have infants walking into school wearing T shirts with the slogan, 'Born To March' in a so called integrated school you have to question the teaching.

After the Good Friday agreement I overheard a protestant teacher spitting, 'So....We're second class citizens now, are we?'