Nick, you are sticking to your original propaganda which has been thoroughly debunked. For someone criticizing the Age for irresponsible journalism, you are pretty immune to the facts yourself.

"this is exactly why I think students need to be free to learn about Jesus ... is the answer to assign him to the scrap heap?"

Nobody is inhibiting children's freedom to learn about Jesus. We have advocated something better than 'opt in' system for religious education which would achieve exactly what you don't want - a proportion of kids would not learn anything about religion. Instead we suggest that *all* children participate in an academic course in which the world's major religions and philosophies are discussed. That way *all* kids would learn about Jesus and the basic tenets of Christianity.

As the curriculum would be academic, the children would probably not be taught that "God loves you more than your mummy", "Buddha is Satan's friend", "Evolution is just silly, isn't it? Who would believe God made people out of puddles!", "Homosexuals are perverts" and "Eat avocados, girls, they're good for your ovaries" - but then even you probably concur this wouldn't be a bad thing.

A common misconception is that kids are being taught some benign form of Christianity. They're not. They are being taught a pernicious, nasty form of fundamentalist Christianity which favours discrimination and hate, is anti-science and has theocratic aspirations.

That's not the Christianity most Australian Christians embrace - but that's what we've let into our schools. That's why theologians like Scott Stephens from the ABC, Professor Gary Bouma and even the chaplain from Melbourne Grammar senior school are speaking out against it.

What we suggest does not 'throw Jesus on the scrapheap'. It elevates him to the level where his story is taught by trained teachers and his teachings will be fairly represented and carefully discussed in a serious manner. Kids won't be sprawled on the floor colouring in Jesus on the cross. They won't be bribed with lollies to attend. They will learn more and gain a deeper understanding of those things you hold dear.

Nickosjt wrote: "I don’t support covert or manipulative attempts to get people to believe something. When people have positions of influence and trust over minors, they need to be especially careful not to do this."

Excellent! That's great news that you no longer support these actions by Access Ministries. I hope you are now more vocal in your opposition to the lies and manipulation of this organisation.

DJ

[Deleted for abuse.]

It's difficult to correlate the competing strands within the current set-up to the guidelines in place for the promotion of Christianity outside of a church setting.

From the Victorian Government Education website:

"Only instructors who are accredited by and coordinated through ACCESS Ministries (previously known as the Council for Christian Education in Schools) should be permitted to deliver agreed Christian Syllabus...."

This from the NSCCC Chaplaincy Code of Conduct:

"While recognising that an individual chaplain will in good faith express views and articulate values with his or her denomination or religious beliefs, a chaplain should not take advantage of his or her privileged position to proselytise for that denomination or religious belief."

From Evonne Paddison's speech:
"Never before have we had such open access....Christians from other countries envy our opportunities, they can't believe we have this situation. I believe this is the greatest field we have in Australia: our children and our students. Our greatest field for disciple making.
What's your strategy...."

It is patently obvious that the so called christians will not give an honest answer to any of the questions raised.

Their sole mission in life is to preach and convert others to their way of thinking. Anything that gets in the way of that including the truth is shrugged off as the ends justify the means.

There has been so much un-christ-like behaviour that it has removed christianity as the issue. The only motive is political.

You cannot tell a goat to not be a goat, so there is no point in getting upset.

Hope you don't mind me cross-threading this link Ammonite. Absolute Classic:

http://www.ebiblefellowship.com/outreach/tracts/may21/

It's Judgement Day tommorrow so I'm off to Dan Murphy's for some champagne and then off to my armourer for a scorpion proof suit.

P.S. My wife is very pleased she gets to celebrate her birthday before the big scorpion in the sky gets her.

[Deleted. Refers to earlier abusive posts by another commenter.]