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I know that a lot of my friends would say I am a very accepting Christian. I do not insist that all my friends are Christian's, I accept other faiths, I believe the world would be a better place if we were all unified in our acceptance of others. My children's Godmother was a Christian and no longer is, now believing in a menage of things, such as Reiki, Angels, Ascended Masters, Nature etc and I still love her and I still cherish her prayers for my children. I met a lady in the summer who I had chatted on an online forum to for a good couple of years. She expected to meet this straight laced Christian woman who would frown on her belief as a Pagan, she was surprised at me and told me so. A nice surprise I hope.
Many devout Christian's would probably say that I am watering down my faith and I should be out there shouting that my God is the only true God. Let's be honest that is what I believe, that is my reality but I know that your reality may be different and that is OK. If you are a person of faith I would expect you to believe that your God is the only true God and if you are a person of no faith or just do not know, that is OK too.
Having said that, tomorrow I will be sticking up for Christianity when I speak to a teacher at JJ's school. I do feel that Christianity is often marginalised in this country or not treated as importantly as some other faiths. This is a Christian country and the Queen is the head of the Church of England.
Let me tell you why I am in a tizz tonight -
Today JJ was a bit of a naughty lad (he is 7, he is a boy - goes with the territory in my book) and apparently he was singing to himself a la la a la la a la la and this apparently turned into a sing-song Allah is rubbish, Allah is stupid and Allah is nasty (disclaimer: I type this only to state what was said, not because I wish to use those sentiments myself). A little Muslim girl close to him became upset and told the teacher, apparently she cried and JJ said sorry. He was told off by the teacher and quite rightly, that is not acceptable in school or anywhere else.
Dh and I came home to a message on our answer phone to ask if we could call school and speak to the teacher in question. I will do this tomorrow and I will listen to the teachers side of the story with an open mind. JJ knows I will do this and I have told him I will get the complete truth so he has no reason to lie to me. He has learnt it is better to be honest and get into trouble than to lie and cover things.
So I truly believe that he was singing this out of boredom or stupidity not to be spiteful to the little girl who was close by. To my mind a telling off from the teacher and a I promise from JJ not to do it again should have been enough. Why does this warrant a call to the parents? Can anyone answer me that? Do you have a different perspective on this to me?
So tomorrow, if the teacher explains the story to me just like JJ did I will ask her if she would have called me if JJ had said God is rubbish, God is stupid, God is nasty. As my faith as a Christian is just as important. Somehow I seriously doubt the phone call would have been made!
I'll let you know how it goes......
Update - Afternoon 19/1/11
I have seen the teacher at school and the Head Mistress too and I was very happy with their response and the story they told me. They assure me that had someone been being rude about God the same action would have been taken. They also made me aware of the school policies of bullying, tolerance and equal treatment and that all incidents of this nature are treated very seriously.
I need to chat to JJ later as I did not know he had been to see the Head Mistress yesterday. She seemed to agree with me that he had no idea how serious this was and that because he is Teflon coated he did not realise it would hurt anyone else. Yet another example of where my little man does not have the average social awareness of a 7 year old. This will be one to bring up next time we go for his assessment with the child psychologist.
The school that believe that seeing how upset the little girl got and having to go tot he Head Mistress office that JJ won't do this again. I hope they are right. We will be having some more chats around this to help educate him and for him to learn this. I said to dh earlier, that for other kids this is just known behaviour and for JJ he is to learn it as it is not natural for him. Dh commented things will only get harder for him as he gets older. My poor little man, I need to remain really conscious of his issues and try to find some better strategies to help him.
Thanks to everyone, you are all great. Mich x