A LUNATIC Australian provider of Christian teaching materials has been forced to withdraw a comic strip following fury expressed by teachers.
The strip tells children who are bullied to pray, because teachers are too lazy and callous to help them unless God intervenes
The comic strip, You’re Asking for It, was produced for primary schools by Access Ministries, a fundie outfit that receives hundreds of thousands of dollars from Australian taxpayers to brainwash youngsters.
The strip features a brutish teacher who is indifferent to the suffering of a student targeted by school bullies. The teacher only reluctantly punishes the bully after God works his magic. The strip, by Rene Pfitzner, says:
Luke 18: Jesus told them all a story to show they should keep praying to God.
Enraged teachers, according to this report, say they have been vilified by Access Ministries, and experts warned that the strip sends the wrong message to children by undermining the education department’s anti-bullying guidelines, which urge students to seek help from teachers.
Until midweek it was available to download for $2 from the ”resource shop” on the website of Access Ministries, which runs 96 per cent of special religious instruction classes in Victorian primary schools.
The comic strip was pulled from the website after Melbourne teacher Mike Stuchbery described it as:
Offensive to hard-working teachers, anti-educational and dangerous. It tells children that the adults around them are not to be trusted and that the only way to save themselves from persecution is a prayer. What other destructive messages are being imparted to our children? This rubbish demonstrates that Access Ministries need to have their funding revoked.
The state government – which announced in this week’s budget it would provide an extra $200,000 a year to Access Ministries for chaplaincy services in government schools – said it did not endorse use of the cartoon.
Well, bully for them! Education Minister Martin Dixon said:
I believe the cartoon is a regrettable error of judgment on the part of Access Ministries. Â I appreciate just how hard-working and dedicated our teachers are and how committed they are to stamping out bullying.
No, Mr Dixon. What is “a regrettable error of judgment” is handing these zealots cash, and giving them free rein to peddle their Christian bullshit to impressionable youngsters.
Australian Childhood Foundation chief executive officer Joe Tucci said the comic strip was irresponsible and undermined children’s confidence in teachers.
It’s unbelievable. It places responsibility on the child for their own protection, and it doesn’t reflect the commitments schools make to try to deal positively with bullying.
Hat tip: Bill Murray
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
May 6th, 2011 at 10:13 am
We shouldn’t forget either that in the UK the main opponents of any attempt to stamp out homophobic bullying in schools are faith schools, along with evangelicals who ‘advise’ Christian teachers to opt out of such schemes on grounds of ‘conscience’.
May 6th, 2011 at 10:22 am
So what else is new? These fundy thugs infest education. Their brain’s are locked into a superstitious straitjacket which plays to what seems to be their basis characteristics: bone idle; ignorant and vicious. And you don’t have to look as far as Australia to see it.
May 6th, 2011 at 11:17 am
During the Bush administration our tax dollars were funneled to privet Christian Churches under the guise of public programs. Supposedly the churches were expected to use those funds for public services like feeding the poor, helping the homeless, education, parenting…ect.
Soon afterwards I noticed a small Christian Church located in a small town in Southern Illinois I was residing in at the time, were making some remarkable changes and building a huge addition to their small church. I soon infiltrated this church in regards to my video and production skills, they had recently purchased half a million dollars in TV studio equipment and were interested in my ability to air shows through the local cabal access television.
What I found once inside was astounding. The population of this small town was 30,000 on a good day and there were many local churches competing for patrons, and their attendance was small in comparison to others. I attended a few of their Sunday masses in their new multi-million dollar addition and lavish décor. I rarely seen more than a few hundred in attendance, and most services consisted of about seventy five loyal followers. Their preacher arrived each day in a new Lexis, dressed to the max. The TV equipment, though used, was state of the art; three-studio tripod mounted cameras and two hand helds. All wired to a large, expensive, video, audio, graphics board in a small control room behind the immense stage.
…continued
May 6th, 2011 at 11:23 am
…continued
Apparently they did use some of the funding on such programs, but only to their loyal followers, not a dime went out to the community. The rest was spent on themselves and their plans for expansion.
While there I worked with the real insiders of this church and could not help but notice their arrogance and disrespect of outsiders. I was also expected to work for free, donating my services to God…I had seen enough and left.
Week after week they tapped services that would never see the light of the airwaves, But what I soon realized was that they were mostly interested in teaching their young people the trade of the television medium. And expansion at the taxpayers expense.
May 6th, 2011 at 11:33 am
I’m not at all surprised at this. Just massively surprised the Australians are standing for it. Always thought they had more sense than that.
May 6th, 2011 at 11:41 am
Proverbs “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.” Oh dear. If you want abhorrent advice turn to the Bible.
“And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:14,15.
Yes let’s turn to the Bible for ineffective cruel advice on child development and if people don’t hold our views let’s remind them of the consequence!!
May 6th, 2011 at 11:49 am
Meanwhile, back in Blighty and for those who missed this gem of hypocritic insanity, a Christian “marriage-wrecker” has stuck her oar in on sex education:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/poli.....nage-girls
http://www.humanism.org.uk/news/view/802
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....ecker.html
May 6th, 2011 at 1:21 pm
Religion: undermining education since 33 AD. Is there an underhanded method that these people aren’t willing to try?
Ivan, did you notice that Dorries’ scheme is aimed at only girls? Thus sending the message that it’s up to the girl to be sensible, not the boy, and, to extrapolate, it’s more her fault than his if she gets pregnant. Sickening.
Yet another story of religious ‘education’: Did everyone catch this story on Pharyngula?
May 6th, 2011 at 1:57 pm
http://www.religionomics.com/a.....ooling.pdf
Religion and education.
May 6th, 2011 at 2:52 pm
“I believe the cartoon is a regrettable error of judgment on the part of Access Ministries. I appreciate just how hard-working and dedicated our teachers are and how committed they are to stamping out bullying.”
I believe the Education Minister is missing the point. He is trying to pass this off as a mere mistake, an ‘error of judgement’ (presumably the error being to actually publicise this attitude to children rather than keep it subtly hidden), and is notionally offended on behalf of the teachers who work hard and try to stop bullying. Apparently the children in the equation have not entered his mind. That is probably what concerns me the most about the situation – he is busy defending the teachers and sucking up to them, not at all dealing with the idea that bullying is wrong and should not be tolerated.
Coming from the UK, I went to a Catholic school and have probably ranted about my experiences there several times before. To be brief, I can reiterate that the idea that you shouldn’t expect teachers to do anything about bullying and leave it in god’s hands was a popular one, with my own principal telling me that bullying builds character and is a fact of life to be accepted. It was seen as a corrective measure to punish deviants. Go Darwin. And naturally, so long as the school turned a blind eye to bullying and made no overt effort to stop it or even acknowledge its existence, they could happily pretend to the outside world that it didn’t exist and the school was a picture perfect community and a shining example of the Catholic school ethos that produced such good children. Students, myself included, were screamed at and threatened with punishment for asking the school to record incidents of bullying, and then parents were cheerfully told at PTA meetings that the school had no incidents of bullying to report.
May 6th, 2011 at 3:12 pm
Ivan…It also says this Dorries woman dumped her husband of 23 years because he has multiple sclerosis.
Did her husband always have this illness or did it develop later in life so she dumped him?
May 6th, 2011 at 3:40 pm
WTF? It’s the religious twats who fight incessantly to get rid of the anti-bullying programs. Now all of the sudden they’re pretending to be all for them?
May 6th, 2011 at 4:23 pm
Buffy:
They’re only all for them as long as the kids run to the clergy and/or Jesus for help though. Heaven forfend that they should turn to their teachers for help!
May 6th, 2011 at 8:54 pm
Scum.
May 6th, 2011 at 9:04 pm
@Daz
Yes. She is vile in a number of ways.
@Mark
Not sure – but they had been married for 23 years and he was a mining engineer back then so it seems likely he became ill (or much more ill) after they wed – maybe as a result of the understandable stress of being married to a repulsive psycho-cow……..
It’s also worth noting that she was caught fiddling her expenses recently by switching her main home.
As I said, all-round vile with an overpowering and entirely misplaced sense of self-belief.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....sband.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadine_Dorries
May 6th, 2011 at 9:10 pm
Is there no end to the depths to which xtians will sink in their utterly reprehensible attempts to indoctrinate the minds of innocent children?
If this kind of thing had been put out there by a secular organisation, you can bet your last pound that groups just like Access Ministries would have been howling in rage that it was yet another intolerable attack on good old xtian morality and that it was a deliberate attempt to undermine the sanctity of the establishment.
What is it with the word ‘religion’? Seems to me like these days you can say and do just about anything you want with impunity if you hide behind it – all because everyone else is too afraid to be seen to be upsetting the sensibilities of those with ‘faith’.
So, well done those Aussie teachers who had the courage to stand up, be counted and call this for what it really is: dangerous bullshit.
May 6th, 2011 at 9:46 pm
Marcus
The short answer: No.
The long answer: Erm … also no.
May 6th, 2011 at 9:57 pm
@ Daz Sadly, you are right. Same as it ever was, mate. Same as it ever was.
May 7th, 2011 at 1:39 am
First, that religions are apparently provided public funds and access to young minds in Australia (or anywhere) is very troubling. If I were a resident, my children would not be in the public school system and we would press to change this odd practice.
–
In our part of the world a young girl is now dead, the result of bullying in our public (government-run) school system where it was found the school administrators ignored the girls plight until, harassed beyond reason, she took her own life. This resulted in a lot of excuse-making and scurrying for cover on the part of the school administrators and eventually generated a set of regulations (always necessary to legislate humanity and basic common sense) to address bullying head on. Her tormenters received some punishment, more from the mother of the deceased, who justifiably excoriated them in public court.
Any community which either ignores this issue or, in this case, hands it off to religious fruitcakes invites similar horrors.
I thought Australia generally had their act together, particularly after dumping their GW Bush clone. Apparently there is still some work to be done. Well it’s not my land and believe me when I say there’s plenty to be done here in the US, but still I do hope the Aussies will get on with it and clean this particular mess up. After all, those of us who still have a conscience may need a safe haven some day. It would be good to know that at least one part of the world has yet to lose its sanity.
May 7th, 2011 at 9:14 am
Meanwhile in the UK, sectarian schools are to be given greater freedom over pupil selection and the curriculum; they are already free of local authority control. We shall now have future generations of children who will be damaged by indoctrination and children who think it is OK to bully because the sky pixie says it is OK – in particular if you are gay or can think for yourself.
As a nation we are stuffed, there seems no way to stop the jackboots of the religious zealots stomping over our rights and freedom.
May 7th, 2011 at 12:46 pm
@ Mark Richards
Is that the Phoebe Prince case?
May 7th, 2011 at 12:50 pm
Oh, and how do I post with an avatar here? I’ve been trying to work it out for ages!
May 7th, 2011 at 1:16 pm
Pete H
this is what I did should work ok for you…..
Create an account with Gravatar using the same email address you use to comment.
Load your image.
Select the image to link it to your email address.
http://en.gravatar.com/site/signup/
May 7th, 2011 at 4:42 pm
On the issue of bullying in school it is ridiculous to say to children you should pray to God instead of approaching the teacher who acts in loco parentis. It is the teacher’s professional responsibility to create an environment free from bullying and to ensure bullying never takes place. On the issue of saying No. I fully and positively support the right of an individual to say No. Indeed it is their human right to say No. No means No. The right of women and the rights of children.
May 8th, 2011 at 10:12 am
Off topic
Currently watching the bbc Big Questions. Normally I would avoid this, but as Richard Dawkins is on, I’ve got to watch.
First question from Nicky Campbell to a young lady who is a biblical expert. Is the bible factual? She replied No.
I think I am going to enjoy the next hour!