RE vs Halloween

My kids attend "RE" (religious instruction) at school, although I'm an atheist. I do not send them because I think religion teaches them ethics or "how to be good". They go because of a mix of personal philosophy, circumstances and compromise which include:

• most of the kids including their friends go
• I'm happy for them to have "some religion" as it's part of our culture and history and this way they will understand it
• their dad is mildly religious and wanted them to go

Last year when I found out one of my daughters wasn't enjoying RE I took her out, and she joined the small group of children doing drawing or writing practice in the spare room. She was happy doing that, and she has only recently gone back to RE because she wanted to (friends again).

I've had my squirmy moments when the kids came home and spoke earnestly or lovingly about Jesus and God, but there has been nothing too bad.  In their prep days we just went with it, and in grade 1 and 2 I've started to slowly put on the brakes. I let them know in various ways (less subtle as they get older)  that it's really not my bag.   I've told them that RE is not like the rest of school and it is optional and I don't mind if they don't go. When they ask me if such-and-such is true I say "Well, no one really knows", and if they ask me if I believe something I will say "I'm not sure", or "Not really", or I'll launch into "Well, some people think x and some people think y, and really we just don't know."  Very occasionally, I've flat out said "No, that's not true." The last occasion was not something an RE teacher said, but a classmate who told A. that her mum said people who don't believe in God go to hell. Charming!

I asked A. if she asked her RE teacher about her friend's mum's comment, and she said she did and the RE teacher said there was no such thing as hell. Whew.

HOWEVER. We have recently had our first ideological collision with the RE instructor, and it was not over the expected battlegrounds like hell, church attendance or non-Christian religions.

Last week during A's RE class the kids started talking about Halloween and whether they'd be doing Trick or Treat, and A's RE teacher said she would never let her children take part in Halloween because it celebrates evil, and evil creatures.

Curly's Halloween GIFs

Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

"Er, no - that's not right," I said firmly. "It's just a bit of fun; there's nothing evil about Halloween."

What's more, apparently, Jesus and God hate Halloween.

"That's definitely not true," I said even more firmly. "God doesn't care if people celebrate Halloween, and Jesus lived 2,000 years ago and no one celebrated Halloween back then, or at least not in Jerusalem, so that doesn't even make sense!" I would never disrespect my kids' teachers, especially not right to the kids' faces - EXCEPT if they say something really dumb and judgmental like this. Which the real teachers, of course, never do.

A. was not too worried and was happy to know she could still dress up and terrorize neighbors for sweets without making Jesus unhappy.

I've written before how I'm a big fan of Halloween. RE? Not so much. If one of them has to go, I know which one it will be!

You're one strike down, RE - watch yourself!