Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Christian Preschoolers Banned from Saying ‘Amen’, Talking About the Bible

Children at a Christian preschool in Sweden are no longer allowed to say grace at mealtimes, “Amen”, or talk about the Bible, after a ruling by the Umeå municipality.
Visiting the preschool for an inspection, supervisors from the district said the activities run contrary to the Education Act, which forbids educational content during school time from containing confessional elements, and states that children at must always have the choice of whether or not to participate.
The municipality said it felt that children at the Salvation Army-run kindergarten were not given enough of an opportunity to opt out of saying grace at mealtimes.
“The Education Act can be interpreted in different ways,” said the preschool’s manager Britt Marie Mårtensson. She told STV she did not think grace at kindergarten would come under the umbrella of “education”.
“As a confessional activity, we knew we could no longer have prayer time while children are at their desks where they learn, so we thought we would add grace as a nice feature during mealtimes,” she said. READ MORE