Plan B Forum

A COMIC strip that tells children who are bullied to pray, because teachers are too lazy and callous to help them unless God intervenes, was advertised as a ''resource'' by the group that teaches Christian education classes in primary schools.

The cartoon has enraged teachers, who claim they have been vilified by Christian education provider Access Ministries, and reignited debate over the controversial special religious instruction program.

Experts also warn it sends the wrong message to children and undermines the education department's anti-bullying guidelines, which urge students to seek help from teachers.




The comic strip, You're Asking for It, features a brutish teacher who is indifferent to the suffering of a student whose head was flushed down a toilet by school bullies. The teacher only reluctantly punishes the bully after God intervenes. The comic strip, by Rene Pfitzner, says ''Luke 18: Jesus told them all a story to show they should keep praying to God.''

Until mid this week 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'' on a high-profile blog.

''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,'' he wrote.

''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.

''I believe the cartoon is a regrettable error of judgment on the part of Access Ministries,'' Education Minister Martin Dixon said. ''I appreciate just how hard-working and dedicated our teachers are and how committed they are to stamping out bullying.''

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/teach ... z1LW1s474k

Then the people of Israel made this vow to the LORD: "If you will help us conquer these people, we will completely destroy all their towns." The LORD heard their request and gave them victory over the Canaanites. The Israelites completely destroyed them and their towns, and the place has been called Hormah ever since.

The LORD himself will send against you curses, confusion, and disillusionment in everything you do, until at last you are completely destroyed for doing evil and forsaking me. The LORD will send diseases among you until none of you are left in the land you are about to enter and occupy. The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, fever, and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew. These devastations will pursue you until you die. The skies above will be as unyielding as bronze, and the earth beneath will be as hard as iron. The LORD will turn your rain into sand and dust, and it will pour down from the sky until you are destroyed. "The LORD will cause you to be defeated by your enemies. You will attack your enemies from one direction, but you will scatter from them in seven! You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. Your dead bodies will be food for the birds and wild animals, and no one will be there to chase them away. "The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, scurvy, and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. The LORD will strike you with madness, blindness, and panic. You will grope around in broad daylight, just like a blind person groping in the darkness, and you will not succeed at anything you do. You will be oppressed and robbed continually, and no one will come to save you.

8 Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother.” 9 But Onan knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from providing offspring for his brother. 10 What he did was wicked in the LORD’s sight; so the LORD put him to death also.

Crackpot wrote:Considering that the whole reason for sleeping with his sister in law was to get her pregnant so that his deceased brother would have an heir. (he was doing this in order to pretend to do his duty) yet secure his brothers inheritance for him and his offspring

thestoat wrote:I thought Christians also thought the Old Testament was gods word too

Crackpot wrote:How many sons of God do you want running around?

Crackpot wrote:besides Onan would have good claim that the kid was illegitimate and get the land anyway.

Scooter wrote:That passage also sets up the contradiction between Lev 20:21 (forbidding a man to marry his brother's wife) and Deut 25:5 (obligating a man to marry his brother's wife if the brother died without heirs) which became the pretext for the Anglican schism.

thestoat wrote:To me, forcing Onan to sleep with anyone isn't a good thing, and then killing him for not doing it right is a bit harsh.