Criticism Of The BHA Leads To Colossal Fail

Presumably by now everyone's heard of this somewhat underwhelming advert from the BHA:



Some people have asked, "so how do you expect us to bring up our children without passing on our own beliefs" which naturally fails to note that the poster quite clearly includes HUMANIST CHILD. Andrew Copson is eloquent as ever in his explanation of how these people have missed the point:

"You have to wonder why these commentators can't just agree that there is an extreme of presumption which is coercive and should be avoided." said Andrew Copson. "People who criticise us as if we'd said that children raised in religious families couldn't be happy or that no child should have any contact with religion or learn anything about it at all should take the time to read the adverts and think about their message rather than rely on their own assumptions.

"The message of the posters is that the labelling of children by their parents' religion fails to respect the rights of the child and curtails their autonomy. We are saying that religions and philosophies (and 'Humanist' is one of the labels we use on our poster) should not be foisted on or assumed of young children and that young people have the right to choose for themselves in line with their developing capacities as they grow. That's very far from saying that any possible reference to religion should be prohibited in the home!"

I say underwhelming since it's not entirely clear from the advert what scenario might arise where a child is overly identified with their parents religion (rather than simply brought up being taught their parents' beliefs). That being said, a rather apt demonstration has been forthcoming anyway......

This advert has clearly confused a number of different people who were all expecting something self-serving from the BHA. Their decision to advocate strict secularism rather than priveledge for their own belief system (like religious groups prefer to do) has bowled many people for six. However, none have managed to make such an enormous gaffe in their criticisms than Ruth Gledhill from The Times:

With the slogan “Please don’t label me. Let me grow up and choose for myself”, the youngsters with broad grins seem to be the perfect advertisement for the new atheism being promoted by Professor Dawkins and the British Humanist Association.
Except that they are about as far from atheism as it is possible to be. The Times can reveal that Charlotte, 8, and Ollie, 7, are from one of the country’s most devout Christian families.

Their father, Brad Mason, is quoted as saying:

“It is quite funny, because obviously they were searching for images of children that looked happy and free. They happened to choose children who are Christian. It is ironic. The humanists obviously did not know the background of these children.”

While Gerald Coates, the leader of the Pioneer network of churches, is quoted as saying:

“I think it is hilarious that the happy and liberated children on the atheist poster are in fact Christian.”

cyranothe2nd provides the perfect response to all this and I couldn't really improve on it if I wanted to:

Yes, yes it is ironic, you f*cking idiots! The whole point of the ads is that they aren't Christian children-they are children of Christian parents.

Well, this isn't the first time Ruth Gledhill has said something idiotic. One of the first articles I came across from her was in response to a statement from the Vatican re-asserting that Darwin's theory of evolution poses no problems for them. The headline for the article was: "Catholic Church No Longer Swears By Truth Of The Bible." *facepalm*

(via Exchristians)