Norfolk schools told Holy Ghost 'too spooky'

[emad]

Guardian

Staff and agencies
Monday April 11, 2005

Teachers are being urged to avoid using the words Holy Ghost and Old Testament in religious education lessons under guidelines drawn up for schools in Norfolk.

The education authority thinks that the traditional phrase 'Holy Ghost' implies "a trivial and spooky concept of the third person in the Trinity". Instead it urges teachers to refer to the 'Holy Spirit'. The guidelines also say that the first 39 books of the Bible should not be called 'the Old Testament' because it makes them sound old-fashioned or out of date.

Dismissing centuries of Catholic belief, the guidelines go on to state that Communion bread and wine should not be referred to as 'the body of Jesus' or 'the blood of Jesus' because it suggests "a cannibalistic consumption of human flesh".

The guidelines - criticised by teachers as "modernism gone mad" - are due to be approved this week by Norfolk county council's cabinet and are to be introduced in all the county's schools by September next year. The list of "dos and don'ts" in the Norfolk agreed syllabus for religious education urges teachers to avoid equating Islam with terrorism and violence by showing children photographs of Muslims holding swords or kalashnikovs.

http://education.guardian.co.uk/faithschools/story/0,13882,1457028,00.html

[BOHICA06]

1. I see the Ghost/Spirit issue ...

it has some remote relevance, but the Old Testament & Blood/Body is way out there.

You sure the Onion didn't "ghost" write this??

[emad]

2. The thought did occur, same as the Zion Oil & Gas story the

other week....

[tjwmason]

6. It's also in the Telegraph

So no it's genuine - anything that makes both papers has to be real.

[Bouncy Ball]

3. Why are Norfolk public schools teaching these things in the first

place?

[BOHICA06]

4. I think this is the original Norfolk

in the jolly old UK!

[Bouncy Ball]

5. Ah, nevermind!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. Few people use the term Holy Ghost anymore anyway

but how are they going to explain the Eucharist without using the Words of Institution: "This is my blood of the new covenant, given and shed for you for the remission of sins"?