This just in

[Brian R. VanCise]

What is really upsetting here is that she brought her own personal opinons out and really against a child. That is the biggest issue that I see. Fine she believe's Tae Kwon Do to be satan worshipping. While that is a problem, she has gone out of her way to basically tell a child that he is a satan worshipper. That is simply unexceptable!

Terry, I would talk to the priest and get this teacher to apologize to your child and yourself. Anything less would be unexceptable in my opinion. Then of course I would have to rethink whether I would want my child to go to sunday school with this teacher. ( I probably would not ) If that is the case it could cause me to change to another church.

Tough decisions and I do not envy your position. Hopefully talking with the priest will help to straighten things out.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

I think you need to speak with the teacher first so that you can be sure about what was exactly said. It has been my experience based on my years in the teaching profession that sometimes children misunderstand exactly what happened. This may not be the case at all. However, I would want to be sure first. I have had many meetings where the parent came in with one set of facts and the actually occurance was different. You might want the father present so that there is a neutral presence.

I would agree that if you have not talked to the teacher first then you should definately do that to get her side of the story.

 

[Kacey]

I agree with those who said talk to the teacher - find out exactly what she said and why she said it - and under the circumstances, I'd bring another person so that later it doesn't turn into a he said/she said kind of argument. I would suggest that the head of either the church or the religious school program would be an appropriate second person. Regardless of her rationale for her opinion, she has no business making such statements to children (if, indeed, that's what she said - and it wouldn't surprise me, either; I've had students - adult students - with similar problems with their churches) it needs to be clear to her that such statements are unacceptable. Then I'd find a different class for your child, as no matter the outcome, this is not a good class for him to be in; even if she stops making overt comments, chances are the atmosphere will be unpleasant.

Good luck, and let us know how it comes out.

 

[PeaceWarrior]

I think it would also be a good idea to go in with an informed opinion, i.e. do a little research (if you havent already). Find scripture to back up your claims. If you go http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36658
there is a lot of good opinions and information already put together. It would look good for you to have a strong Biblical perspective, plus it would give more weight to your position.

Good luck!

Peace

Keith

 

[The Kidd]

Terry I know you know this but some of the responses sounds as if this lady intentially set out to harm your child. I very seriously doubt that I am sure she had very good intentions she just went about them in a wrong way and with some misguided information. If you know she has has your sons best interest at heart and that she loves the Lord then ya'll both are on the same side, there just needs to be some correction of facts to help everyone out.
Pray about it and put it into His hands and He will give you the right words to say, I have to do that alot because I am to good at shooting off my mouth and sticking my size 13's in my mouth to give me a good case of athletes toungue.

 

[terryl965]

Thanks for everyone cocern and Kid you are right, I will not go rushing in like a lunatic but as a parent with concerns. I figure the best thing to do is talk to the lady that is in charge with the Sunday school program first and see if it can be resolved before going to the Father of the Church.
Thanks everyone

 

[jks9199]

Martial Arts is a form of devil whorship, at Church yesterday I was infromed that my teaching Martial Arts is a form of letting the devil into a person soul. This did not come from the Father of the Church but instead by the lady that teaches Sunday school for my eight year old, she ask why he had a dragons on his coat and he aid he take TKD and she went into a frenzy with him about it being the devils way of taking over a person soul. Now I have to deal with this, What would be the best way of handleing it from a perspective of not offending the Church. We have been mambers there for a long time and most meember know I own and operate a school, but I believe this Sunday school teacher crossed the line with my son. Like to gey everybody else thought on this.

I agree; this crossed the line and showed that the Sunday school teacher was woefully ignorant to be teaching. The folks that make that leap are the same ones that feel that reading the Harry Potter books or the Lord of Rings are going to lead a person to devil worship...

I'd try having a quiet word with that teacher, whoever is in charge of all the Sunday school classes, and one of the priests/ministers from your Church. That way, you can explain what you teach and even why you have dragons as a logo, if necessary.

 

[still learning]

What is really upsetting here is that she brought her own personal opinons out and really against a child. That is the biggest issue that I see. Fine she believe's Tae Kwon Do to be satan worshipping. While that is a problem, she has gone out of her way to basically tell a child that he is a satan worshipper. That is simply unexceptable!

Terry, I would talk to the priest and get this teacher to apologize to your child and yourself. Anything less would be unexceptable in my opinion. Then of course I would have to rethink whether I would want my child to go to sunday school with this teacher. ( I probably would not ) If that is the case it could cause me to change to another church.

Tough decisions and I do not envy your position. Hopefully talking with the priest will help to straighten things out.

Hello, Great point here..talk to the priest about it!

Keep in mind this lady might not be your normal everyday person here! She may have some kind of personal problems, about martial arts and dragons....just my thoughts here!!

 

[Touch Of Death]

Hi Terry,

I've heard religious people says things like this before. The reality is, most(not all) of these people are very ignorant of other cultures or many things outside of their church. They are the proverbial "Frog at the bottom of the well," - thinking that the small patch of sky overhead is the entire universe.

I would go talk with the person coordinating the Sunday school teachers. I wouldn't want any adult lecturing my child about this.

R. McLain

She is way off base in some sense, but on the other hand I find myself agreeing with her sentiment. She is trying to preserve christianity and teaching children to learn about and respect other cultures does run counter to some core Judeo-Christian foundations.
Sean

 

[Rich Parsons]

She is way off base in some sense, but on the other hand I find myself agreeing with her sentiment. She is trying to preserve christianity and teaching children to learn about and respect other cultures does run counter to some core Judeo-Christian foundations.
Sean

Can we state that the Bible in any version be it King James or some other woudl be an accepted source?

If so then could you ( or anyone ) point out passages that specifically state in the old or new testament that ignoring other cultures is a threat some how to Judeo-Christianity?

I can see where some religions or sect of Christianity might have interpreted something and put their own spin on a saying.

Just curious.

 

[Touch Of Death]

Can we state that the Bible in any version be it King James or some other woudl be an accepted source?

If so then could you ( or anyone ) point out passages that specifically state in the old or new testament that ignoring other cultures is a threat some how to Judeo-Christianity?

I can see where some religions or sect of Christianity might have interpreted something and put their own spin on a saying.

Just curious.

Try the Old Testiment. The story of the forbidden fruit was not about apples.
Sean

 

[Rich Parsons]

Try the Old Testiment. The story of the forbidden fruit was not about apples.
Sean

A parabole about forbidden information?

A story about knowledge?

So Christianity is against any form of Knowledge?

Guess, I had better go on a holy crusade and destroy all technology.

I was hoping for something a little more direct? Something with a little substance, I could think about and ponder.

But it does explain a lot, and why people get upset with science (* Until their child needs a cure *), and why they hate progress and do not want people to steal their children away from them into the heathen life styles. (* oh wait this sounds like a recent issue we have with another religion that wants to freeze time and progress *).

I was hoping to better understand, but if this is all there is to offer then I have just seen more proof of the reason why not to have a religion and just have good neighbors who treat each other nice and share like we were supposed to in kindergarten.

TOD, nothing personal please do not take it that way. I was just looking for something to ponder like I said, and yet I find oh people interpret stories differently. I find how people think differently. I find that we are not all of the same mind and to expect it is not logical nor reasonable.

Thank you

 

[Touch Of Death]

A parabole about forbidden information?

A story about knowledge?

So Christianity is against any form of Knowledge?

Guess, I had better go on a holy crusade and destroy all technology.

I was hoping for something a little more direct? Something with a little substance, I could think about and ponder.

But it does explain a lot, and why people get upset with science (* Until their child needs a cure *), and why they hate progress and do not want people to steal their children away from them into the heathen life styles. (* oh wait this sounds like a recent issue we have with another religion that wants to freeze time and progress *).

I was hoping to better understand, but if this is all there is to offer then I have just seen more proof of the reason why not to have a religion and just have good neighbors who treat each other nice and share like we were supposed to in kindergarten.

TOD, nothing personal please do not take it that way. I was just looking for something to ponder like I said, and yet I find oh people interpret stories differently. I find how people think differently. I find that we are not all of the same mind and to expect it is not logical nor reasonable.

Thank you

If you believed that you were facing eternal damnation for not accepting God or Jesus as the only God and "shall not put other gods before them", why would you study an art that was invented to improve your Budhism? If you want to see this type of thinking in action and want exact biblical quotes the people use to support their thoughts and actions, study the Amish or anyother strictly orthodox faith. Islamic people don't even believe people should paint nature. Taking an art class to open up their "creative" side, would be an affront to the religion, pure and simple. They respect our culture (for now) but there is a limit to immersion in our way of thinking. Some Christians have stricter limits than others.
Sean

 

[Touch Of Death]

A parabole about forbidden information?

A story about knowledge?

So Christianity is against any form of Knowledge?

Christianity would be not against knowledge, but against certain "ways" of knowledge.
Sean

 

[exile]

If you believed that you were facing eternal damnation for not accepting God or Jesus as the only God and "shall not put other gods before them", why would you study an art that was invented to improve your Budhism?
Sean

Wait... TKD (which is the MA in question as per Terry's original post) was `invented to improve your Buddhism'??? TKD was invented to damage an assailant wll past the point where that person could continue fighting (or doing much of anything else, for that matter). And Buddhism? It has always been a minority religion in Korea and currently accounts for less than a quarter of the religious population of that country. By what stretch of the imagination does the development of TKD have anything to do with improving Buddhism?

 

[bydand]

Terry, let us know how you make out with this OK? Hope everything goes well, it is so difficult to find a church "family" and hope this is something that is a mis-understanding that can be worked out.

 

[The Kidd]

Can we state that the Bible in any version be it King James or some other woudl be an accepted source?

If so then could you ( or anyone ) point out passages that specifically state in the old or new testament that ignoring other cultures is a threat some how to Judeo-Christianity?

I can see where some religions or sect of Christianity might have interpreted something and put their own spin on a saying.

Just curious.

Rich,
I would not exactly say ignoring would be the exact word but the Bible does talk about not compromising do to being influenced by ideas which are not compatable with Gods. Ex. God asked the Israelites not to spare/bargain with the tribes across the Jordan in the promised land because He knew they would compromise their beliefs, they did not follow Gods commands and intermarried with them and after a while Baal worship became a problem then God had to send the prophets to get Israel to repent. Paul, in the New Testament writes alot about not marrying an unbeliever "unequally yoked", eating sacrificed animals, and being in and around non-christian things and people. This was not because of the people or things it was because the weakness of the believers who would end up compromising their beliefs and causing other believers to "stumble" in their faith.
To get back to the original question I think the Sunday School teacher took a point and generalized it to all things. Whether she was making a reference to comments about the dangers of "Dungeon and Dragons" type role playing games of years ago, or the statements by people who see the danger in the Eastern Relgious influence of many martial arts, or maybe she has taken the dragon to be an Occultic symbol, who knows but it seems with the information Terry gave us and alot of our own experiences her heart was in the right place just not her facts.

 

[IcemanSK]

Martial Arts is a form of devil whorship, at Church yesterday I was infromed that my teaching Martial Arts is a form of letting the devil into a person soul. This did not come from the Father of the Church but instead by the lady that teaches Sunday school for my eight year old, she ask why he had a dragons on his coat and he aid he take TKD and she went into a frenzy with him about it being the devils way of taking over a person soul. Now I have to deal with this, What would be the best way of handleing it from a perspective of not offending the Church. We have been mambers there for a long time and most meember know I own and operate a school, but I believe this Sunday school teacher crossed the line with my son. Like to gey everybody else thought on this.

Terry:

The 1st thing that comes to mind is a quote from the comedian Ron White...."Ya can't fix stupid." Sadly, ignorant folks will always say ignorant things...especially to children. I would talk to the head of the Sunday school dept. of your church. I'd approach it from the perspective of a concerned father, rather than a TKD instructor. The teacher certainly wouldn't have said that to an adult. It was rude, & insensitive of the teacher to handle it the way they did.

It might later turn into an oportunity to educate the teacher & the church in the roots & philosophy of MA. Heck, Chung Do Kwan was 1st taught in a Christian Church building in Korea!

Through out my adult life, I've been a professional Christian (pastor, teacher, social worker). From time to time people have said ignorant things like this to me. As an adult, I can deal with it. The issue as I see it for you is...the teacher didn't handle that well. That needs to be addressed with those who oversee the program.

 

[Tez3]

Sadly, ignorant folks will always say ignorant things...

This is true and leads to some strange misunderstandings. I was working as a youth leader one time and one of the other leaders, a devout Christian, wanted to take photos of the group, I said her to her 'oh don't take my photo!' she got very flustered bless her and apologised profusely, she told me she'd forgotten that I was Jewish. I asked what she meant and she replied 'well you believe having your photo taken will steal your soul!' Er no I replied I take a bad photo and am vain! Another work colleague once told me she understood all about the Jewish religion as she'd watched Fiddler on the Roof! These are amusing but it's easy to see where misunderstandings could lead to.

 

[Touch Of Death]

Wait... TKD (which is the MA in question as per Terry's original post) was `invented to improve your Buddhism'??? TKD was invented to damage an assailant wll past the point where that person could continue fighting (or doing much of anything else, for that matter). And Buddhism? It has always been a minority religion in Korea and currently accounts for less than a quarter of the religious population of that country. By what stretch of the imagination does the development of TKD have anything to do with improving Buddhism?

Have you heared the story of Daruma?