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New York Teacher Tells Kids There Is No Santa Claus

Discussion in 'News & Current Events' started by mandym, Dec 4, 2011.

  1. mandym

    mandym New Member

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    Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/12/0...s-kids-there-is-no-santa-claus/#ixzz1fcRHuGTy
     
  2. matt wade

    matt wade Well-Known Member

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    My Pastor said in church this morning that their is no Santa Clause.

    How will our children believe the truths we tell them after they learn we deliberately lied to them about other things?
     
  3. Aaron

    Aaron Member
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  4. Salty

    Salty 20,000 Posts Club
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    Well, I guess they also believe that three little pigs can build houses, that a wolf will eat Grandma and sleep in her bed, that a princesses can kiss a frog.....

    I don't have a big problem with little kids believing in a fairy tale- they will grow out of it.

    I also am very careful about a very young child being baptized as I want to be very sure he understands about salvation.

    Bottom line - let kids be kids....
     
  5. Walguy

    Walguy Member

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    The difference is they don't get real life gifts from the Three Little Pigs or the Big Bad Wolf. That event brings Santa Claus out of the fairy tales and into the real world. Kids believe that Santa is real, not a fairy tale. They are encouraged to believe this by the people they most trust.
     
  6. matt wade

    matt wade Well-Known Member

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    I believe that kids that are led to believe in Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, and other fairy tales are more likely to also believe the Bible to be a fairy tale. When we teach our kids that something is real and then they come to find out that we were lying the entire time, it brings them to a place where they question whether we are lying about Jesus.
     
  7. FR7 Baptist

    FR7 Baptist Active Member

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    My fundamentalist aunt said that Santa Claus is of the devil because children eventually realize Santa is a myth and they might think God is also a myth. She doesn't let her kids talk about Santa at all and when others do she tells them it's of the devil.

    If I ever have children, I'll teach them about Santa but make clear it's just a fun story.
     
  8. matt wade

    matt wade Well-Known Member

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    I agree with your opinion on this. I don't think Santa Claus is evil or of the devil. I believe that it is a well intentioned fun thing to do, but I worry about the consequences of it. I just don't think we come across as good witnesses for Christ, or as good role models, when we lie to our children.

    I think lying about characters such as Santa Claus is especially damaging. The things Santa Claus does are extraordinary. When children find out it is a lie, it's easy for them to also start disbelieving in the extraordinary things God has done.
     
  9. Eric B

    Eric B Active Member
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    Santa (along with the Easter bunny and tooth fairy) is basically a sort of counterfeit Christ/God, because he essentially plays the same roles: omniscient, virtually omnipresent, apparently eternal, and also a rewarder of good and bad.

    Yes, it was exciting as a child, but (especially in an agnostic "scientific naturalist" family), it did make Jesus appear to be the same exact kind of thing.
     
  10. Gina B

    Gina B Active Member

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    Well, there isn't one so she didn't teach them anything false.

    I always tell the little ones to ask their parents about it.

    I never told my kids Santa was real, just that the idea comes from the spirit of generosity and that is what Santa represents, and that the concept of generosity is real.

    What's funny is that my one kid didn't believe me and insisted I was wrong and that there is a Santa. She's outgrown it and believes me now. :laugh:
     
  11. abcgrad94

    abcgrad94 Active Member

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    This is how we've handled it with our children. We never told them that he's real or going to bring them gifts. They do know about the original St. Nicholas. Same deal with the Easter bunny, tooth fairy, etc. They know it's not real and "just for fun or pretend."

    As a kid, I never understood why we were told never to lie, but then adults would turn around and lie to their kids about Santa or the Easter Bunny. It confused me.
     
  12. preacher4truth

    preacher4truth Active Member

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    I've always told folks, if you see the silhouette of a man in your home on Christmas Eve, with a sack slung over his back, uh, it aint Santa!!!!


    :wavey: :laugh: :thumbsup:
     
  13. freeatlast

    freeatlast New Member

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  14. Salty

    Salty 20,000 Posts Club
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    So the week before Christmas, a subsitute tells a class of 3rd graders that Jesus Christ was not a real person. As an athiest, she believes it to be the truth. and then......
     
  15. Arbo

    Arbo Active Member
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    ...Especially if his "sleigh" is backed up to the house with the trunk open.
    :laugh:
     
  16. freeatlast

    freeatlast New Member

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    Big difference. The teacher this OP is about KNOWS santa is not real and is responding to a statement or question which involves the lesson.
     
  17. preacher4truth

    preacher4truth Active Member

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    Apples and Oranges, you're comparing Truth with myth.

    I recall family becoming irate because we wouldn't teach our children about Santa Claus. Who cares what they "think."

    If this were about the Tooth Fairy or Boogey Man there'd be no issue. Since it is an opposing view against the celebration of the birth of Christ, there is great interest in this, and I don't believe such an interest to be limited only to the level of the human realm alone. Plainly such teachings are a lie. Is this stand against the traditions of men, and will my take on this cause me to receive rebukes and angry responses from others? Of course, but I really do not care!

    I don't believe Jesus would teach children about Santa Claus, do you? Do you think He'd sit down and teach them this?

    Instead He would teach them truth, and has instructed us to teach our children about His Word, not myths and fables which I believe we are to avoid, no matter what the status quo says, or what the traditions of a culture state. Is it popular? No. But tell me when truth has ever been popular.
     
  18. preacher4truth

    preacher4truth Active Member

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    LOL!!!! :laugh:

    Just told my wife what you said, she thought it hilarious!!!!!!! :laugh:

    Me too!!! :thumbsup:
     
  19. Salty

    Salty 20,000 Posts Club
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    The point I am trying to make is would you be upset if that teacher said Jesus was not a real person?
     
  20. preacher4truth

    preacher4truth Active Member

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    What do you think? Does it sound like it?
     
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