Newspapers keep missing point of new humanist advertising

(Edit: Just thought of something — has anyone interviewed these kids to see what they think of the ad and its message?)

I like the new ads, myself.

A couple kids jump around looking happy and the sign says “Please don’t label me” so how does a newspaper report on the new ad?

Children who front Richard Dawkins’ atheist ads are evangelicals

No they are not. They are children who happen to have evangelical parents. Parents who are likely telling their children they are evangelical and aren’t going let those kids decide for themselves who or what they will be. Those kids will become evangelical because it’s the only word that’s ever been applied to them and they may never get a chance to look at themselves as something else and become something else.

Their father, Brad Mason, is something of a celebrity within evangelical circles as the drummer for the popular Christian musician Noel Richards. Now a web designer and photographer, Mr Mason has been supplementing his income for years by providing photographs to agencies who sell them on to newspapers and advertising campaigns.

He said: “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.”

I think it’s ironic how the point is getting missed. Don’t label the kids. Raise them as you see fit, but don’t label them. Teach them everything you value about manners and kindness and generosity and Jesus and God if you feel you must, but don’t label them Christian before they can even understand exactly what that means. It’s more than “Jesus loves me, this I know.”

He said that the children’s Christianity had shone through. “Obviously there is something in their faces which is different. So they judged that they were happy and free without knowing that they are Christians. That is quite a compliment. I reckon it shows we have brought up our children in a good way and that they are happy”

That’s so dumb. Obviously they look at the pictures and think some holiness shines through that even atheists subconsciously pick up on and mistake as natural childhood joy. The sign is suggesting we raise kids without stamping a label on their brains while we do it. When we look at kids are we really supposed to be able to see at a glance what religion those kids have been brought up in like it’s some kind of badge of honour to know God and Jesus personally? I just want to see kids having fun, making friends, and getting ahead in school regardless of what faith has been shoved down their throats in the meantime.

Gerald Coates, the leader of the Pioneer network of churches, which Mr Mason and his family used to attend before they moved to Dorset, said: “I think it is hilarious that the happy and liberated children on the atheist poster are in fact Christian.”

And I think it’s hilarious to see the point getting missed again. Stop calling the kids Christians. They are kids first and foremost. Make sure they’re happy, healthy, fit, and eager to be in school. They shouldn’t need to be branded like cattle before they get there.

The British Humanist Association said that it did not matter whether the children were Christians. “That’s one of the points of our campaign,” said Andrew Copson, the association’s education director. “People who criticise us for saying that children raised in religious families won’t be happy, or that no child should have any contact with religion, should take the time to read the adverts.

“The message is that the labelling of children by their parents’ religion fails to respect the rights of the child and 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.”

Read more about this at Atheist Bus – the official website.