Jesus in a shoe box

The stated goals of the National School Chaplaincy Program (recently renamed the National School Chaplaincy and Student Welfare Program) has long been to provide support for troubled children in a non-confrontational, non-denominational, secular manner.  To underline this goal, section 9 of the Code of Conduct for school chaplains (which all chaplains are supposed to sign before being employed) reads:

“While recognising that an individual chaplain will in good faith express views and articulate values consistent with his or her denomination or religious beliefs, a chaplain should not take advantage of his or her privileged position to proselytise for that denomination or religious belief. ”

So it is with interest that we discover the chaplain of Boddington District High School in Western Australia has instigated a project called the “National Shoe Box Collection”, which encourages children to put together a small gift for those less fortunate than ourselves in other parts of the world.

According to this article, the program has shipped over 24 million shoe box presents over 10 year period – and that was in 2003!  More interestingly though, the program is administered by an organisation called “Samaritan’s Purse”, which was run by Rev Franklin Graham (the son of the infamous Southern Baptist Christian evangelist Billy Graham), and whose stated goals are:

“… [to do] our utmost to follow Christ’s command by going to the aid of the world’s poor, sick, and suffering. We are an effective means of reaching hurting people in countries around the world with food, medicine, and other assistance in the Name of Jesus Christ. This, in turn, earns us a hearing for the Gospel, the Good News of eternal life through Jesus Christ.”

To underscore these goals let’s have a look at their actual Mission Statement:

“Samaritan’s Purse is a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world. Since 1970, Samaritan’s Purse has helped meet needs of people who are victims of war, poverty, natural disasters, disease, and famine with the purpose of sharing God’s love through His Son, Jesus Christ.”

Their mission is neatly summarised in the final sentence:

“The organization serves the Church worldwide to promote the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Perhaps this is why the shoe box gifts must not contain “anything of a religious, racial, or political nature” as spelled out on the flyer provided by Boddington District High School.  From their history, it seems Samaritan’s Purse desires total control over the religious messages being delivered through their programs.

Samaritan’s Purse has been widely condemned for following US troops into Iraq to claim Muslims for Jesus, and proudly handing out 30,000 arabic bibles to terrified civilians. In 2003 they proudly declared “Muslim children in the capital city of Kabul celebrated Christmas for the first time”.  Founders and Board Directors have stated Islam is “a very wicked and evil religion” and ”the idol” of Islam’s false god” is “a guy called Satan” who “wants to destroy us as a Christian army”.

Samaritan’s Purse’s hatred of anything non-Christian is not limited to Islam either.  They accuse Hindu’s of being “bound by Satan’s power”, and refused Catholic victims caught in the El Salvador Earthquake in 2001 temporary accommodation until they had sat through an evangelising prayer session. The Director claimed to have “saved” 150 Catholics in one village alone using this method.

In 1999 Samaritan’s Purse decided the best way to help victims of the hurricane in Nicaragua was to rent buses for 50,000 people, fly Frankilin Graham in on a private jet, and subject them to and evangelical concert held in the national baseball stadium in Managua.  At the conclusion of the concert everyone was asked to accept Jesus as their personal Lord and saviour, then presented with a shoe box gift, and a Bible.  Of course.

This is hardly an organisation which respects the rights of other religious denomination or beliefs, and it is certainly not an organisation anyone employed under the guidelines of the National School Chaplaincy Program should be supporting.  I encourage all students, parents, teachers, and administrators within the West Australia Education system to immediately withdraw their support for this overtly evangelical, highly aggressive, and toxic organisation.

Tagged with: Boddington, NSCP, Samaritan’s Purse, Western Australia

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