Opposing Religious Confirmation Ceremonies

http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/04/19/danish-atheists-target-schools/

Atheists in Denmark are petitioning against religious confirmation ceremonies in the country’s schools:

“Schools in Denmark are being petitioned by an atheist organisation encouraging students into dropping religious confirmation ceremonies.

The Atheist Society has distributed information leaflets to around 2,200 schools across Denmark in a bid to provide a wider range of options for children approaching confirmation. The information leaflets have been sent to the respective schools’ managements who can then decide whether to distribute them amongst their students.
“The point is, that if and when management hand out material from the local priest then they could hand this out as well, so the young people can consider if they want the one or the other,” said chairman for the Atheist Society, Jesper Vind.

The leaflets addresses topics including freedom of religion and and also questions whether people who refuse to join the Danish Lutheran Church can be buried or married in a church ceremony.

The Copenhagen Post reports that Vind claims the pamphlet is not meant to be a recruitment tool but rather aims to promote choice and discussion among confirmation-age students.

The brochure has already been rejected by at least one institution, Hjorring’s Lorslev School, in North Jutland. ”It’s not the school’s responsibility to send that kind of material around. We also get sent leaflets from Scientologists and Jehovah’s Witnesses which we throw out,” said a school spokeswomanperson.”