This is the first UK-based version of something that's been happening in the US for a decade or so - a summer camp for kids without the usual underpinning of religion (since this is the US and UK we're talking about that would be Christianity). So you get the usual camping, frisbee-throwing, whittling and lighting fires, but with some lectures on free thinking and rationality thrown in. To be honest there's more than a little bit of a whiff of macrobiotic tofu about the whole thing, but the motives behind it seem pretty commendable. Well, the whole notion of "summer camp" seems a bit American to me, but that's just me being a tweedy old duffer; I mean, I still feel the same way about trick-or-treating at Hallowe'en. And I still put an apostrophe in Hallowe'en!

Needless to say most of those fulminating about "indoctrination" seem to be in possession of a dictionary with the words "irony" and "hypocrisy" missing. Top journalism marks go to this Times piece for saying pretty much nothing but managing to work the word "grooming" into the headline. Good work. Marks off for pretty much everyone though for asserting that it's run or organised by Richard Dawkins in some way (he gave them £500), or that it is an "atheist camp", which it specifically is not. In fact those labelling it as such need to think about what they are saying here: free thinking, questioning and evaluating evidence leads to atheism? Well, yes, I agree, but if I were pushing a religious agenda I wouldn't consider that to be a profitable line of argument.
We haven't heard from Stephen Green of Christian Voice on this subject, but I look forward to it immensely, as on past evidence it should be absolutely tremendous.
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