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mapache · Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 202 Location: Villahermosa

I grew up in Utah where this is a common question even from bigoted teachers in the middle of class. When my 12 year-old Mormon student,(who regularly tells me and his family I teach together that he hates Catholics) asked me, this I just replied (in front of his astonished father) 'no importa" (Spanish for effect).

I know it's rude but it's truly none of his business. I tell others I simply believe Jesus was the best example of a teacher and let it go at that. If students want to learn English, they need to learn the sensitivities of the culture as well.

chichifo · Joined: 01 Jun 2007 Posts: 29

I dont think that telling people that you're atheist is an issue. Many Mexican presidents, those who belonged to PRI, were atheist. Maybe you dont know this, Mexico did not have diplomatic relations with the Vatican until recently. I am atheist, so is my grandfather and when I am asked about my religion I always say that I dont believe in God, it's a simply as that. I took that decision when I was 8 years old, and when I told my mother, who is catholic, about my decision, she respected it. Some kids when I was at elementary school said to me I'd go to hell, so I told them that hell, for me, didn't exist. That was the end of our discussion. At secondary school I didn't get any bad comments at all. The interesting thing was that then I did not know that my grandgather was atheist. Later I learnt that he used to be very outspoken about religion and was a member of the communist party.

GueroPaz · Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Posts: 216 Location: Thailand or Mexico

Which presidents of Mexico admitted publicly to being atheist and non-Christian, before they were elected? I would guess that back then, they were closet atheists.
In Chiapas in 2000, I thought it was a big deal for a lay Nazarene preacher, Pablo Salazar, to get elected as governor.

GueroPaz · Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Posts: 216 Location: Thailand or Mexico

Which presidents of Mexico admitted publicly to being atheist and non-Christian, before they were elected? I would guess that back then, they were closet atheists.

In Chiapas in 2000, I thought it was a big deal for a lay Nazarene preacher, Pablo Salazar, to get elected as governor.

chichifo · Joined: 01 Jun 2007 Posts: 29

As you may know, in Mexico politicians are not allowed to capitalise on their religious views while they are on duty. Of course, some politicians have done it, and at times they have faced harsh criticism. See what happened to the governor of Jalisco after he donated public money for the construction of a Catholic shrine, he argued that it was to promote religious tourism At the end, the Church returned the money to the government as there were thousands of complaints:
http://mx.youtube.com/watch?v=gtPI1x0hjpw
http://mx.youtube.com/watch?v=gAYl49HJ-hI

Have you heard of Guerra Cristera?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristero_War

I always say that we were very lucky of having Benito Juarez as president otherwise we would have been studying the Bible as part of our curricula.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Ju�rez

TheLongWayHome · Joined: 07 Jun 2006 Posts: 1016 Location: San Luis Piojosi

I just got asked in an interview why I put 'ninguna' in the religion box on the application form. The interviewer (who herself had spent more than two years in my country) seemed to find it strange that I had no preference. She even asked me if I believed in god. I said I hadn't really thought about it - crap answer I know but the question kind of took me by surprise.

Phil_K · Joined: 25 Jan 2007 Posts: 2041 Location: A World of my Own

TheLongWayHome · Joined: 07 Jun 2006 Posts: 1016 Location: San Luis Piojosi

Prof.Gringo · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 3:46 pm Post subject:

Most of the talk here has been about people avoiding religion in class, in interviews or just trying not to talk about it too much.

What about the opposite? What if a teacher has no problem talking about religion in class? What if you were to quote scriptures in class and use them as a basis for a lesson? What about discussing religion in general and asking everybody what they believe and then relating what you believe? How far is too far? Just wondering as it seems to be a bit different here versus the "religion taboo" in schools that exists in the US, Canada etc.

El Gallo · Joined: 05 Feb 2007 Posts: 318

An interesting side bar to this conversation:

I had a very bright intermediate student in a class where we were talking about holidays and celebrations. When it was her turn to produce, I asked her, "What do you do on holidays? What do you do on birthdays?.

Her reply was "nothing" and I was dumbfounded by what I perceived as her inability to understand the questions and reply. After class, I asked her previous teacher what could be the problem. She replied the student was a Jehovah's Witness and, as such, didn't celebrate any holiday occassions. Embarassed

In regard to talking about religion in class, I don't think it has a place. Many evangelicals and Jehovah Witness teachers can become very annoying and distracting to the predominately Catholic students when these teacher begin preaching their interpretations of scripture. When Jehovah Witnesses found out one of my home students could speak English, they did not leave him or his family alone. Finally, the family asked me to write a note in English that said, "Dear Jehovah Witnesses,
Thank you for your interest but this family is Catholic. Please don't interrupt us. " (a much more politically sensitive version of the harsh "este hogar es Cat�lico"' sticker).