Religious Pamphlet Sent Home With Students Draws Criticism

A pamphlet that went home in the backpacks of Merrimack students last month has at least a few families upset by the religious statements regarding death and sin that were on the back of it, according to a story in the Nashua Telegraph.

The pamphlet was sent home like those of fliers for Merrimack Youth Association or the YMCA, but the pamphlet in question was that of the Merrimack Valley Baptist Church’s Vacation Bible School and utilized passages from the Bible that dealt with sin and death.

A parent who sent a copy of the flier to Merrimack Patch on Wednesday morning said she was appalled that something like this would go home with children at  public school.

Michelle Wheeler said she emailed Mastricola Elementary School Principal Emilie Carter and Superintendent Marge Chiafery after it arrived at home in her son's homework folder, but she has not received a response to her inquiry as to how it came to be that the flier was sent home.

The flier contains five bolded statements with explainers below each.

"God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life ... The problem is we sin ... The penalty for sin  is separation from God ... The provision is our Savior, Jesus Christ ... The promise is salvation."

"I am absolutely astonished that this type of material is being distributed in a public school," Wheeler said in her e-mail to Carter and Chiafery.

When she asked her son why he had it, he told her it had gone home with everyone.

"This pamphlet is purely propaganda not so well hidden in a camp flyer," Wheeler said. "If any non-profit organization can solicit through children in public schools don't you think our kids would come home with an obscene amount of flyers each day? Something just doesn't make sense."

Chiafery told the Telegraph she consulted with the school district attorney before approving the pamphlets to be sent home, and that the determination was that the schools would be discriminating against the church if they refused to send the information home with the students.

Read more at www.nashuatelegraph.com.