Humanist poster kids ... are from good Christian stock
The British Humanist Association has used children of evangelical Christians in a photograph promoting atheist choice, according to Premier Christian Radio.
The poster which can be seen on billboards across the UK shows two youngsters with the slogan 'Don't Label Me' – a message that children should be free to make their own decision about religion.
Gerald Coates, the leader of the Pioneer network of churches, knows the parents of the children. He told Premier that the campaign had backfired: "The ad features two kids who're like senior junior school kids – a boy and a girl. They're happy and they're jumping up and down and obviously epitomising this freedom and happiness of not being brought up with any faith or doctrinal framework in which to live.
"What Richard Dawkins doesn't know is that these are the children of two very committed evangelical Christians who have been known to me for the last 20 years or more. They've (sic: The Humanist Society) just got stock photographs. Here they are promoting atheism and the two children have been brought up in a Christian family!
"Someone has gone through all sorts of pictures looking for kids that are good looking, happy and free of religion and free from Christianity and free of faith schools. And what they don't know is that these two children have been brought up in a very loving family of totally committed Christians.
"They've been brought up in the Pioneer Network which I founded 20 or 30 years ago. And they're a fantastic family and the father contacted me on Facebook just this morning to tell me 'I thought you'd like to know the two kids on the Richard Dawkins campaign are my own two kids who've been brought up in a Christian family'."
Pepper Harow, Campaigns Officer (Local and Activism) for the British Humanist Association told Premier Christian Radio: "The message of the posters is that the labelling of children by their parents' religion is not respectful of the rights of the child – we are not suggesting that children would be happier brought up in a humanist environment.
"We are saying that religions and philosophies (and 'Humanist' is one of the labels we use on our poster) should not be foisted on or assumed of young children, and that young people have the right to choose for themselves in line with their developing capacities as they grow.
"The images of the children for the billboards were sourced from istockphoto.com, a well known stock photography website. Images are uploaded by photographers for sale to designers and are paid for by credits that are purchased in advance.
"The photographer receives a portion of this sum as a one-off payment per download. In order to submit an image of a child, the parents of the child must sign a release form on their behalf that states that the image may be used by the purchaser for any reasonable purpose within the terms and conditions that are available on the website.
"Naturally, no biographical information about the pictured individual is available and there is no obligation for the purchaser to inform the photographer about how the image will be used."
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