Agree or disagree: "Children deserve to know Jesus is a person not a swearword".

In some households, children are taught to never take God’s name in vain. And in others, ‘Jesus’ means nothing more to kids, than what mum and dad say when they drop the toast on the floor butter side down.

For religious families, the choice of approaches isn’t even a question. But if you’re not bringing your children up in the Christian faith, does it matter if they don’t realise the significance of who Jesus was and why he matters to some?

A video posted on YouTube last week by the group Access Ministries has sparked a debate about this very issue. CEO Dr Evonne Paddison arguing in the video: “[children] deserve to know that Jesus is a person, not just a swear word.”

The video has been put together in response to perceived attacks on chaplaincy in schools, and those in the video argue that children would have nowhere to turn if chaplains were removed from schools.

Of course, a great deal of the debate surrounding chaplaincy currently, is whether or not the funds allocated in the Federal budget specifically to chaplains, should be able to be used for the hiring of secular school counsellors, at the school’s discretion.

In fact, a poll last month found that only 5 per cent of people in Australia support the Government’s decision to fund ONLY chaplains in secular schools.

Those who oppose chaplaincy and the current Christian Religious Education programs in schools, such as the group Fairness in Religion in Schools, say that children should be taught about all religions – not just Christianity – by teachers, rather than employees who have been hired on the basis of their faith.

But is the debate raised by Dr Paddison in her campaign a valid one – does it matter if children think Jesus is just a swear word?

Christianity has, culturally, been the dominant religion in Australia since the European discovery and invasion of the country – and it seems unlikely that children will not be brought up knowing about even the existence of religions. But for many people now, the words themselves – God, or Jesus, or otherwise – have no emotional meaning. They are words, just like any other, without any special significance.

If the word does start to lose its meaning, would society be losing something deeper? Or is that just the natural progression of language?

Is Jesus a person or a swearword in your house?