Of Churches and Children
Read Time:3 Minute, 40 Second
It’s a free world, so churches have a right to advertise to adults, but when they impose dogma on young children they’re playing dirty.Youngsters are prime targets because they’re uncritical, trusting, sensitive and pliable, so it’s easy to sell them mythical nonsense. Churches own schools for this very purpose. They’re like a schoolyard bully preying on little kids for their lunch money.
Children’s heads are filled with prayers, hymns, and stories about heaven, hell, Jesus, sins, death and guardian angels. Behavior is judged in Christian terms, and they’re told Satan is a bad guy out to get them. Hell is a concept promoted without considering the consequences. Junior is offered Jesus as his best buddy, yet Jesus can’t stop children’s nightmares. To teach it to children is just plain sick, and in my opinion amounts to child abuse.
Christmas toys and Easter eggs, deliberately designed to delight children, are used to sell the Christian story.
Unhealthy convictions inculcated in children can become so embedded in their subconscious minds young people can’t shake them. The consequences can include paranoia, poor self-esteem, anxiety, suppressed self-expression, sexual guilt, closed mindedness, and hurt due to hypocrisy and prejudices. These problems often don’t become apparent until later in life.
Christian teachers and parents don’t realize that big businesses are using them to fill children’s minds with so much superstitious nonsense it makes the advertising on television look small time. The promotional blitz aims to breed brand loyalty to a church. Brainwashed kids become compliant consumers, pliable people willing to part with their cash. They indoctrinate the next generation and the cycle continues. Churches have perfected the process that keeps them powerful by targeting youngsters. They make the corporations of the commercial world look like amateurs.
I think a fundamental feature of an exceptional education is to give children a picture of their world that’s in tune with reality. They should be taught how to explore all possibilities, and that they control their own destiny, and how to be open-minded to everyone else’s opinions. Kids should also be taught how, not always what, to think.
If we don’t teach children how to think, preachers will teach them how not to, by getting them to turn to an imaginary sky buddy for help. That, in my opinion, is another subtle form of child abuse.
Repetition in prayers and hymns should be banned, as it’s just mind numbing indoctrination. Surely if the teaching is that terrific, it should sell itself, and be taught without trickery.
If parents insist their kids be coached in Christianity, why not teach it when children are experienced enough to reason for themselves? Geography, trigonometry, and economics are universally regarded as valuable, but nobody believes a five-year-old should be saturated with them. The truth about this is that most church leaders know it’s imperative to get inside little one’s minds early, because their agenda is the institution’s growth, and the child’s welfare is secondary. To use children like that is also child abuse; it’s immoral and inexcusable.
Some people may accuse me of being cynical, yet have they considered church greed and the reality of indoctrination? I say a culture of church loyalty has been so heavily stamped into some people’s minds they’ve lost touch with the children, and are more concerned about their church losing little clients. Consider what most Christian teachers would think about another denomination teaching the children. The dogma is almost identical, yet they’d be put out, because a “Christian education” is all about shoring up the numbers in their own church.
All youngsters deserve nothing but the best. They’ll have plenty of time in later life to discover the world is sometimes unfair and evil. They don’t deserve to be made victims of corporate crime, particularly by people who they have every reason to trust.
What helps make kids happy, well adjusted, with a healthy self – esteem, is not religion, but love, gentle discipline and stimulation. Consider the happily radiant children found in close-knit communities who have never heard of God or Jesus. Human love and interactions with people are real. Nonsense about an ancient God with odd ideas, whom they can’t see, hear or touch, isn’t.
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I was debating whether to write anymore to this, but I decided that I needed to get a few more things off my chest with regards to religion and the effect on mankind. Firstly I stand corrected on the population of the World, but what it does do is make my equation worse. So, let’s look at the Church and little children and the effect that has. I am not going to quote the Bible because frankly I couldn’t be bother so I will paraphrase to get my point across. It is said that we are all sinners even the newborn have been given this label. I would like to know how a newborn can be a sinner? Who has the right to heap such a responsibility on a newborn child. When little children go to church or Sunday school they are told that if they are bad they go to hell, but if they are good they go to heaven.
Young children have no conception as to what heaven or hell is or for that fact what is good and what is bad. They are however hopefully shown what is good or bad in the home by the parents.
We are told that God is our Saviour and that God loves us, so if that is the case why is there a guilt trip placed on the heads of little children. If God was say a builder or painter or even a street sweeper he would be sacked because he is lousy at what he does. If he is Our Saviour and he does love us WHY does he allow little children to be killed in wars or molested or abandoned?
It doesn’t matter whether you believe in God, Mohammad or Buddha it’s the same with all of them. They want us to follow them blindly and believe in their message, which by the way has been tampered with so many times we don’t really know what their message was.
Children need to believe that they will be looked after and they need to trust however, there is no trust in the Church anymore and without trust you have nothing.
Ok waffle over lolol
Trust in the church was destroyed long ago. It only just came to light how dangerous it actually was in the last 20 years.
I was brought up under the Church of England rules, Sunday School catechism and all that. However even though my family espoused Christian rules they did not practise them on the home front. Because of this I have lost what people call faith. Not only faith in religion, but faith in humanity. I have lost faith in both because of what has been revealed over time with regards to the Church and Humanity. The World population at present is approx. 3+ Billion and history has shown that at least half of that number have been slaughtered in the name of religion. Then we find out that down through the ages that the trusted priests and ministers of the Church have been sexually abusing children and what has made things worse is the fact that the Church has been covering this up. History has also shown that the Vatican held hands with the Nazi’s during WW2. Both the Bible and the Church tells us to do unto others as you would have them do to you. They also tell us that if we are good people we will go to this place called Heaven, well if I do go to heaven I can guarantee there will be no Ministers or Priests there.
Unless your blind and stupid you should realise that religion was created by Man the most fallible being on this planet and has caused more trouble than it is worth. This is my opinion and if anyone has a problem with it, you are free to check the history books.
I agree with you Bob. Religion poisons everything according to the Hitch whom I really miss. He could sure put those religious loonies in their place. Just one thing, I do believe the Earth’s population is 7 billion and counting. http://www.worldpopulationclock.com
Good points here Bob.
I’m in a ‘cleft stick’ here. The wifey is religious whilst I am not. My daughter was taken to church every Sunday by the wifey until she said ‘No Thanks Mum’ and the wifey said ‘Fair enough’.
My daughter is, as far as I can ascertain, unharmed by the ‘treatment’ – in fact, apart from a brief flirtation with Buddhism – she has joined me in the ranks of agnosticism.
I guess the wifey would be a great disappointment to Christian fundamentalists eh?
One of many reasons why I love her to bits 😉
I was raised Catholic Norman, and was even an altar boy. I blame all the bad things I’ve done on the religious influence, and all the good things on my lack of belief, which happened when I was around 30 years old. I just realized one day that religion was nonsense. Used to be agnostic and then realized that was just a cop out, so now I’m a full blown, happy atheist.
Mike I was just like you all the way down to the altar boy part. Hey the tips were good. That aside I turned away from the church in 1982, right after I finished my education and realized what absolute silliness it all was.
I saw a TV special the other day where the parents, devout Christians, were thanking God that he didn’t take both of their children. One of them was struck and killed by lightning but that was OK because it was God’s will. Scary…..
I’ve been visiting a friend in the local hospice who has been there for six weeks. He’s nothing but skin and bones and can barely breathe and can only whisper. They give him pain meds regularly, thank goodness. One visitor asked, “Why does god allow so much suffering?”
I had to bite my tongue but I wanted to say, “There is no god you fool.” Why we still haven’t got dying with dignity /doctor assisted suicide in Canada rattles my brain. A friend told me today that my sick friend asked him to “Please shoot me.” Almost everybody I speak to is in favor of assisted suicide. I want to tell all these religious freaks with their dark age thinking and crucifixes ” Where’s your god when you need him?” But to show respect to my xian friend who is dying I just shut up! I’ll be happy when the human race stops praying and worshiping their imaginary sky daddies and come into the scientific age of reality.
Rick, not piss you off or anything but God is too busy receiving thanks for scoring touchdowns to notice that your friend is dying. My great grand father was half Cherokee and his calling in life was to be a Pentecostal preacher. I remember him telling me when I was very young that when it was time to die that man should leave his people and go into the woods by himself so that he and God could be alone and be bothered by anyone else. I thought about that when he was dying in a hospital room with tubes sticking out of him and he was so screwed up on drugs he didn’t know who he was. I don’t know about the God thing but I do understand about going off into the woods to just be allowed to die.
Religion is bad for everyone, but especially the kids who are most vulnerable to the myths and stories found in the buybull.
Since I’ve been living in the Heart of Darkness (South Georgia) I have run across any number of teens and younger children who, upon seeing my dogs with their heads hanging out the car window, remark: I hate all animals but I like your dogs. When I asked why in the world would they hate all animals they would invariably say the “bible tells me too.” Apparently animals are filthy, soulless beasts, who are subject to the strict rule of man who can do what they wish with and to them….and we do.
Mike, there actually is a movement in some Christian churches to change the views on all animals. As you are aware some dogma preaches that we were given dominion over the earth and its creatures and we were to care for all of it and them. According to some theologists by not loving animals we are disrespecting God. There even those that now believe that some animals, especially pets, have souls and will go to heaven. When a pet dies it will be waiting for its master at some place called the Rainbow Bridge when the master dies and goes to heaven. Whatever! I guess it makes them feel better it is OK.
Bill that’s interesting. It would be a step in the right direction and a “godsend” to the poor critters.
But, but, didn’t you read the post ab out bullying makes people stronger?
Seriously, the techniques practiced by religion are a textbook on brainwashing. Constant repetition, peer pressure, rewards for obeying, punishment and ostracism for disobeying, an the constant presence of authority figure pressuring and admonishing.
I suspect most totalitarian and oppressive groups have learned from religion how to control the masses. That is, those that are not already using religion for that purpose.