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"Tell people there's an invisible man in the sky who created the universe, and the vast majority will believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure." -- George Carlin
1 hour ago
Sunday, June 01, 2014
Indoctrination
I saw some kids today holding signs for a car wash. The signs' message: "Help send us to Bible Camp." Strongly fighting the urge to pull over and give them some money with which to help save them FROM Bible Camp, I instead reflected on the institutional child abuse that they are being subjected to. Children are not born Christian. They are indoctrinated at an age where they have little choice. These children's plight reminded me of a couple of great documentaries:
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3 comments:
Wow. It took me A WHOLE MONTH to see this. How slack am I?
Yeah, I always shrink at that particular challenge. I could never give them money, and it's hard not to express my disapproval at the very idea.
But on that question you'll be taking on the entire establishment, since everybody knows that if you don't get 'em when they're young you won't get 'em at all. What you and I call CHILD ABUSE they call essential for the faith.
It's both.
Believe me ... you are much better posting to all outlets (blogger, FB, Quora, etc.).
The whole indoctrination thing has always been at the forefront for me because of having an extremely religious grandfather when I was growing up that not-so-subtly pressured my dad to introduce us to the church. My folks were apathetic at best about religion but my dad went along so as not to rock the boat. But even that ended by 1st grade or so and we stopped going to church.
Having a Christian wife and exposing our son to both viewpoints (and other viewpoints as well) adds another layer of complexity. It helps that my wife is very much a "cafeteria Catholic" that sees the hypocrisy in most organized religion, including her own. And she fully encourages my pointing out such hypocrisy to our son. At his age (13), he is fully allowed to make his own decisions on religion. I'll support him regardless, but we didn't want to push him either way.
That's the best any of us can do. Be honest in what you think and feel and give him space to decide as he sees fit. I think the odds are in your favor: if the hooks aren't set early in life, they're not likely to take a firm set later.
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