Summer is time for fun—swimming, fireworks, family reunions, and trips to Disney World. It’s also primetime for unfettered Christian indoctrination of our youth. Yes, I’m referring to Vacation Bible School (VBS).
One of the most effective ways to convert a person to Christianity is to capture their mind as a child. All religions and totalitarian regimes understand this. Take for instance the Hitler Youth. A ruthless and harsh organization whose goal was to indoctrinate German youths so that, once adults, they would fight faithfully for the Third Reich.
Likewise, Christians have established Vacation Bible School. By contrast, VBS is filled with fun, games, cookies, and harmless child’s play. However, at the beginning of each day, the children are called to congregate to recite Scripture, pledge allegiance to the Bible and Christian flag, and listen to a dogmatic lesson about a nonexistent afterlife and a zombie magician. As a child in VBS, I remember singing “Onward Christian Soldiers”—a blatant homage to the Crusades and song that is still sung today in VBSs across the Western world. VBS is full of war-related overtones.
Christians claim they are loving people who only care about children’s souls, but it is more than that. It is a blind allegiance to a myth that is reinforced daily in their own lives and they feel driven to force it upon their children and the children of others. The following anonymous quote from a Christian parenting website demonstrates the Christian adult’s attitude toward discipline and indoctrination:
“If you don't chasten your children, if you don't use the rod in obedience to God's laws and drive that child's foolishness far from him, if you spoil that child by sparing the rod, you don't love that child or care anything about that child! You hate that child! God cannot stand any kind of unfaithfulness in His army anymore than any other Commander of any other military force can take a chance on security risks and disobedience and failure to follow orders and obey commands.”
Vacation Bible School is nothing more than an annual indoctrination program disguised as a harmless fun time for kids run by the most devoted, dogmatic church members. It is detrimental to the development of a child’s reasoning ability and corrupts his worldview. Christian indoctrination of children is utterly immoral and evil.
Dear Daniel, I can see what your concern for balance and tolerance is but I'm torn by the angry stereotyping which seeks to disassemble actual helpful systems for the sake of intellectual debate. Vacation bible school serves many different functions effectively including daycare and keeping kids from roaming the streets as well as passing down cultural traditions of not only a particular faith's denomination but also a particular assembly of worshipers and a specific community's heritage. Getting kids together for spiritual, philosophical and community pursuits in a church setting is wiser than hoping for the best from guidance by peer pressure where so frequently self-identity is found in self-destruction. The social growing-up environment today has such a great mixture of individual beliefs existing under a general umbrella of a church, synagogue, mosque or other secular organization, we can't afford to sow the seeds of hatred. Based on your work as a youth minister, I think you did do good things that changed people's lives for the better, knowingly... and unknowingly. Don't write off who you were so quickly because you became disillusioned with the way things were in your own personal experience. Don't tear down someone else's hope and support systems unless you are prepared to replace it with something better that meets needs and is responsible when things don't work as planned. The hurt in the world is too big already.
ReplyDeleteI'm not disillusioned. Christianity is a myth and any attempt to "teach" it to children is detrimental to their future and ours. There are no redeeming qualities to anything in the church. The ultimate goal of ever Christian action is to advance a myth. It's simply wrong.
ReplyDeleteAnother problem you have is you are only looking at the way religion is happening in the United States. All of the beliefs are not practiced everywhere else in the world because a lot of things with religion have changed in the US so that it can fit into the lives of people. Christianity here has become kind of a casual thing that people do on Wednesday and Sunday nights whether they want to admit that or not. It really has no meaning to most people outside of that those times or any other nights they meet. It has no real effect on the rest of their lives and has really turned some people, probably including you, away from it in the US. In foreign countries a lot of people worship in and act in a different way if they are Christians. They don't try and force it on people like we do here and they don't always come out and tell you that you are going to hell if you don't believe. You views and opinions in this blog are only looking at Christianity through one set of eyes. You may have been on some mission trips where you taught little kids but have you ever really spent time with someone in another country that believes and where it may be against the law to believe. Those kind of people treat religion completely different than our Me first society.
ReplyDeleteDear Daniel the Hammerman: You can say Christianity is a myth and that is your right in the United States: freedom of expression as well as freedom in your will to make a choice for yourself... without the ability to say that, this wouldn't be America. To say there are no redeeming qualities to anything in the church is as you know a too-broad generalization since many useful and beloved hospitals and their emergency rooms and scholarly institutions and their scholarships arose and arise from just that place. Many who are not Christian by religion owe their lives and livelihood specifically to such redeeming qualities, individuals who call themselves Atheist, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist among many other dignified faiths and yes Christians, too, who find their place and purpose in the world there. In fact, this diversity of belief systems or worldviews is key to who we are as a people. The blog's shock-value polarity and sweeping negative stereotyping unnecessarily isolates and somewhat obscures your valid opinions from many of the very people you are trying to evangelize for Atheism. You're preaching to your choir, so to speak. (responding to June 23 09 949a posting)
ReplyDeleteName one unselfish act by a Christian or any other religious person that could not have been done by an Atheist. You cannot. Therefore, your point that Christians have redeeming qualities is invalid. All religions teach a twisted morality that is relative to their particular religion. One does not need to believe in a myth to commit a righteous act. Altruism is innate in all of us.
ReplyDelete"Diversity of belief" serves no purpose but to separate us into groups when we should seek common ground.