Could exposing a child to religion be child abuse?

[OTavern]

[Homicidal Pacifist]

Palimere said, "There is no scientific or real, hard evidence that teaching a specific religion to your child is harmful to them."

I don't know if you'll clasify the following as scientific, but it is definately a first-hand testimony. My parents beat me over the head (figuratively speaking) with the largest Bible they could find. They forced me to go to church, sunday school, youth group, Bible study, Christian schools (where I was bent over the knee of the old man principle and spanked for the most ridiculous reasons and where my mother came to take me out of school and violently wash my mouth and throat out with soap for saying the word jackass when I was kicked in the shin), homeschooled with thick Christian overtones, and constantly treated like an outsider by my family because I was a fan of the secular life.

I had no say. I was not allowed to question or doubt. While other kids went about a normal life, I was imprisoned and berated and scolded at every turn. This black sheep was painted that way by the rest of the family. This is not to say that they didn't love me. It is just to say that they f***ed up. I was pushed away from God by His followers. I wanted Christ to come back so that I could kill Him myself. I grew to hate all things Christian. I had been so tightly constricted that I exploded with violent force. My skin boils upon entering a church.

Years after a suicide attempt and a lifetime of depression, insanity, and misplaced shame, I am now a true follower of Christ, but I despise the Bible and the church and the hypocritical Christians. And my parents are lucky that I didn't lop off their f***in' heads. I was not ready for what these people had to say, nor was I able to comprehend God's meaning for my life. That stuff comes with time and experience, NOT BECAUSE YOU WILL BE GROUNDED OR BEAT FOR DOING/FEELING/THINKING/CONSIDERING OTHER OPTIONS. But much like my mother's long soapy fingers, it was RAMMED down my throat. I spent so many years in rebellion of all things related to God and many people got hurt along the way (both physically and emotionally). I wanted to make sure that everyone knew that I was the opposite of God and organized religoun. Later I came to realize that I wanted to be the opposite of what was done to me by these people and by that book. I am in tune with Christ and God (or my version of God which is found within and through the experience of the external world). I try hard not to knowingly betray the philosophies of morality that just about every Christian in my life has been so eager to betray.

To sum up...

I AM LIVING PROOF THAT THE RELIGOUN BASED ON THE BIBLE CAN BE A MEANS TO MENTALLY, EMOTIONALLY, SPIRITUALLY, AND PHYSICALLY ABUSE A CHILD. IT WAS NOT ONLY THAT BELIEVERS WERE GOING AGAINST THE TEACHINGS OF THE BOOK THAT STUNG ME, IT WAS THE FOLLOWING OF THE TEACHINGS IN THAT BOOK THAT BROKE MY WILL TO LIVE. THE OLD TESTAMENT SAYS TO BEAT YOUR KID TO TEACH HIM A LESSON AND SO THEY DID; COMPLETELY IGNORING CHRIST'S TEACHINGS OF SENSITIVE LOVE AND COMPASSION. I WANTED RESPECT AND PATIENCE AND WAS SPIT ON FOR IT. I WAS OPPRESSED WITH SHAME. I WAS INSTRUCTED TO BE CLOSE-MINDED AND TO CLOSE MYSELF TO THE REST OF HUMANITY. I WAS MOLESTED BY A MEMBER OF A CHURCH-GOING FAMILY WHEN I WAS 6. I WAS LIED TO OVER AND OVER AGAIN. I WAS TAUGHT THAT THOUGH GOD LOVED ME, HE WAS GOING TO SEND ME TO HELL FOR BEING A NORMAL LITTLE BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My parents did nothing more harsh than the typical Chriatian parent. They told me that God was in control and that God orchestrated events in my life for His own purposes. HOW IS A 6 YEAR OLD BOY SUPPOSE TO UNDERSTAND THAT GOD ORCHESTRATED HIS SEXUAL MOLESTATION? That's how a kid can become conflicted and f***ed in the head! God's gonna ruin your life son. Now start worshiping Him or I'll kick your ass! No sympathy. No shoulder to cry on. Just conviction through fear dealing with the incredibly complex issues of adult life and the depths of the human soul at an age where the child's brain is still developing and learning the freakin' alphabet.

TREAD LIGHLTY, ELSE YOU CREATE A SERIAL KILLER.

Thanks, I feel aweful again.
_________________
"If Ignorance Is Bliss, Then Knock The Smile Off My Face!"

- Rage Against The Machine

[Meleagar]

Let's see; several of the recent school massacres were conducted by those who had apparently read and believed darwinistic evolutionary science, and believed they were helping weed out the weak and the evolutionary unfit; in fact, there's a thread about it in these forums. Stalin, Mao, and Hitler all justified killing tens of millions through scientific justifications; does that make teaching children about science abusive?

Blaming the belt for the father's act of beating their child with it is simply an avoidance of applying correct personal responsibility. The tool isn't to blame. If the person who carries out the abuse isn't to blame, then there is no blame.
_________________
http://spiritualintelligentdesign.blogspot.com/

[Palimere]

HP

I am sorry that your parents abused you with religion.
But that doesn't mean that all religious teaching is abuse. What that means is (and I hope I don't offend you here) that your parents were sick people with a poor interpretation of the Scriptures, as was the person who molested you. I will pray for your mental healing for that, I know that that is a pain that never really goes away. My fiance was sexually abused as a child by her uncle.

Not all Christianity is this way. The fact of the matter is that there is no way to avoid situations like you have described. A person who is "saved" (which I think is a poor term for regeneration through grace by faith) is still a sinner, and is still naturally inclined to sin. THIS is why we have child-molesting ministers, pastors that run off with their secretaries, and deacons that embezzle money from the church (a situation which happened at my local church).

And yet, there are several Christ-followers who are not this way. They are loving, committed parents, spouses, and leaders of churches.

What you said about Leviticus telling us to kill disrepctful children is true. However, that law was meant for the Israelites, not for us, in a time when this was culturally acceptable. God is a just God. He cannot allow sin in His followers' lives. When they sin, He must punish. However, God does not want us to do this anymore.

Christ said that He came to fulfill the Law. This means that He came so that we did not have to live under that Law in order to gain salvation. Now, we are given entrance to eternal life BY GRACE, THROUGH FAITH ALONE. This is Christ's marveous gift to us.

All that to say (and I know, I got off on a tangent again; that happens to me sometimes), Christianity is not a religion that perpetuates child abuse, sin is the cause of all things hurtful. Your parents abused you not because of their religion, but because their sin did not allow them to see their wrongdoing.

[Belinda]

Dear Homicidal Pacifist I think you must have good genes to have survived all that and even transcended all that.God bless.
_________________
Socialist

[Homicidal Pacifist]

Belinda - Thanks, but I actually don't wear genes.



All -

I forgot to mention the giant pile of fake prayers.

I was FORCED to pray at every meal (though not snacks ironically) and every night before bed. My prayers were empty because a true and knowledgable understanding of God and my (lack of) relationship with Him had not yet been PROPERLY established.

So, did God mind that I was praying at my parents ears and not Him? Was He okay with the fact that my parents coerced me into simply talking out loud about my gripes and requests and calling it prayer? I understand that they were trying to instill some habit in me which they considered to be beneficial, but at the cost of a lack of respect to me, to God, and to communication with God?

Most of the time I didn't want to 'pray'. I asked if I could skip out on that offer and was threatened with punishments. So I would say the words with hate for God and for my parents and they would hear it and punish me even though I complied with their demands. This taught me that there's just no winning and that my parents were unwilling to negotiate and comprimise (and why should I be any different), and that I must become a better liar so as to avoid punishment while maintaining my personal beliefs.

But because my personal beliefs have always been to do as I please and suffer since I must, I chose to continue to rebel as often as I could and as such my life was unpleasantly full punishments and restrictions before the fact. I wallowed in my spite for them and for God.
_________________
"If Ignorance Is Bliss, Then Knock The Smile Off My Face!"

- Rage Against The Machine

[athena]