So, I recently went with a friend of mine to a church event. All of my classmates and friends are religious, but they're fairly moderate about it, so it's not unbearable. The church event was a trip to a place called Timber Lodge near where I live. Before we departed, we met at the Methodist church my friend's girlfriend attends (hence the entire reason we went), and a short sermon was given before heading to Timber Lodge.
Upon arrival, the pastor of the Methodist church, Mrs. Karen, I'll call her, went inside to coordinate with the staffers for the meal and pool, etc. and runs into a large group of students on spring break with their chaperone, and things get hectic. Mrs. Karen and the chaperone are both annoyed from travelling with large groups of a conglomeration of ages 5-19. Arguments ensue over what was prepared for whom, but those were resolved and it turns out, the chaperone serves the Lord! Happy day! He's a minister at a local Assembly of God church.
Mrs. Karen invites him to give an impromptu sermon in the rec room, so he does. I don't know if Assembly of God churches are this way, or if this one guy was just clueless, but he started giving his testimony to our group of mostly pre-pubescent children and a few teenagers, and the story was full of drugs, sex, abuse, and death. Afterwards, he asked if anyone would like to confess a struggle with drugs or sexual addictions. All the while, Mrs. Karen is nodding and saying Amen. He then asks if anyone would like to come to the Lord or rededicate themselves to god, because, and I quote, "You could be drivin' back in y'all's vans and get in a wreck, boom, dead. Just like that, would you be goin' to heaven or burnin' in hell forever?" Even my friend, who believes all these basic religious ideas whole-heartedly, was horrified and disgusted that this happened.
Keep in mind that the average age (yes, I did the math) of this group was 7.6 years old. Who the hell talks about drugs, sex, and death to a child?! What's worse, children actually stood and walked to him to be "saved". I don't know about you all, but it certainly seems like psychological warfare on children to me. If the same talk had been given to my school in sixth grade, the speaker would have been sued for psychological rape of children. Why is a church, which is a government-recognized, tax relieved establishment like a school, not be held to the same standard? I don't know if I can really call this thread a debate, but comments and opinions would be much appreciated. The whole ordeal makes me sick. I only wish I could have recorded it, because I know of no reasonable person who would not find this heinous, and he didn't say anything in his testimony that was not factual by his religion or holy book. If that's not rock-solid ammunition against child-indoctrination, I don't know what is.
Subscription Note:
Choosing to subscribe to this topic will automatically register you for email notifications for comments and updates on this thread.
Email notifications will be sent out daily by default unless specified otherwise on your account which you can edit by going to your userpage here and clicking on the subscriptions tab.
In 300BCE, Aristotle said "Give me the child until he is 7 years old, and I will give you the man", and that has been happening ever since. My sister and I are both World War II buffs, and we both asked the same question:, How does an ostensibly Christian country like Germany induce it's citizens to massacre millions of innocent people, and to do the things that they did? I found the answer, and that is in the Hitler Youth. The Nazis began with kids as young as 6 years old, filling them with the distorted beliefs of Nazism, militarism, and superiority of the German people. Religion has learned that dictum well, and it has become almost the motto of the Jesuits, but all religions practice it..
I'll go a lot further than you, sweet old bob. Germany wasn't "an ostensibly christian nation", they WERE a christian nation. The anti Jewish sentiment is a fundamental tenant of the New Testament, was a fundamental component of the church fathers and apologists like St. Augustine, fundamental to protestant reformers like Matin Luther, and a unifying boogie man throughout Western Civilization's history. Dark age hysteria was fueled by it and led to pogroms and genocides, and modern day pathologies derive from that ancient hatred and suspicion resulting in figures like Hitler and Marine Le Pen. Germany has a history of some of the greatest minds and philosphies and scientific breakthroughs in human history, but Germany has reliably scuttled the progress of mankind throughout the centuries due in part to its Christian roots and collective delusion. The problem with Germany has been that it has been expressly Christian, not that it has been "ostensibly christian".
Until I was 18 my one real goal and dream in life was to meet and marry my MOG (man of God). Was brought up in a very involved born again christian family. Not until I left home and went on a missionary trip did I began to see the bubble I was living in. I have a jillion stories of the freaky ungodly things that happen in the church. To love god with a childlike faith is what we are taught young. Unquestioning believing without knowing because knowledge is the root of all evil. I was shown videos of aborted babies body parts as sad music played. We wore tiny little feet pins to show people what a fetus foot looks like to shame abortion. Sex Drugs Alcohol Homosexuality were all evil temptations that could get us of track and leading to hell so they were all big parts of testimonies.
Im 38 now and a mother of and 8 year old and 3 year old. My family is still very much born again and some Sundays they will take my kids to church while I'm at work. Im in constant discussion with my atheist husband about what kind of mind games can be played on our kids but also don't want to create a bubble of hate towards people because of their religion so I address the things my 8 year learns in church to make her think about things with an open mind. not like I did. She said "Jesus died for my sins" after church one day. I said "oh Baby Did you Kill Jesus ?" she of course said no and I let her know she shouldn't feel guilty for something she didn't do. I felt like I killed Jesus because I masterbated. I gave a whole testimony at 17 about it and many guys came up after said they totally understood. yay! it wasn't only me that masterbated :)
At seventeen, you couldn't throw a rock in a church without hitting someone who has masturbated. It's a natural human action that almost everyone does, sometimes without even thinking about or intending to do it. Honestly, if there's anything sexual that people should avoid, it's sheltering. A person who doesn't know is a person who won't be able to prepare or act properly. It would do us all good to educate our children, not repress sexuality and tell them it's sinful. It's unhealthy.
Yeah look at the Catholic priests.