When it is late but you are not sleepy, that is the time a documentary about a bunch of religious nutters is very welcome.
Last night was such a time for me and luckily Channel 4 obliged with a program titled Jesus Camp.
Was Jesus camp? you might well ask. Well he did spend a lot of time with a bunch of male buddies, but that proves nothing.
Jesus Camp is a Guantanamo style institution where American parents of the fanatical tendency send their kids during school holidays. The children are indoctrinated, threatened with an eternity spent burning in hell, and for all we know waterboarded for not being able to recite The Book Of Leviticus word for word. Leviticus is all that crap about God kicking the living crap out of people who put on a woollen sweater while wearing cotton guzzies, eat shrimps or lobster, or commit The Sin Of Onan (knock one off the wrist to you and me. All these and a million other things are abominations to God and unless children are taught this they will be tempted by Satan.
Satan is everywhere according to Pastor Becky as Jesus Camp, but most of all he is in Harry Potter books.
"If Harry Potter had been in the Old Testament, he would have been put to death," rants Becky, conveniently forgetting that Moses hit a rock with his shaft (oops, pardon,) and water gushed out, Ezekiel "connected dem dry bones" and Jesus was into tricks with water and wine, bread and sardines and raising revitalising stiffs. just think, if he had confused himself and turned the water into sardines history might have taken a different course.
Had Harry Potter been in The Old Testament he would have been put to death before he ever got his wand out to impress The Daughters of Israel. He is a gentile, a non Jews and the Jews were on a mission to prove they were God's chosen people by killing everybody who wasn't a Jew.
Nothing much changes in Israel.
I digress however, back to Pastor Becky and he team of fruitcakes. They were all mad as a box of frogs except for the cook, Pastor Bake. The staff of Jesus Camp were on a mission to reclaim America from Satan who has taken over and is everywhere.
Pastor Becky likes preaching to children because "they are so open and useable to Christianity."
Now where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, who said "Give me the child to the age of seven etc."
No marks for originality Pastor Becky. No marks for anything in fact, especially not science. Becky believes Satan is responsible for children being taught evolutionary science, physics, biology and liberal arts (all of which are abominations to God we assume. Yes, Satan has control of everything according to the Jesus Camp team (this may come as a surprise to Warren Buffet we think) he is even in the computers and had caused the network to crash during a previous Power Point presentation. So Becky led the kids in a prayer asking God to protect the system. Satan in the spreadsheets is an absolute embuggerance of course but the system crash or anything else that brought a Power Point(less) presentation to an early conclusion might be seen as proof of the infinite goodness of God by some.
Others, like myself, would simply see it as further proof of the crappiness of Microsoft software.
THIS ARTICE also appears on my U.K, blog site Boggart Blog and my page at Authorsden Just thought I would mention that to save the Gather Thought Police the trouble of trying to accuse me of plaigiarising my own content again. The point of spreading my stuff around is to bost the item's visibility in SEO listings by interlinking. Hint: don't crosslink or Google will identidy your posts as duplicate content and ignore the link. Here I have linked to my profile page at Authorsden and an adjacent post at Boggart Blog.
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Comments: 66
Scarey, isn't it.
Jesus Camp was very different. Fanatical extremism is putting it mildly. Nothing about this camp gave the children a moment to consider that there MIGHT be another explanation or reason for whatever Pastor Becky and the staff were saying.
For example, there was a scene where a preacher (not Becky) was urging children to join the fight to end abortion in America. They passed out tiny plastic babies that looked fully developed, with arms and legs and everything, and told the children that this is what fetuses look like in the womb--same size, fully developed, which science and even those abortions he's trying to stop have shown is an out-and-out lie. He prays for President Bush to have the strength to appoint "righteous judges" who will overturn Roe v. Wade. By the end of the sermon, the children are chanting, "Righteous judges! Righteous judges!"
It's quite chilling.
I recommend watching the DVD (it's available at Blockbuster) to see the full extent of this fanaticism. I'm disturbed by the thought of Rachael turned loose on the world at large, and even Levi has me concerned.
I'm glad you saw it as a comedy. I'm thinking it sounds like a horror flick.
There have always been ghosts in computers so why not demons and devils. Actually I once put a devil in someone's computer. The guy was giving an online friend of mine a hard time, making out he controlled the global network (but he was just a script kiddie) so I dug up some shots of Papa Lazarou, a character from the very wewird comedy League of Gentlement, recorded a message in a Papa Lazarou voice, using his catchphrase from the show, "she's my wife now, and uploaded it to his machine."
I should think when his PC next started and he got my message playing over a picture of Papa Lazarou he would have been very glad of someone to perform an exorcism of his hard drive. Have a look at the demon of Royston Vasey:
Watch Papa Lazarou's first appearance in LoG (You Tube)
Very scary, which is why I always use ridicule to attack them. Many older people in britain who remember the grim days of 1940 and 41 will tell you one of the reasons we held out against Hitler was because he was made into a figure of fun, a strutting, posing, ranting caricature, by comedians on radio and in vaudeville.
I'm aware not all church camps are like this one. The point is, mainstream America must b%ecome aware of the messages this kind of religious extremism send into the outside world.
Last year I was invited as a non Christian to guest on a UK Christian Radio show. My message was that as churchgoing is confined to about 6% of the population here if the churches wanted to survive and engage with the population they must silence the extremists.
There is much worh preserving. Near where I live there is a village church in a lovely riverside setting. The oldest legible gravestone in the churchyard is inscibed Eliza Grimeshaue (Grimshaw in modern spelling) 1421 - 1486. Many people get a lot from visiting the church, its grounds and the adjacent ruins of the Cistercian Abbey (knocked about a bit by King Henry VIII) though they never feel a need for formal religion to play a part of their lives.
Extremism can only destroy that heritage.
Thanks for that wise comment. What we in Britain (and around Europe) saw in this film was a strong echo of The Hitler Youth, which employed similar tactics of brainwashing very youg children.
Those little kids in the film were too young to undserstand what abortion is, or contraception for that matter.
I remember my son when around that age emptied a 12 pack of condomes I had in the drawer. When I asked him what he had wanted them for he said, "To make water bombs and ambush Moxy's gang"
I managed to keep a straight face as I grounded him for a week.
That's kids, and that is the way it should be. Not filling them with fear of a spirit worshipped by an ignorant bronze age tribe in the middle east and hatred and mistrust of those who do not worship that spirit.
Cults R Us, I like that. In an early Monty Python episode there was a sketch about a company called "crackpot Religions Ltd." who supplied off the shelf cults. How prophetic was that?
Like you I viewed Jesus Camp as a horror show. When the horror is real life though, ridicule is the best weapon aganst it when the law will not act.
Becky Fischer should be put in a sack with half a dozen feral wolverines
That's what i like to see, practical solutions to workaday problems.
I was a bit worried about the camp joke, wasn't sure camp was used in that context over the pond. Thanks for the nod of approval.
Love your PS with the story of the preachers wife ordered from God's Little Hookers Inc. The story of Billy and Bobby demonstrated the great deception though. In reality while Billy the kid who eats his greens, never gets dirty or says bad words and says his prayers every night is headed straight for a dead end job on a production line and an early death from cancer caused by inhaling toxic fumes from the industrial process he works on.
Bobby the bad kid however will lie his way into college, obtain a law degree after Daddy stupms up for a new science block, make millions through insider trading on the stock markets, get elected to office after lying about his draft dodging past, eventually find God because he knows it will get him lots of votes...............and become the most disatrous President in history.
One of the contenders for the top comedy award at the Edinburgh Festival a few years ago was a ventriloquist act. The vent had an evangelical preacher haircut, preternaturally white "American" teeth from the Silly Teeth Shop, and wore a white Tux. (Remind you of anyone?) His doll, the character that spoke words put into its mouth by Pastor Ventriloquist, was Jesus.
The act did not win, evangelism was only just beginning to read its ugly head here, but I love the joke it was based on.
"A VISITOR WRITES:
Hi!
I am a college student attending Ozarks Technical Community College in Springfield, Missouri. I am writing an essay on the subject of Masturbation. I am a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, and overcame my personal compulsive masturbation addiction in 1996.
Through the gentle concrete confrontation of a counselor, I realized this behavior in my life was an addiction and idolatry before God. Now, I am enrolled in an English course. My teacher worked for several years in a local porn shop and thinks the Bible is just a fiction book.
I desire to present my paper using the facts and limited research that is available to back my personal opinion on this topic. Please send me any resources you may have which I can use for my paper. Thanks so much for your web page which addresses this prominent hidden addiction in the church nationwide."
You will need to go to :
http://www.goodmorals.org/sterile.html
to read the reply. It seems, according to Genesis, that god slays people who masturbate. Isn't this solid proof that god does not exist? I mean, the human race would have died out ages ago if this is true.
As for the movie, I saw it a couple of years ago and totally agree with The Chive on this one, "Jesus Camp is tantamount to child abuse." It was shut down after the documentary came out and got attention. But, I'm sure many such educational gatherings still go on today, under the cover of legitimate churches' children's bible camps and sunday schools.
Like any cult, the leaders here know that to form a really dedicated christian army that can not be swayed from their goals, they need to brainwash the kids from the earliest ages.
Thanks - yes that point has occurred to me, but many years ago when I used to do stand up. Thanks for reminding me, it is time I recycled that partiular line of comedy.
The same applies to fornication and sodomy (which takes in any unnatural sexual practice apparently) so we would be dead three times over.
Count the flaws in this clip, and see if it doesn't make your skin crawl.
Note:
In November 2006, Fischer announced that she would be shutting down the camp indefinitely due to negative reaction to the film. According to Fischer's website, the owners of the property used for the camp shown in the film were concerned about vandalism to the premises following the film's release and thus will not allow it to be used for any future camps. Fischer has said that the camp will be indefinitely postponed until other suitable premises can be found, but it will be back.
Ian, I love you more with each article. Thanks.
Far easier to further retreat into their prayerful stupor.
Let's give THAT remark a hand!
That's right, yuk it up ladies and gentlemen.
The Jesus Camp program was shut down, but the Kids on Fire Ministry simply changed its name to Kids in Ministry, and the indoctrination continues. In fact, according to their website, they're hoping to head Ian's way if there's enough interest:Ian, are there enough tongue-speakers over there to convince Becky and the gang to pay a visit to entice their children to "purify" themselves and join the "Army of God"?
To Aniko's comment, it was disconcerting to say the least to watch this documentary in its entirety. There were many parts that bothered me - the passing out and adoration of the little plastic fetuses that seemed like perfectly formed dollies, the stage production in front of the altar where the children were acting like real soldiers slaying the unbelievers, and the so-called homeschooling that was devoid of reason and science.
But I think the most troublesome part was where parents and camp personnel spoke of creating a new United States by raising children to go into political and legal careers and infiltrate the government from within. This has already been seen within all government depts in the Bush administration. It is rather frightening to see these soldiers of christ be given positions of power and leadership where they can make far-reaching changes based on their religious beliefs. It is my most fervent hope that whoever comes into power in the next administration will purge our government of these religious radicals.
Not exactly speakers in tongues, we have speakers in local dialect - which can be more confusing to English speakers from overseas. For example ask a Geordie for a reaction and you might hear, "if yon fond fools torns up in wor toon uz'll gi' 'em a good dunshin' and hoy em in the Rivva Tyne
While people in my part of England might say
"Ah seen some o' they America Evangelical preachin' t' kids an' thur a' gait God med t'wurld i' seven days, science is wrung. Ah were fai gobsmacked ah tell thee. If un comes here we'st tek em up Pendle o't' solstice, that'll larn 'em"
Dialect beats tongues every time. I don't think we will see them over here though, the Government hit on this simple idea of denying evangelical churches charitable status so they have to pay taxes. And one thing fundies hate more than humour is paring with money.
I'll post a warning on my UK blog though. Thanks for the info.
First, welcome back.
A tinfoil hat seems a wse precaution, you never know what frequencies those Christian TV stations are sending out. They could be broadcasting direct to your brain.
There are many things science does not prove but it offers a lot more evidence than "because we said so" to support the scientific case in most arguments. The point we have to keep hammering is "The Bible is not evidence."
Got a treat in store for you this summer. As my knee has finally fixed itself and I can stand up longer I can think about filming my "vox pop" characters, including Pastor Purves, an evangelical preacher (I get to put in joke teeth for that one) who spies on attractive females because he is sure Satan lives in their underwear.
He's not my favourite however, I prefer Chadderton Flitch the old actor, because I get to wear a face putty W.C. Fields nose and play drunk.
Am I mad? Probably but I enjoy it.
I must admit I find it harder and harder to watch this kind of stuff. But then it is all so samey I don't have to watch the whole thing to find the things I can make jokes of.
They don't come up with many new ideas.
I've noticed they usually steam in on philosophical questions, claiming their variables are constants.
I don't mind that, get one wound up and you end up with a couple of hundred comments, but on issues such as this they are stuck. I know why, I've asked British Christians who are a lot more open to questioning.
"Why will you not condemn this stuff," I say.
They answer, "we are all united in the love of Jesus and it is not for us to challenge the way others follow him."
So it seems to me Jesus is the problem. There needs to be a defined version of Christian values that allows some scope but not absolute freedom. Those of us who argue with the faith heads are constant in our argument but they constantly change position, contradict themselves, put words in our mouths (or fingers in this case) and misrepresent their own religion.
I get the impression they are on the backfoot though.
What amazes me about the Christian guilt thing is they have you by the short and curlies whatever you do.
Today I saw that old girl who lives down the street stuggling with her shopping so I kicked her stick away and told her she smelled of piss.
Whoa, Cruelty! You evil sinner. Pray for forgiveness.
Today I saw that old lady who lives down the street stuggling with her shopping so I carried her bags all the way home for her, then madfe her a cup of tea. I've become a better person.
Whoa, pride! That's a mortal sin you evil bastards, better pray for forgiveness.
Why do people fall for it?
An admirable sentiment. Unfortunately if any of the remaining contenders did that after making such a big thing of their "faith" it would show them to be hypocrites. And no politician would expose him or herself as a hypocrite would they.
(Although Bill Clinton's exposing himself in the Oval Office after all his cant about family values etc. was hypocritical I guess.)
Anything that hits them is good, unfortunately they only closed at that location and are still operating elsewhere under a different name.
We fight on.
I don't think the problem is the perception of the individual "Christ" - I think it's the preoocupation with (a) his name and (b) his divinity. People believing as Christ acted would be much better neighbors; instead, those like those he worked against (judging, unforgiving individuals who want to control people via the church) now use his name to batter those who are most "Christ"-like. His name and his geneology are more important than what he had to say. The fact that, as he's written is so far different from what Christians practice is, in my opinion, the best evidence that someone actually existed. I doubt many of the most vocal Christians would recognize him in the unlikely event he actually did come back.
Maybe he did and you're he. Or me. Wouldn't that be a kick in the teeth for them. It would certainly explain my nausea.
You maybe, but not me please. I'm a Druid, such a suggestion could destroy my reputation.
Good comment but I'm windng down now. I'll reply poroperly tomorrow coz you're onto something that needs to be drawn out here. (Let's hope it does not take as long as the tooth I had drawn out yesterday :-)
This is scary. I married into a family of fundamental Christians from the city you mention (my husband being the sole exception.). They belong to a huge church which has been running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 10 years.
When science came under assault from the far right, I decided to visit my inlaws' church and see WHO THE HELL these people are, to think can take our society back to the Middle Ages.
I was blown away by the huge size of the well-appointed church, the high quality of the music, and the intensely emotional experiences many of the members seemed to be having.
As far as the message goes-- that was quite a different story. The prayer session I attended sounded good in the brochure-- we were supposed to be "praying for Israel." But instead of praying for peace in the Middle East, the parishioners prayed that everyone in Israel would become a fundamental Christian.
Suddenly, the picture shifted in my mind. This was not a church, but a cult. The opinions of the parishioners were more important to each other than any truth could be. This church was the most potent and frightening example of groupthink I have ever encountered.
The answer is mostly here in your story. Children's minds are naturally susceptible to adult authority figures...including their parents. Some individuals overcome their childhood brainwashing, but, sadly, most do not.
I enjoy your madness too, and look forward to that treat!
It was one of the saddest things I've seen in a long time. I am a firm agnostic, Christ to me was the greatest organizer and advocate for social justice who was acknowledged in writing over 1,000 years ago.
The lessons in the new testament are skewed of course, but the basic premise of the Jesus figure, as presented, is that of unconditional and manifesting kindness and understanding, none of which is anywhere in what these people do.
I cried through almost the whole movie. My heart broke for those kids. The thought of any parent willingly submitting their child to this horror, proves them to be unfit parents.
You can see when they work the kids into a frenzy that they are all affected by their endorphins which makes the experience one to be sought often for the pleasure felt by the release of the endorphins.
The people who put on the Jesus Camp along with the parents of the children who sent them into that circle of hell should be sent to prison for this.
My daughter works for the LGBT center, here in Cleveland, doing outreach and providing what services they can to homeless kids. One of the most supportive allies they have is a United Church of Christ congregation who do everything they can to help fund and support this work. The people there are amazing and personify, for us, what Christians should be.
My daughter and I were talking last week about the fact that we love that church and it's too bad that we don't believe in the Jesus is God thing because we would love to be members of this congregation. They would welcome us, but, we would be very uncomfortable with that component.
Geez, I'm starting to write a book.
Sorry.
Here's the intelligent reply you deserve (withan especially appropriate joke - you inspire me)
Steph,
One of my great interests has always been early history, not religious history as that is a non sequitur, but what we know of the middle east and Egypt, Greece and Asia Minor, India and Western Europe. Naturally one comes across a lot about the pseudo-history of the so called Judeo – Christian tradition.
As you say, modern Christianity, since the start of the Inquisition in the fourteenth century, has focused on worshipping the name of Jesus and celebrating his alleged divinity. What we do learn for reading academic translations of contemporary documents is the idea that Jesus was the divine soon of God did not really take hold until the eighth century (the schism that split the Roman and Orthodox Churches happened because of a quarrel over the inclusion of filioque clause in the Nicene creed.... In the place where the original Nicene Creed reads "We believe in the Holy Spirit ... who proceeds from the Father", the amended, Roman Catholic version reads "We believe in the Holy Spirit ... who proceeds from the Father and the Son".
(quoted from Wikipedia) Though the clause was added in 589AD the quarrel simmered for several centuries before the split.
Prior to that most Christians had believed in Jesus only as a prophet and a teacher. On your point that best evidence indicates somebody probably existed, we have to look really hard to find the best evidence because it proves that nobody why came anywhere close to fitting the character in the story ever existed. The alleged references in Roman texts are from The Imperial Annals and record only that a rabble rouser proclaimed by his followers as the Messiah was executed in Palestine. There were dozens of messiah claimants running round Palestine at the time.
The best evidence suggests that Christianity was around long before Jesus came on the scene and that Jesus was the invention of Jewish renegade Paul.
I'm not against people having their religion but in view of the direction Christianity is headed I think we need to reclaim the truth. Then perhaps people can kick their addiction to saying "Jesus" just as often as they can in the hope it will earn them "Gather At The River" points (wow, that's good, I must use it again) for free entry to heaven.
Your experience sounds typical and again you highlight the psychlogical technique of generating a state close to mass hysteria. It works at rock concerts and for the motivational speakers so beloved of Corporate enterprises.
Exactly the same technique was successfully employed by Adolf Hitler.
That is why the fundies should scare us so much.
But this Chuch has been running 24/7 for ten years? Wimps! st. Werburgh's Cathedral in Chester, England boasts of having maintaned constant prayer for 900 years. Now that's what I call fanatical devotion... :-)
My wife managed to kick the Catholicism habit. but only after she'd had the good sense to marry me :-)
Well after the dentist's tender mercies this week I have a visible gap for four weeks so will not be filming yet, but I am practising my silly voices.
Great comment and illustrative of why I will guest on Christian Radio again this summer. We have to maintain a dialogue with the more reasonable Christian chuches.
There are a couple of very interesting denominations that originate in Central Europe, the Moravians who were active campaigners for abolition of slavery but whose enlightened attitudes to sex would horrify fundies and the Arians a.k.a. Unitarians in the English speaking world who have no creed but believe God is a unifying idea rather than a factual presence in the world.
On the other hand, I'm fond of similar leaders throughout history, noting each of them has flaws that fanatical followers have not scrubbed away over time (not yet any way): Gandhi and King, for examples.
What I don't understand is, given the strong-armed methods of the Christian religion almost from the get go, how such a benign, tolerant, understanding individual was documented in their works? Maybe there was a pagan mole in the copying room.
So write the book, sounds as if you have plenty to say.
Basically the Jesus of the New Testament is a masculinised version of the middle eastern sacred feminine (still celebrated in the Jewish faith through their lunar calendar) Much of the core of Christianity comes from pagan traditions, the Christ myth of crucifixion is Greek in origin. It originally celebrated the defeat of the winter king (darkness, cold, infertility) by the reborn summer king, (light, warmth, creativity) In the pagan ritual the sacrifice was symbolic and the Chist or chosen one left his home after symbolic death but went to live with a friendly neighbouring tribe.
In the Da Vinci Code of course Jesus goes to live in France. Dan Brown's book was a fictional pot boiler but his sources were not. The best perhaps is The White Goddess by Robert Graves.
Christianity in itself is fine as your comment about the United Church shows, its the literal interpretations of it that warp the message. The ancients did not write history factually but allegorically.
Thanks for your comment BTW. I think I've seen you in my threads before but if not, welcome.
Vista may not actually be Satan but it is The Great Beast of Revelations, a huge, bloated, vile perversion of Good programming, it is an abomination to the ancient prophets of programming like me. When I think of what we used to do with 256 Kb of main memory on a mainframe the size of a shed, Vista is the spawn of the Great Whore Microsoft. Exorcise it from your P.C. and accept Linux as your Saviour :-)
You may find that some of your old software is not compatible with Vista, Microsoft claim it is backwards compatible but there are lots of known problems.
The idea of the nurturing, tolerant, inclusive community is wonderful and widespread, from Brahminism in the Hindu faith to Jainism, Sufism in Islam, and the Celtic Chistianity of post Roman Britain which owed more to the Druids than Jesus. The Coptic Chritians of Egypt and Ethopia certainly practices Chistian living before Jesus was born as did sects in Persia and India.
The problem with Christianity is it owes more to Imperial Rome than anything else. And that is where it all started tob go wrong.
I quite like the belief system of The Quakers.
Who was the pagan mole? A very good question and one I will deal with in my book, working title Return Of The Goddess (I will not use that as someone is sure to have used it already)
Ian, you are so right. I think psychologists call this "emotional contagion."
Emotional contagion is the tendency to express and feel emotions that are similar to and influenced by those of others.
Groupthink is a type of thought exhibited by group members who try to minimize conflict and reach consensus without critically testing, analyzing, and evaluating ideas. During groupthink, members of the group avoid promoting viewpoints outside the comfort zone of consensus thinking. Groupthink may cause groups to make hasty, irrational decisions, where individual doubts are set aside, for fear of upsetting the group's balance.
I find it interesting that nearly every religion has a revered symbol that embodies tolerance, understanding and forgiveness. That argues a universal truth to me, regardless of the name attached (and I feel about Buddha much the same way as I feel about my image of Jesus: an excellent teacher with some followers that corrupted the message, often to a frightening degree - though I think that is far more prevalent among Christianity than Buddhism).
I don't like names attached, though. I think that, if you're living a life where you hurt no one unnecessarily and try to do the best you can, you're probably in good with whatever higher powers there be. If not, he (and no offense, I'd assume any self-serving egotistical judgemental entity would be a he) is an asshole and doesn't deserve my worship.
See you in Hell with everyone else I like (assuming it exists, which I don't believe either unless I'm there now).
trust psychologists to come up with a meaningless phrase in the hope they will fool people into believing psychology is a real science. I don't think this behaviour has an appropriate name but it stems from a very deep instinct, the herd instinct perhaps. I'm sure morphic resonance has something to do with it.
We are at the bottom of us still animals.
I see from the Wiki quote emotional contagion is not adequate to describe the hysteria of a religious meeting.
Emotional contagion would be feeling an urge to laugh because everybody else is laughing. What happens in religious hysteria is a stripping away of our humanity.
(You will not know what I'm paraphrasing but I like it)
One thing you have to say about the people in Hell is that each and every one of them to a man knows first and foremost one of the great necessities in life. They know how to throw a party.
(That's part of the prologue to a British omedy drama, Shameless, about a bunch of wasters who live on a sink estate. I love it. It may be shown on BBC America but I'm not sure.
Any group who believes they speak for God (including the Pope) perhaps does not understand that God knows we perceive God in our own way and God accepts us as we are.
I also have a comment for Sharon: The United Church of Christ and the Disciples of Christ denominations are some of the best folks for honoring the commitment to meet people where they are and support them as they need to be. They are not active in the sense of wanting to convert, but will talk if asked.
No child questioned what was going on but even failing to be fanatical enough in pledging their devotion to Jesus earned brutal mental abuse, pastors yelling at them, saying they would burn in hell for all eternity.
It totally was disgusting. Nobody would be surprised to hear such things went on in the Inquisition but it has no place in a civilised nation in the modern world.
Among the younger kids in the neighbourhood, the ones the same age as my younger siblings seemed younger in attitude, less streetwise. That is not necessarily a bad thing of course.
But whatever the age, those kids were being subjected to psychological bullying. It was quite clear they had been conditioned to never doubt or question what they were told.
I'm afraid not much detail stuck in my memory, I just sat there gobsmacked.
As fir my article, I am a comedy writer and so inclined to take some license ;-)
Indoctrination is what all religions are about. Come to think of it civilization is also a type of indoctrination wherein we use schools to prepare to be adults with jobs in a society.
I grew up in a household where my mother was a diehard Catholic and my father a diest. THat could be fun.
Education need not be like that, in fact the European idealists who campaigned for public education intended it to liberate people and give choice. We have to work of course, but education ideally should give us the ability to choose at what.
Thanks, you have given me a great idea for a post.