Richard Dawkins has said that religious parents who impose their beliefs should be arrested for child abuse. While I don't subscribe to this notion, I do believe that religious belief can make parents more draconian in their punishment regimens than they would be otherwise. Religious beliefs are not usually, in my opinion, "abusive" towards children, though there are a few exceptions.
"Spare the rod and spoil the child," so says the wisdom of the Bible; however, I think most Christian parents see "rod" as a metaphor for discipline or correction. This commonly accepted nuance missed my father. My dad had a tendency to apply the rod--which happened to be a 3/4" oak dowel--first and ask questions later. I can remember welts that covered my backside, from the back of my knees up to the top of my buttocks (I'm not trying to pick on my father per se, because although most Christians have moved away from beating their children, his literal interpretation of this verse was the rule of thumb for most of American history). Do I know if my father would have been as tough on my backside if he'd not been Christian? No, I do not. What I do know is that my dad was a pretty good dad otherwise, and I suspect that had he not believed that refraining from whipping my ass for the smallest mistake would lead me straight to hell, he would have probably reserved swats for more dire infractions. He thought he had to beat me to save me from hell...
Hell. The Lake of Fire. Hades. Eternal Torment. I mentioned in my previous post that this was what led me to "salvation" in the first place. I was a five year-old kid when I said my first "sinner's" prayer. A virtual baby, not to mention a baby with a highly overactive imagination and a predilection for worrying. So, on top of the specters that my imagination already subjected me to, my unknowing and well-meaning parents introduced me to concepts that would add more bogeymen to my already packed-full closet of nightmares. The worst nightmare I had in my childhood was one where I walked into my kitchen and the gates of hell opened up, and Satan in his demonic horror reached out to grab me--with my mother and sisters on the couch less than ten feet away, oblivious to my plight. I had many nightmares of this same variety: demons popping out from underneath my bed, family members languishing in hell, the devil's voice taunting me, demons hissing, etc.. I likely still would have had nightmares, given my imagination, but there was something particularly horrifying about my nightmares having eternal implications. I think it would not have taken me until I was 14 to get over my constant nightmares if I had not had such a strong belief in demons and the afterlife. I had cause to believe that my nightmares were real, and that the only way I could protect myself was through prayers or reading my Bible. I spent many nights lying in bed with my heart pounding, just waiting for the dawn to break. Maybe this isn't child abuse in that it wasn't deliberate; he didn't mean for me to have so many fearful, sleepless nights, but the consequences were the same regardless of my father's intent.
Of course Christianity isn't the most pernicious of religions with regard to its treatment of children. Hindus often value cattle above their own children, and those who practice Asian ancestor-worship can be pretty harsh towards their offspring. Of course the religion that wrote the book on child abuse is islam. Muslims marry their daughters off at ages as young as nine in some countries, and to men old enough to be their grandfathers. Young girls are subjected to clitorectomies, often performed in ritualistic fashion by unqualified, non-medical religious leaders, or even the girls' own female relatives. If a young woman makes it to puberty, she has to worry that she might be "honor" killed--which is startlingly easy to do: be in the wrong place at the wrong time, wear the wrong clothes, be too "westernized," and her father and brothers might strangle, shoot, or even decapitate her for bringing dishonor to the family. Little boys get a bit more freedom, but must dodge the affections of men in a pederast culture which says that any boy is fair game until his facial hair grows in (but sex between consenting men is just gay, therefore unacceptable and punishable by death).
It's absurd that an innocent child should be held to account for religious beliefs that they do not even fully understand. A child should be allowed to be a child and discover the world for themselves. If a set of religious beliefs is so fantastic, then it stands to reason that at some point that child will accept those beliefs and subject himself to that religion. It's not fair to children that parents must torture, abuse, or even murder them in pursuit of their religious ideals. Children are born without religion.
(Note **The occasional spanking for behavior that infracts a set of carefully defined parameters understood by the child is acceptable and a useful parenting tool, in my opinion.**)
"Spare the rod and spoil the child," so says the wisdom of the Bible; however, I think most Christian parents see "rod" as a metaphor for discipline or correction. This commonly accepted nuance missed my father. My dad had a tendency to apply the rod--which happened to be a 3/4" oak dowel--first and ask questions later. I can remember welts that covered my backside, from the back of my knees up to the top of my buttocks (I'm not trying to pick on my father per se, because although most Christians have moved away from beating their children, his literal interpretation of this verse was the rule of thumb for most of American history). Do I know if my father would have been as tough on my backside if he'd not been Christian? No, I do not. What I do know is that my dad was a pretty good dad otherwise, and I suspect that had he not believed that refraining from whipping my ass for the smallest mistake would lead me straight to hell, he would have probably reserved swats for more dire infractions. He thought he had to beat me to save me from hell...
Hell. The Lake of Fire. Hades. Eternal Torment. I mentioned in my previous post that this was what led me to "salvation" in the first place. I was a five year-old kid when I said my first "sinner's" prayer. A virtual baby, not to mention a baby with a highly overactive imagination and a predilection for worrying. So, on top of the specters that my imagination already subjected me to, my unknowing and well-meaning parents introduced me to concepts that would add more bogeymen to my already packed-full closet of nightmares. The worst nightmare I had in my childhood was one where I walked into my kitchen and the gates of hell opened up, and Satan in his demonic horror reached out to grab me--with my mother and sisters on the couch less than ten feet away, oblivious to my plight. I had many nightmares of this same variety: demons popping out from underneath my bed, family members languishing in hell, the devil's voice taunting me, demons hissing, etc.. I likely still would have had nightmares, given my imagination, but there was something particularly horrifying about my nightmares having eternal implications. I think it would not have taken me until I was 14 to get over my constant nightmares if I had not had such a strong belief in demons and the afterlife. I had cause to believe that my nightmares were real, and that the only way I could protect myself was through prayers or reading my Bible. I spent many nights lying in bed with my heart pounding, just waiting for the dawn to break. Maybe this isn't child abuse in that it wasn't deliberate; he didn't mean for me to have so many fearful, sleepless nights, but the consequences were the same regardless of my father's intent.
Of course Christianity isn't the most pernicious of religions with regard to its treatment of children. Hindus often value cattle above their own children, and those who practice Asian ancestor-worship can be pretty harsh towards their offspring. Of course the religion that wrote the book on child abuse is islam. Muslims marry their daughters off at ages as young as nine in some countries, and to men old enough to be their grandfathers. Young girls are subjected to clitorectomies, often performed in ritualistic fashion by unqualified, non-medical religious leaders, or even the girls' own female relatives. If a young woman makes it to puberty, she has to worry that she might be "honor" killed--which is startlingly easy to do: be in the wrong place at the wrong time, wear the wrong clothes, be too "westernized," and her father and brothers might strangle, shoot, or even decapitate her for bringing dishonor to the family. Little boys get a bit more freedom, but must dodge the affections of men in a pederast culture which says that any boy is fair game until his facial hair grows in (but sex between consenting men is just gay, therefore unacceptable and punishable by death).
It's absurd that an innocent child should be held to account for religious beliefs that they do not even fully understand. A child should be allowed to be a child and discover the world for themselves. If a set of religious beliefs is so fantastic, then it stands to reason that at some point that child will accept those beliefs and subject himself to that religion. It's not fair to children that parents must torture, abuse, or even murder them in pursuit of their religious ideals. Children are born without religion.
(Note **The occasional spanking for behavior that infracts a set of carefully defined parameters understood by the child is acceptable and a useful parenting tool, in my opinion.**)
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