Attention R&S people?

Question

I read one post that being taught your parent's religion is the same as being abused. Please help me, because I don't see the logic in this.
How is a man having sex with a child the same as being taught that there is a God?
How is having your arm broken by your father the same as being told that God loves you?
Children being abused is a serious topic. They grow up to have many problems and have to struggle to get over their abuse.
Being forced to go to church is not the same as being molested by your father at night while your mother is aware of this and does nothing.
Also, for those who would like to help a child then consider being a court appointed child advocate.
http://www.nationalcasa.org/volunteer/index.html

Thank you for your time and God bless everybody even those who hate me.

Yes, I'm aware of different types of being abuse as
my mother was emotionally abused by her father.

My mother had an unhappy childhood and suffered abuse by my own father, which makes my blood boil to think that my grandfather and my fathter treated my mother like ****.

Answer 1

I totally agree with you. I don't hate you, but admire you for having the b*lls to say this, to clarify what some have mistakenly labelled as abuse.

For those who say that parents who threaten their children with evil spirits and devils if they're not good, this is not good religion. Good religion is teaching about the goodness of God, and that He sees all that we do and say and even think.

Ah, but even if parents scare their kids with spirits, is this not the same as scaring them with the boogeyman? I wouldn't exactly call that abuse, but a mistake. And no, a mistake isn't necessarily abuse. All parents make them, all human beings make them.

True, let's not trivialize abuse. We can't label as abuse, because it's not.

Answer 2

There is a difference between being 'taught' & being forced to 'accept' & 'practise' against one's will. The second scenario will most certainly come under the category of 'abuse'.
So it is always better for parents to teach by example. If they love each other, fear God, pray regularly, teach their children about love, compassion, charity, discipline etc I am sure most children would accept their parents' religion as their own willingly.
But where parents fight with each other, do not fear God & hence do not pray, have no love or compassion for the elderly, the sick & the needy, are too materialistic etc. then the children do not understand the logic of following such a religion as practised (??) by their parents.

Answer 3

Well, I think it's because these people think that every child that's brought up in religion is taught to feel badly about themselves, and scared into submission with images of hell.
Teaching children like THAT is wrong, and I think it IS emotional abuse.
However, I see nothing wrong with parents telling their children that Jesus loves them. I was NEVER told about hell until I was about eight. The ONLY reason I was told so young is because I was a very mature eight. I was light years ahead of other kids my age.
I was told, when I was a child, not to do certain things, because it made Jesus unhappy. And why would I want to make someone who loved me so much unhappy?
I see nothing wrong with this. My self-esteem is just fine. I don't feel unworthy at ALL. Well, God's love does blow my mind, but not in a bad way.
I digress. I think people just need to understand that there's a right way and a wrong way to bring up children in a particular religion. Scaring them into obedience is the wrong way, but no different than telling them that if they don't behave, Santa Claus won't bring them any presents for Christmas. Teaching them love, compassion, tolerance, discernment, and kindness is the RIGHT way. If Christianity is taught correctly, these are the values children should have.

Kallan's example is APPALLING. That is most DEFINITELY the wrong way to teach religion. Three is much too young to have any accountability. My parents NEVER told me I "had" to get saved. When I decided to, they supported me, and made sure I knew that that was what I wanted. But they never tried to FORCE me to "get saved."

Answer 4

There is no logic in that post...I agree. Being "taught" a religion is not abuse... As children, we are "taught" alot of things by our parents...it is up to us as adults to decide whether the things that were taught were good or bad...
It does not hurt us as children to go to church... I was made to go every Sunday to a Methodist Church..it did me no harm...
If anything, it taught me some principle and manners... I was never taught that demons and spirits would "get me" if I didn't behave... Telling a child things like that...regardless of religion IS, to me, mental abuse...
I am now an adult Christian and I no longer am of Methodist denomination...but that is my right as an adult to choose..
Really.... going to church as a child is SO FAR from being abused...
God Bless those kids, as well as adults, that are TRULY going through abuse..whether it be physical, mental, or emotional....

Answer 5

Religious indoctrination can certainly become abusive emotionally and sometimes physically. Some people literally believe in "beating the devil" out of their children. But I agree that to class all religious indoctrination with molestation or battering is mostly overboard.

On the other hand, I look at children in Madrassas being taught to chant "Death to America", "Death to the Zionists" and children being taught to use AK-47s to "kill the infidels" and I believe some religious indoctrination is worse than molestation because it will claim many more victims than the one. not all religious training is about peaceful loving gods. Some is about gods who reward mass murderers with virgins.

And Ayesha, no one here knows you or has suffered any harm from you. Why would they hate you? I might disagree with you and think your beliefs expressed here are awful, but your posts are not the sum of all you are, and anyone who doesn't know that is a surprising person indeed: they are more ignorant than a mushroom, yet they can type?

Answer 6

I don't agree that teaching children religion is the same or nearly the same as abusing them. I sincerly hope that it is used as a way to make a point and not an actual belief.

On the other hand, we do see many Christians espcially young ones who have little or no clue about science and how to think analytically. For instance, there have been 2 different psuedo-science websites posted recently that I would expect most high schoolers to be able to spot major, blatant errors in.

Answer 7

You forgot mental and emotional abuse, which are just as damaging as the physical.

Now I might not go so far as to saying dragging a kid to church is abuse. It certainly can be, depending on the religion, but I might say it's a slight overstatement.

But I'd have to read the actual question/answer to make a definitive ruling.

Answer 8

wow. you put more thought in this question then i do with life.
but here goes
i do not believe that having sex with a child is right and certainly not teaching that there is a God. Its just sick.
My father never ever hit me and my mom used to give us a good tongue lashing but no hitting..so i cannot relate to that..
Well, you got me when you said that my mom did insist we had to go to their church if we lived under their roof..i still don't go very often as i like to sleep in ..and i am retired but i still like to sleep in the a.m. but
where do you get all this stuff about child abuse? yes people do this to their children and some do it in the name of their God but that just is wrong..some will even kill the children for their so called Faith..but they are not right either.
just don't do this to your children if you are lucky to have them...i know i did not do this to my kids but they still turned out to be ungrateful little brats..as they were raised by their mother and i left her when the kids were real young because my ex wife was a mental case and an alcoholic drug user and a nutcase..well she was a good mom but not a good wife..so i just jumped out the window when i could get away..it was not right..but i had no choice..actually she left me..but i thought that was cool..she did not care for me either..no love lost.
thanks for the nice question..i am sorry to digress...but sometimes these answers get us to digress..sorry..have fun

Answer 9

ok let me give you an example then, and I personally witnessed this:
A preacher's wife (baptist) locked her 3 year old girl in a closet and refused to let her out until the girl got saved.. the whole time this poor child was petrified and screaming for her mommy to help her.. the mother told her that this closet is what hell is like and the only way to get out was to accept Jesus as her savior. Of COURSE the child "got saved".. she wanted out of that closet!
The preacher's wife saw nothing wrong with what she did at all.. she felt the rapture was imminent (this happened in1988) and she wanted to insure that her child was not "left behind". To her, this was good parenting.
To me (and ultimately the authorities) this was child abuse. If you can't see the correlation here, then perhaps you need to look at it from a different angle.

Answer 10

I agree, My children were never taught hell, that were taught Jesus loves them.When grandma dies you tell the child she
is in heaven with Jesus, she is happy.If you leave You child in the dark what happens when they have to go to school,the
other children say when I went to Church Sunday,Your children will be nervous and embarrassed to not know what anyone is talking about.