Do some of you actually know what child abuse is?

Question

Some have stated sending a child to Sunday School is child abuse

Do you know what child abuse is, I have degree in child abuse and what some of you have been saying is not abuse?

There are different forms of child abuse. These include neglect, sexual, physical and emotional abuse. If you are talking about emotional abuse you have it wrong. This can include a range of behaviours such as excessive criticism, withholding affection, exposure to domestic violence, intimidation or threatening behaviour

Reading that how can you say that sending them to Sunday School or Church is child abuse?

I am saying SOME not ALL

I have a Degree in Welfare which includes child abuse, most of it was centred on that as I was going to work in Welfare with abused children until I had the twins, so yes I have a degree

Answer 1

Surley you mean you have degree with training in spotting child abuse...

For some of the other responders,
Is making your children go to bed, school, take a bath and brush their teeth against their will child abuse also?

Sunday school for young children focuses on the Love of God and His gift of Jesus, not on eternal punishment. Many children enjoy going. However, the law says they must have so much schooling, where the horrors of war is taught.

Answer 2

I don't understand how people can make a blanket statement about Sunday school. I went to Sunday school as a child, and even though I didn't believe most of what I was taught, I still had a good time. We sang songs, did projects (like making things and drawing pictures), played games, and learned Bible stories. Plus we were taught the best way to handle people (with love, and turn the other cheek), and we were taught that God loves us, no matter what we looked like. What's the harm in that?

On the other hand, I can see why some would call it child abuse, if the children are being scared into believing. No child should be threatened with hell. Maybe when they're teenagers, or at the earliest, when they reach puberty, they can be told about hell. But they should NEVER be told that they're going there. I say let them read the Bible for themselves to find out about hell.

I think children should only be taught about God's love. They shouldn't learn about His "other side" until later.

Sunday school in itself isn't child abuse, but some of the methods employed by churches towards children ARE.

Answer 3

If can we all get beyond the rhetoric for a second we can all realize that sending a child to Sunday school and calling it child abuse creates an obvious problem : it says that sending that child to Sunday school and beating that child up are equal to each other and anybody that has lived through both experiences knows that nothing could be further from the truth.
If you call a bs thing like sending a child to Sunday school child abuse,then you run the risk of you losing your credibility as an intelligent human being ,but much worse than that you run the risk of having the real horror of violent child abuse trivialized.
If somebody wants to call both Sunday school attendance and physical violence child abuse then somebody better come up with a system of definitions and classifications that is similar to what the legal system uses for felonies and misdemeanors.

Answer 4

Well if the child doesn't want to go, has stated they are against it, isn't that emotional or psychological abuse?

And, "child" is considered anyone 0-17 years old by the government and law. So yea, I can see a parent forcing their teenager into Bible study, or CCD, or a religious weekend "getaway to realize faith" as abuse. If a "child" wants to be Buddhist and the parents are die-heart Fundamentals and are forcing their child/teenager to attend these functions. That is abuse, sorry. Not physical , true, but still abuse of some form .

Not all policies are black and white.. there are gray areas where each case needs to be examined.

Answer 5

Every sunday as a child I was dragged out of bed early in the morning to attend church. Sitting on those hard horrible, hard seats. I hated that but LOVED Sunday School.
I don't and didn't see it as abuse, I saw it as education.

I know what child abuse is, youv'e covered it in your discription.

Did you also know that walking from the shower to your bedroom naked, if you forget your towel, is considered child abuse? (sexual)
I didn't know that. I do now of course.

I really had no idea just how much could be considered abuse until I did my Nursing and completed a Mandatory Reporting course.

Maybe Myrene Purcell from DHS Frankston should take this course!
Her definition of child abuse is a parent who has a serious permanant disability requiring frequent hospital admission for life preserving treatment, organising care for the child while in hospital and things they need etc, as physical, pscholigical end emotional abuse. Requiring the Department to take the child, much to the child's distress and involve the courts!!!!
What an idiot this Black Hearted, ugly on the outside and inside woman is?
She get's off on this thing.
Needless to say the Courts or Lawyers would NOT even for a moment consider this abuse. That's why my son came back so soon and Myrene lost her 27 year job. LOL. She had also done this to EVERY, SINGLE family she was assigned, regardless of if they were or were not abusing the child, and I am only the 4th parent in 27 years to ever get her/his child back.
But damage was done to my child's psychological development that may never be able to be undone, no matter how much therapy.
Thanks Myrene.

(RANT) That feels so good.

But if she considered this as 3 forms of abuse then she would consider sending your child to Sunday School abuse.

PS I will probably end up with all thumbs down, but I don't care.
I not only made myself and my son so happy getting that Witch fired, so I could get him back, but the WHOLE DHS office in Frankston were also a lot happier to see the back of her.

Answer 6

Mental abuse - "You will go to hell if you do not believe". If this is constantly thrown at a kid, it IS child abuse. There is no degree in child abuse and what they make you go through for Welfare in general doesn't touch on ALL of the points of Abuse in general. I know several people who work in Welfare, my sister being one... a cousin being another... and they send you to classes that touch on what to look for in a child to see if they are being abused. Religious Brainwashing is NOT covered. And such a generalized view that "sending them to Sunday School is not child abuse" is just as bad as thinking all children who go to Sunday School is child abuse. It COMPLETELY depends on the enviroment that child is put into. According to your statement, Jesus Camp wouldn't be abuse... but any real welfare worker worth anything would say that is one of the worst forms of Mental Abuse you can put a child through... And Jesus Camp INCLUDES Sunday School!

I really hope you aren't working in my city. And I would hate to see a child being watched for under your care. Please tell me you're the one who hands out the Food Stamps.

Answer 7

I've been abused in every sense of the word. Indoctrination can be psychological abuse. Terrifying a child into following a set of religious guidelines through the threat of a painful death is abuse. Brainwashing a child and preventing them from thinking for themselves is abuse.

I was given this book to read as a child.
http://www.culthelp.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=389&Itemid=8

I think that is psychological abuse.

Answer 8

well, considering that i lived it i think i know what child abuse is...

i never considered going to sunday school or vacation bible school abuse...to me it was an escape, and i truly loved to learn anything and everything.

it totally depends on the situation. i can see how it would be abuse. it can be a brainwashing and numbing experience in the wrong church. look at jim jones and tell me those kids weren't being abused.

anything in the wrong hands can be horrible.

bb

Answer 9

I hope you are good at what you do, last week a 2 yo was found in a lake stuffed in a suit case after his mother shook him to death. Child services were aware of the abuse of this child and sat on there hands. Children are little people only a coward hits or abuses there children.

Answer 10

i went to sunday school and all they talked about was "god is good" "god loves you" "he did so much for you" What about all the bad things? What about the plagues? The smiting? They got me so excited about the faith, when i took the time to read the rest of bible, I was literally tramatized. And YES, I DO consider that child abuse. I dont think brainwashing is legal, is it? The whole experience revealed to me the true nature of the controlling CULT of Catholicism