Is Sunday school child abuse?

sunday_school.jpg“Parties shall respect the right of the child to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.”  Article 14 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children 

No, because Sunday school provides children with a moral compass. 

They already have a couple of pretty good moral compasses; one is their conscience and the other is the example of their parents.  And, you know, scaring people into goodness is a fairly tenuous approach to teaching morality. 

No, because children can always make a choice about their beliefs later in life. 

Wasn’t it the Jesuits who said, “Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man.”  And often it’s just a half a man. And that half usually feels guilty as hell about everything. 

No, because salvation is the greatest gift a parent can give their child. 

Hmmm kind of depends on the religion, doesn’t it?  I mean, some kids are taught that salvation comes in the form of a suicide bomb.  And some of them are getting told that you can gain salvation with multiple wives – now, after that, death will feel like salvation but it’s not really the same thing. 

No, because Jesus said to suffer little children to come unto him. 

Well, that’s true but maybe he meant to freely come unto him.  As opposed to being packed off at the age when you still believe in Father Christmas, fairies and love eternal. 

No, because Sunday school doesn’t include sex. 

Well, if you’re lucky, it doesn’t but I wouldn’t count on it, would you? And even if you are lucky, some of that stuff they teach you is going to seriously affect your future sex life forever, including the one you have with yourself! 

No, because Sunday school is a family activity. 

So is incest. 

3 Comments

Filed under life, Religion, school, sex, youth

3 responses to “Is Sunday school child abuse?

  1. Set a good example in the home and teach kids morality, not religion.

  2. Doktor Holocaust

    I thought it was Freud who said that bit about programming children in the first seven years of life, but maybe he stole that from the Jesuits, like he stole most of his theories about how people’s brains work from Shakespeare.

    The tragically funny thing about UN Articles like that is they have no way to enforce them. Here in the US, children are still chattel, and telling parents how to raise their children, even if only asking them to not-do certain things, is viewed as an infringement upon the parents’ freedom of religion. It may just be that most of the parents belong to some problematic cult that requires juvenile indoctrination, but I’ve only ever belonged to fringe-religions that are against that sort of thing, so I’m really not sure.

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