It blows my mind that people use eternal punishment as a way to make their children behave. I read on facebook this morning the sentence “I love that no one can punish better than our Lord!” talking about threatening her children with the idea that “Jesus watches you all the time” and that he’ll punish you if you misbehave.
I don’t have children so I might be out of my element here.
But the way I look at it is based out of how I felt being told as a child that Jesus was “always with me”.
My grandma told me that “Jesus lived in my heart”. and I screamed, and cried and begged her to get him out, because I was terrified of having a little tiny man living in my body. Of course the idea of that is ridiculous, but how scared I felt was very real. I couldn’t have been more than 4 years old when that happened, because my grandma was still living in Nashville, she moved away from the city when I was 5 years old. My family loves to tell that story as a joke whenever I am around.
Now, that was the nice sweet version of “Jesus is always with you”, and I was terrified. I cannot imagine how scary it must be for children to be threatened with eternal punishment. Not to mention the extreme amount of guilt that comes along with being told you are ~always being watched~ there are so many rules against everything. What if you do something wrong on accident? Which, as humans we tend to make mistakes. If Jesus is the ultimate punisher, won’t he be very strict?
Won’t that guilt and fear carry over into adulthood? (yes) Why should you be a good person because god is always watching? Why not be a good person because it’s the proper thing to do?
I’m no expert on parenting… but isn’t that just wrong? To scare your child like that?
I like to think that the way Lyzz and Chris parent Annabelle is a good starting point for “If you misbehave you will be punished.” Instead of teaching Belle that she is going to upset Jesus, they teach Belle that Mom and Dad will be very upset. That she has hurt Mom and Dad’s feelings. Belle will be legitimately upset if you tell her that she has hurt your feelings. She will cry and cry and cry like you spanked her (which they don’t have to do because she is sensitive enough to be upset at the idea of upsetting you.) She’ll even say “I’m sorry.” sometimes hug you. The point is that she is genuinely sorry. Not because she’ll burn for eternity but because she has hurt someone that she knows. Now of course sometimes the 3yr old “I don’t care attitude” comes along and that’s where harsher punishments are needed like taking something away, not doing something for her etc etc.
I’m just trying to process the idea that god is the ultimate punisher. Which I mean isn’t a new idea.. but the idea of applying that to your parenting… Blows my mind.
For “all the good” that religion does (which can be disputed. Another post for another time.) it sure does have to be very scary to be effective.
Penn jillette - “if every trace of any single religion were wiped out…”
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For years now we have seen people seeking to push the bible into the science classroom. However, the move in recent years to push the religiously based ‘charter school’ system has opened up a new front in the war to erode critical thinking skills. No longer satisfied with pushing the rubbish ofCreationism or abstinence only health education, now a new model is out, attacking the foundation of mathematics itself.
The A Beka Book company provides a great many of the literature for these religious schools. We come to expect dominionists to push for their lies about science and history, but the A Beka Book company produces a whole series of dominionist school textbooks, including a revisionist form of mathematics not based on logic nor reason but instead “mathematics are a creation of God and thus absolute.”
Here is an example, taken from the A Beka Book piece titled “The Christian Approach to Elementary Math” originally published in 1980 and still used in their latest titles:
We are unabashed advocates of traditional math, not only because the students learn something that can be built upon, but also because it accords with our Christian viewpoints on education. Only from a Christian perspective can the basic rationale — the intrinsic reasonableness of traditional elementary math — be seen and appreciated. Traditional math will not succeed unless it is taught with the conviction that something more than arbitrary process derived from arbitrary principles is at work. The elementary student does not need to “understand” 2 + 2 = 4 in order to learn it and use it; he will learn the abstract principles later. But the elementary student does need to see his multiplication tables as part of the truth and order that God has built into reality. From the Christian perspective, 2 + 2 = 4 takes on cosmic significance, as does every fact of mathematics, however particular.
Note they call their Divine Mathematics “traditional math” in order to make it sound acceptable to a particular group of people. They are targeting the easily deceived who then feel that they are trying to restore “tradition.” They even claim that a student does not need to understand 2+2=4, only to accept it as a sign of divinity.
This reads almost like an article from The Onion.
I mean, fuck. I used to joke about shit like this but now it’s happening, and it’s not funny anymore.
During an appearance on The Heritage Foundation’s “Istook Live,” Representative Louie Gohmert (R-TX) was asked about the tragedy in Aurora, Colorado where a gunman opened fire in a movie theater. Gohmert responded by talking about the weakening Christian ‘foundation’ of the country and questioned why nobody in the theater had a gun to take down the shooter.
“Some of us happen to believe that when our founders talked about guarding our virtue and freedom, that that was important. Whether it’s John Adams saying our Constitution was made only for moral and religious people… Ben Franklin, only a virtuous people are capable of freedom, as nations become corrupt and vicious they have more need of masters. We have been at war with the very pillars, the very foundation of this country. You know what really gets me, as a Christian, is to see the ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs, and then some senseless crazy act of a derelict takes place.”
(via ThinkProgress/HuffPo)
Was your religion chosen for you? Probably.
A growing number of Americans are uneasy with the amount of religious talk they’re hearing from politicians, according to a new poll released by the Pew Research Center yesterday.
Thirty-eight percent of respondents said that there has been too much expression of religious faith and prayer from political leaders — the highest number since Pew began asking the question in 2001. Thirty percent of respondents said there is too little.
The numbers have nearly reversed since Pew last asked the question two years ago, when 37 percent said there was too little religious expression by politicians, while 29 percent said there was too much.
(via brooklynmutt)
A rally was held Monday night in support of Omaha City Councilman Ben Gray’s ordinance that would allow gay and transgendered employees to file discrimination complaints with the city.
The interfaith rally, held at the First United Methodist Church, included leaders from five area churches and the Temple Israel synagogue.
How many of you were surprised to see that this interfaith rally was in favor of the ordinance? Be honest: You saw “Church Leaders Rally” and “LGBT Ordinance” in the headline and thought the worst.
“Omaha, Nebraska: Confounding Your Expectations Since 1854”
Tagging your porn with “catholic” or “pro-life” isn’t cute.. I mean really.
It’s not even the tastful stuff, it’s just down right nasty and trying to get a rise out of religious people.
I get that the Catholic church perpetrates some awfulness, also I can’t wrap my head around pro-lifeness. But you know, these people that believe these things HAVE A RIGHT TO. They also deserve some amount of mutual respect. If you want to point out fallacies in the church, do it. Tag it as “religion” or “Catholic”. If you want to post a pro-choice argument. Do it, and tag it accordingly. Do not post your nasty porn and tag it as “Catholic” and then laugh when people get offended. These people have a right to practice their religion. They have a right to post about their religion. They shouldn’t be mocked in this incredibly childish and offensive way. They shouldn’t be told to “get over” the nasty things that are popping up under their tag. The blogs that are posting and tagging these items should be reprimanded. Because it’s incredibly offensive, and frankly has nothing to do with Catholicism. Tumblr has done a bang up job (I think.) of preventing this type of thing from happening to other groups represented on here. Why aren’t they trying to clean up the Catholic tag?
Just saying…
PS. I’m super ok with porn being on tumblr, I just think it’s incredibly incredibly wrong that it is being tagged under things like “Pro Life” “Parenting”, “Children” and “Religion.” and allowed to stay on the tag. If you want to look at porn, that’s great. But trying to get people to accidentally stumble upon it because they track tags that have NOTHING to do with pornographic images, and then being an ass when they get upset…. That’s just uncalled for, disrespectful and rude.
(via christiantheatheist)
