Feeling the tide of my culture

[Dragonia]

Even as I write this, my teeth are on edge and I want to slap someone silly.
I spent the weekend at a motocross race, where there are a lot of kids. We see a lot of the same families on these weekends and I know that there is a strong representation of Christian families at these events. So I don't know why trickery must be employed to get people to listen to these wannabe preachers.
What happened was this:
Usually on Sunday morning, there will be a little church service before racing starts. So that racers can skip all these weekends at church and not feel like a total heathen.  But this Sunday, an announcement was made that there was a donut eating contest up next to the main tent and all kids were invited. Of course, my 9 year old and her friend heard "donuts" and couldn't get up there fast enough. So there was this super cool looking, early 20's age guy orchestrating the contest, which was silly and badly executed. After the winner had been declared, he announced that the "devotional" would start soon; a little Bible talk for the kids.  I rolled my eyes because that was bad enough, using the donuts to lure kids up there. But as my daughter and her friend wrinkled their noses at the church part and we were walking away, the guy hollered out, "Free candy for everyone who stays for the Bible lesson! It'll be really short!"
I was thinking, are you fucking KIDDING me???? Mr. Cool Guy is bribing all these kids with candy to stay and listen to his bullshit? If you have something worth peddling, why do you have to bribe the kids?  It was such bullshit, and it really riled me up.
I let the girls choose whether to stay or not, and I guess they decided the free candy wasn't worth listening to Cool Guy stutter and stumble through his "talk". On the way back to our spot, I told them I thought they made the right choice and we talked about if it was ok to be offering kids candy to get them to listen.
I guess I'll chalk it up to a life lesson, and the fact that this is the culture in which I live. But it still pisses me off. It's still just WRONG. And it's everywhere. *growling in my head*

[xSilverPhinx]

What kind of religion needs to effectively bribe people in order to listen? Especially those who probably have not developed their critical thinking skills enough to see through the bullshit?

It's not just children who are victim to preaching conmen and women, the un- or undereducated poor are easy prey as well.

[Dave]

What kind of religion needs to effectively bribe people in order to listen? Especially those who probably have not developed their critical thinking skills enough to see through the bullshit?

It's not just children who are victim to preaching conmen and women, the un- or undereducated poor are easy prey as well.

All religions offer bribes of some sort, but this is sickening and bordering on child abuse - the equivalent of offering booze and drugs to irresponsible adults. So, spiritual "health" is more important to these people than physical?

Dragonia, thanks for being one of those sensible parents who give their kids a chance at making decisions - then discuss them afterwards. I have seen far too many parents who only "talk" to their kids to say, "Do this! Don't do that! Be quiet! Go to your room! No! . . ."

I still feel so sad about the little girl, maybe 8yo, beautifully dressed and with what looked like styled hair, standing at her gate watching the scruffy (by comparison) kids playing rough and tumble, screaming and laughing, on a patch of grass. She looked up at me and said, "Please talk to me." It was heart breaking, and I was just recovering from my hesrt attack.

But, in this day and age, even middle aged men are not allowed to talk to young kids with more than a passing "Hello". That kid was oribabky "Daddy's Little Princess" and is given all she wants materially, but Daddy is too busy watching football or working to talk or play. Mummy is probably watching a soap or doing housework, or just "too tired".

Sorry, went off on my own rant but I hate to see kids "passively abused" in such a way.

[Icarus]

Dragonia, you are one cool Mom. I salute you from afar because you had the dignity and wisdom to not blow a gasket at such a display of   chicanery.  Your daughter was also pretty damned cool to bypass the candy. Tell her that an old guy, far away, thinks that she is a plenty smart kid.

I do have some concern about her because she lives in a region that is saturated...no..supersaturated..... with hard shell religionists who will, despite instructions from their fictional Jesus , treat her shabbily if they discover that she is not one of them. 






 

[Arturo]

Dragonua reminds me of my aunt...

[Dragonia]

Dragonia, you are one cool Mom. I salute you from afar because you had the dignity and wisdom to not blow a gasket at such a display of   chicanery.  Your daughter was also pretty damned cool to bypass the candy. Tell her that an old guy, far away, thinks that she is a plenty smart kid.

I do have some concern about her because she lives in a region that is saturated...no..supersaturated..... with hard shell religionists who will, despite instructions from their fictional Jesus , treat her shabbily if they discover that she is not one of them.

Thanks Icarus, my kids would probably disagree with your judgement of me as a cool mom, but I'm pretty much a rockstar...in my own head. 
But yes, it's a subject that's always in the back of my mind: I don't want my kids to be ostracized for our non-participation in religious shit. Which is the main reason I don't talk to many people about my non-belief. Rumors can be vicious and life-altering.

[Dragonia]

Dragonua reminds me of my aunt...

Your aunt must be awesome 

[Arturo]

Dragonua reminds me of my aunt...

Your aunt must be awesome 

Yes. Well she helped raise me for a bit and took me oyt the ghetto. She was a super cool "mom"

[Sandra Craft]

I don't know how I missed this the first time around, but I did.  What struck me funny was that, in addition to sweetening the pot with candy, he felt the need to add "it won't be too long".