Brainwashing Children

[rlrose328]

And then I watch "Jesus Camp" and I don't know if those kids WILL grow out of their brainwashing.  It's too complete by that point, especially with Mom homeschooling them, telling them dinosaurs lived with Adam and Eve and that evolution is a hoax.

[Bella]

woops I tried to quote ya there Bella sorry

Hehe, I was like, "Ohhh! ME TOO! Oh... wait... she was quoting me." Hehe

rlrose, that Jesus Camp video definately creeped me out! Some of those kids are going to become normal, some may just tone it down, and the rest... serial killers.

[a_jaynepayne]

yeah i think after seeing that video there is a HUGE difference between being influenced and brainwashed.

[Steve Reason]

It makes me sick. Teach the kid what you need to to keep him/her from killing him or herself and then let them alone. Let the kid figure out who they are. The parent only needs to be there as a sounding board. People that indoctrinate their kids are small-minded simpletons that only care about themselves.

Speaking from experience, indoctrinating a kid with religion is such a bad idea. I'm screwed up six ways from Sunday. Religion wasn't the only thing that screwed me up (evil stepdad and all of that), but I'd be a lot better off now if someone would have just told me the truth instead of telling that the shit I went thru as a kid had some sort of eternal meaning, only to find out that it's all bullshit.

Great, everything I trusted in as a kid -- god, family, country -- turns out to be a twisted, perverted lie. How could that mess with a guy's mind??  :bang:

[rlrose328]

Aw Steve.... I'm feel so bad to hear such desperation and sadness in your post.  I can see how all of that could mess up a guy's mind, honestly.  My parents indoctrinated me... brainwashed me... as well, but they were decent people who meant well.  

A lot of the judgemental crap my mom spewed all went away when she converted from Lutheran to Catholicism (a cult, as one scrapbooking gal told me).  Of course the dedication ceremony really screwed me up because she had to denounce any other beliefs she held before Catholicism... it left me sitting there thinking, "So everything you've told me and taught me about the Lutheran church for 30 years was a lie??"  She did a lot of backtracking but the damage was already done.  Not that I was a believer before that, but it went a long way toward cementing my non-belief even further.

My dad quite going to church when the elder committee he was on nearly came to blows over money... he said he could put up with that bullshit at home in his underwear, he didn't need to do it with all of them.  He only went back to listen to Mom's music programs at Christmas and Easter.  Mom asked him just a few months before he died if he was a believer and he looked at her like she was nuts and said, "Yes, of course... I just don't deal with idiots at churches."  Loved that old coot.  

You're mostly better now and, at least here, you're among friends who understand.  (((((hugs)))))

[Steve Reason]

Thanks, Kerri. That means a lot to me. :pwese: *sniff*

Anonymity is a good thing. I'm not sure I could talk this way in person. I'm afraid I don't think anyone would care enough to listen. Anyway, I am getting better, and I'm glad I have a place where people understand.  But as Robert Frost once wrote; I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.

[rlrose328]

Love that quote!

I'm afraid I'm not anonymous, either here or IRL.  My life is an open book, much to my husband's dismay sometimes.     It it comes up in conversation, I sometimes find myself incapable of shutting up... the switch in me that controls the on/off is broken.  :-)

This forum has gone a long way toward helping me find peace.  As I've said a billion times, it would be so much easier to just believe... shut off the brain and just believe what I'm told with no worries.  But I'm not wired that way.  I dwell.  The only way I can survive is to let it all out sometimes.  I just always hope I'm with someone I can trust when I do.

[Steve Reason]

Well, I guess I'm not strictly anonymous on the Internet, but I don't give out my last name and such, mostly because I don't want to be marketed to at home, and I don't want some loony sending me hate mail or something. But you know what I mean.

I'm kinda like you. I don't mind telling people what I think, and I'm always asking "why?" and "how?".And I find that beer and a little rum helps bring a little peace now and then.

[SabineMaia]

... she converted from Lutheran to Catholicism...  

She converted, eh? That's a little unusual for a Lutheran. My mom was raised Lutheran, and even though she doesn't believe in god nowadays, she still thinks Catholicism is more evil than the "modest and pious" Lutheran church. It's funny how aspects of youthful indoctrination can stay with you, even after you've rejected most of what was taught.

[rlrose328]

It's a query to most people who learn of her "backwards" conversion.  But it had a natural progression... my dad was military and she played the organ and directed the choirs at the base chapel, both Protestant and Catholic.  As time passed, she just felt a connection to the Catholic service.  I mean, really... Lutheran is as close to Catholicism as you can get without the confession.  :-)

[SabineMaia]

I mean, really... Lutheran is as close to Catholicism as you can get without the confession.  :-)

Ooo, them's fightin' words for my mother

I actually find the Catholic church much more interesting than the Lutheran one (I have a weird fascination with religion, religious myth, doctrine, and dogma. So much so, that I've debated going back to uni and studying it). I figure, if you're going to go to church, you may as well go for one that proclaims miracles and saints and still plays the whole supernatural game, right? Go big or go home, I say

[MysticalChicken]

I actually know a girl--eight years old, very bright and intelligent, and possibly the most adorable little girl ever--with a super-religious, fundamentalist mother.  They both live in Eastern Oregon after having moved there after the mother divorced her husband.  My mom and the girl's mom are best friends (despite my mom being agnostic), so she occasionally drives over there to visit her for a week or so.  One day she was over there and talking to the daughter, and the girl responded to something my mom had said with "Well, nobody's perfect.  Not even god is perfect."  The girl's mom heard the tail-end of the statement and asked her "Who's not perfect?" The girl said "God," and my mom said that her mom practically hit the roof, yelling that god was perfect, etc., etc., and basically reading her the riot act.  I wasn't there--I only heard about this second-hand--but if I had been I would have given the girl a cookie.  She may be being raised by a fundamentalist but I'm thinking there's hope for this kid yet if that's her attitude toward god and religion at the age of eight.

One of my good friends was also a Christian when she was in highschool (I've actually been friends with her since highschool), and presumably in her youth as well, and sometime in her 20s "de-converted" to atheism.

[ryanvc76]

Wow, lots of fellow Oregonians here! I miss home!!!

Anyways, I have two little ones myself, 6 and 8.  Their mother and I are divorced, but I have them every weekend.  My girls go to a Christian youth group once a month (the mothers choice) and they have a good time.  They seem to enjoy the singing and games and such - it's more of a social thing for them.  

My girls know that I am Atheist and I explained to them what it means.  I made it very clear that I don't believe in any gods, but that I am not going to tell them what they should believe.  My girls and I are very close, so at least I know they won't buy it if they are told that Atheists are all evil devil worshippers.