News:

If you have any trouble logging in, please contact admins via email. tankathaf *at* gmail.com or
recusantathaf *at* gmail.com

Main Menu

Not All Christians

Started by Recusant, July 04, 2022, 06:21:51 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Recusant

Surely there are Christian schools that do not teach sanctimonious doctrines of bigotry, where the teachers do not abuse pupils, nor allow students to bully other students. They just don't get in the news. Meanwhile, back to chronicling the many who do.

"Ex-Students Reveal Abuse at 'Christian Torture Compound'" | The Daily Beast

QuoteIn southwest Missouri, a Baptist compound for troubled teen boys promises redemption on its bucolic 200-acre campus. Behind the facility's arched gate, children will find a swimming pool, sports fields, and ranch for horses and exotic animals. Agapé Boarding School "is truly a place where miracles happen," one piano-filled commercial boasts.

"At Agapé, we lovingly, patiently, and biblically teach your child the importance of submission to authority and the joys of being an obedient law-abiding citizen," a soft-spoken voiceover actor says while images of smiling teenagers flash across the screen. "Mom and Dad, we want to support you in your effort to rescue your son from himself."

But former students interviewed by The Daily Beast say the school was far from heavenly. Instead, they encountered a climate more like Lord of the Flies, where staff were given free rein to restrain and beat students, and where some kids were emotionally and sexually abused. They claim Agapé has functioned like a "cult" and "Christian torture compound" for decades, allowing adults to manhandle teenagers and withhold food, water, and proper clothing—apparently without most parents ever knowing.

[Continues . . .]
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration — courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."
— H. L. Mencken


billy rubin

#1
my kids went to one that manages better than most.

https://www.olneyfriends.org/

not perfect, and only sort-of christian in the manner quakers do it, but way above the level of ordinary religious schools. its subject to the usual dysfunctions of a secondary boarding school, but three of my kids got a decent education from it without being subject to the constraints of the local dominant culture.

however.

^^^this place stands in stark contrast to the indoctrination mills that i see passing for christian schools. most of them-- and then religious colleges like oral roberts and whatever jerry falwell left behind-- are focused on grinding in local cultural values under guise of religion. kids appear to come out them knowing less than when they went in, rather than more.


set the function, not the mechanism.

Bluenose

I went to catholic primary schools and a catholic secondary school.  At no time did I see any evidence of any abuse and on the doctrinal question out of the four members of my family who attended such schools, both myself and my nephew who attended the same secondary school and my niece who attended a girls catholic secondary school all ended up being atheists, so any indoctrination we were subject to failed.  Only my late sister who attended the same school as her daughter, my niece, ended up being a believer.  My experience was of a school that encouraged critical thinking over dogma.  They taught real science and logic etc.  It's the schools branded as "christian schools" IMHO that are the ones teaching woo as real, I don't trust them.
+++ Divide by cucumber error: please reinstall universe and reboot.  +++

GNU Terry Pratchett


Icarus

We sent our daughter Terri to a catholic high school.  We were careful to determine whether the school would teach Catholic dogma. We were more than pleased to learn that they did not teach dogma and that the school was among the highest ranked academic institutions in the area.

We were anything but religious and definitely not of the Catholic persuasion. The cost for tuition was pretty steep because we were not Catholics and did not qualify for the blessing of the diocese and its financial arrangements.

Money well spent. Terri went on to graduate with high honors and immediately entered college where she also excelled, perhaps as a result of her high school academic discipline. Santa Fe High School may have been a Catholic institution, but they were exceptional educators.