So I am in the middle of essays and exams but did not want to neglect this for too long. A problem that I have with religious groups is how there is so much attention given to indoctrinating the children. Focusing on Christianity here, regardless of what your belief is of "interpreting" the bible - whether you take it literally or not - there are still some horrific stories in there. I say 'horrific' deliberately. When children are taught about the bible these stories are conveniently left out and they are given only the message "love one another." Now, before anyone gets upset with that statement and starts accusing me of wanting to read violent stories to kids, let me explain. While that message, "love one another," is a very peaceful and important message, that is not all that is the bible. There are rules demanding that raped women be stoned to death or forced to marry their rapist, that disobedient sons be stoned to death, and then there are the stories of slaughter. Before children can rationalize their beliefs they are presented with a clean happy notion that god means love and therefore Christianity, and only Christianity, means happiness and love as well. By the time these kids can read the bible for themselves they either feel that it has been explained well enough and see no need to read anything else in it, or force themselves to either ignore it or somehow interpret it to mean something entirely different. What is wrong with this? one may ask. If you were to wait for a certain age for children to be introduced to the bible and religion and they could read all the way through it, how many do you think would choose to believe in this particular god or at least the teachings of this book? Why can you simply not tell children to love one another rather than saying to do so because a god tells them to? I am not saying that no one would choose Christianity after an undoctrinated childhood - I know people who were raised without religion and chose this particular religion later on in life - I just have a problem with this being forced into children's minds as fact. What would happen if stories from the bible were read as bedtime stories alongside fairy tales, either presenting both as a way of life or both as simply stories? The image I have included is a religious tract from Chick publications intended to convert children to Christianity and can be found at www.chick.com.
3 comments:
I do have to admit that those are some odd comics on that website. It almost seems like they are doing it ironically. You keep reading and waiting for the punch line and it never comes.
Your argument is interesting, but you should consider the many, many, many things that we do 'indoctrinate' our children with as a society. For example, our entire culture is so deeply entrenched in a capitalist democracy. Most people are not at all raised to ever really consider radically different ideologies such as anarchism or communism, and that's just one example.
Just something to consider, although I do think the topic of children and religion is an interesting one.
Krystal M. raises a good point; children are often fed selective information to indoctrinate them into an ideology. However, this should not be seen as a justification for how christianity educates children. This type of education is unhealthy in all realms of life. Societies' views towards communism and socialism, in the U.S. especially, are extremely detrimental and ignorant. A more comprehensive education in all subjects, religion included, is necessary for the development of a progressive society.
Krystle, that's a really good point. You're right it's not just religion that indoctrinates children at a young age. I don't think it's right that things like capitalism are presented to children as the "norm" without giving an alternative. It would be interesting though to compare how the history of these ideas are presented in formal education though. In high school almost everyone has read one thing by Adam Smith and capitalism is presented as an ideology that developed throughout the years. And yes, by the time you reach high school it might be too late and the 'damage' may already be done, but I know for me, I was lucky enough to have a history teacher who presented different political and economic ideologies presented in a mostly objective way. With religion, it sometimes seem it is something 'other' if that makes any sense at all. While, in history class the rise of religion may be studied, unless you are taking a early civilizations world history, the origins of religion (or at least the mainstream ones) is not often discussed. I know there's holes in this particular argument - I am coming from one high school, perhaps both are taught differently elsewhere - I just also think that is something else worth considering too.
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