Archive for July 10th, 2008
How is this not child abuse?
Even though I’ve long since rejected theistic faith and religion, I still receive The Banner, the magazine of the Christian Reformed Church denomination (because my former church hasn’t gotten around to purging my name from its membership list).
In last month’s issue, the “humor” page contained a horrifying “joke”:
When we called to talk with our grandchildren, Kimeisha was pouting. “Don’t feel sorry for her,” said her mother. “She just punched her brother in the stomach.” So I changed the subject and asked Kimeisha what she had learned in Sunday school that day. She began to tell me the story of Noah and how all the bad people died in the flood. Suddenly she said, “Just a minute, Grandma, I have to go tell my brother I’m sorry.”
This is funny?!?
Think about this for a second. A credulous child was brainwashed into believing that there is a vengeful deity who threw a temper tantrum and, in a single act of gratuitous violence, wiped out the Earth’s population (save one family), and as as result, lives in fear of a similar fate befalling her.
If a human parent threatened his/her child with death for being disobedient, causing that child to live in fear of such a punishment, any rational person would call that child abuse. How is teaching the flood story any different? Even if we grant that the rainbow promise negates the implicit threat, that obviously didn’t make much of an impression on this child — which, of course, was the desired outcome.
This is sickening enough on its own, but presented as humor, it’s downright repulsive. Of course, this isn’t surprising given that the same religion teaches that outsiders will be tortured forever…