My mother works with a lady who is part of a church that is fanatical (in the words of my mother: "Just one step below Hell-Fire and Brimstone"). The lady was telling her co-workers about how she attended a Youth Ministry conference where participants discussed acceptable ways to teach children their religious values. My mother explained this story to me:
There were two little boys who were very good friends. One little boy was a faithful believer in God and the other wasn't. But they remained very good friends most of their lives. She folds a piece of paper as she is telling me this. So the boys grew up and eventually got into a car accident and died. They were both in front of the gates of Heaven, waiting in line. The faithful boy had, in his hands, a pile of tickets. My mom shows me her finished folded paper. To get into Heaven, you have to have tickets. The other boy had no tickets and he said to his friend: "I want to be in Heaven with you. Give me some of your tickets!"
So the other little boy ripped some off some of his tickets and gave them to his friend. My mom rips off a chunk of her paper. The non-believer said again: "Your tickets are so much bigger than mine." His friend then ripped his tickets in half and they had the same amount. So they finally reached the very front of the gates, and they began to unfold their tickets. The believer held out his tickets and had a beautiful cross. The other had bits of paper that spelled out "Hell".
This story shocked me. I have difficulty imagining what it must be like to be a child and being so scared. In a documentary called "The God Who Wasn't There", the writer explains that, in his faith, the greatest sin is to deny the Holy Spirit. And, as a child, he believed himself to have committed the sin and thought he was going to Hell.
And Hell, as we all know, is not a pretty place. It was, in my opinion, designed as the ultimate scare-tactic to gain followers in the early Catholic church. (I have no knowledge of any other religions having any similar place or punishment. I'm sure there are and I am just ignorant of them.)
But to use this on a child seems to be child abuse. Of course the child then accepts Jesus Christ as his personal savior. I would have, too, if I was told that same story when I was little.
Why can't parents resist the temptation to prematurely indoctrinate children? Why do parents scar their children in this way? I believe this to be mental and often verbal abuse. Richard Dawkins brought this concept to light in his book The God Delusion. And, we cannot be the judge of what parents do behind closed doors, or can we? Would we not stop physical abuse? Why isn't there an Indoctrination Hotline that I can call?
This idea relates back to my last post; perpetuating ideals of Holy Wars can and will lead to America's change into a theocratic government. But in this post, I think it's necessary to bring awareness to the subject of child abuse under the guise of education in morality. What would you do to stop a child from being physically beaten?
What will you do to stop the mental exploitation of innocence?
If the parent truly believes in the concept of hell, they aren't scaring their children on purpose. They're only passing down their beliefs. If a parent tells their child they are going to suffer eternally in the fires of hell just to mess with their head, that would be considered child abuse, but I don't think it can be considered abuse if it is unintentional. The parent probably believes that they will suffer in hell, too, if they sin so passing that down to their children is most likely done because the parent wants the child to learn to take care of their soul and afterlife and not as a means of torture.