Enabling Religious Stupidity

One of the things we don't hear quite enough about in the news is "child endangerment" in regard to extreme fundamentalist religious parenting. In my honest opinion it has more to do with the "enabling" aspect of religion itself. As the vast majority of people in this country hold some sort of faith in any number of spiritual doctrine it is no wonder that when it comes to raising children in such an environment it is overlooked out of blatant reverence for religion itself.

I have recently been directed to a blog on Blogspot regarding such an instance of "child endangerment". The link is here. If you read through the commentary you will find Christians giving support for this woman's archaic and demeaning nature. She "[does] not believe in teaching children self esteem or that they should feel good about themselves, because they should not." Because we should esteem God above all else including the self. I would wager that a great many people in this country would not argue against that premise.

Yet, the child in question is all of four years old! And a "sinner" to boot!

Now, this post is not going to be a breakdown of this woman's post and the comments contained there...I leave that up to you, my readers, to make up your own minds.

This post is about how such atrocious minds are allowed to go on unhindered and unchecked. Sure, people should have a right to raise their children how they see fit (within the law), but I can't help but wonder what allows for this!

At the core is religion itself and all the spiritually splintered minds out there that may think this is wrong but really can't, or don't, argue against it simply because God or Jesus is invoked as the guiding principle. These people are the enablers. The same people who turn a blind eye to the likes of Pat Robertson and even Fred Phelps. It's as if all of this is "okay" because these people have a deep understanding of God and follow their scripture. They are devout and this makes them above scrutiny and often results in the empowerment of their followers or supporters.

Granted, legally, there is nothing to be said on the subject. But instilling a sense of "wretchedness" in a four year old is nothing less than child abuse in my eyes.

By telling this little girl that esteem before God is first and foremost she is saying to submit; which a great many Christian would agree with. However, in doing so, this child is going to grow up and probably be a picture perfect model of her mother and the picture perfect model Christian that her mother envisions: a submissive Christian before God. A sinful and wretched individual that will amount to nothing if God is not in her life.

I believe the great leaders in history have had some of the greatest self-esteem that anyone could aspire to. Individuals with a will to make a difference to put a stamp in the history books.

I can't imagine that these historic individuals were brought up to be sheep; to be submissive. That their lot in life was to be wretched, sinful and without self-esteem.