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Emotional abuse
The story of Jesus' tortuous death is integral to christianity in general. One of the first things an indoctrinated child is taught is that he went through all of this to pay for their indiscretions. Authoritarion, fundamentalist parents will go as far as telling their children that they are sinners. That they are bad people. That Jesus suffered and died because they are a bad person.
Children are not bad people, most of them anyway, we all make mistakes. Everyone lies, most people have stolen something but this doesn't mean you are inherently evil. The way Christianity works is to instill guilt into people, disproportionate guilt for the crimes they have committed. The image of christ's broken and battered body hanging on the cross is everywhere to remind people of how he died for their evil acts. This is not something a child should have to think about. Would you tell your children in graphic detail of anyone else's death? Would you then tell them that it was their fault?
Not in my experience. What I learnt as a child, what I see others teaching the children and what I've been teaching children firstly is the love of Christ. You learn about John 3:16, you learn about Jesus and the miracles he did. You learn about God's covenant with Abraham. The law came through Moses, the only thing the law did is to show us that we are indeed sinners and that
we cannot hold onto God's law.
However, you do not come to that realization until you are an adult, not a child. If you are taught about that as a child, it would just go straight over your head. As an adult, once you realize how much of a sinner you are, you come to appreciate the Cross all the more. He who has been forgiven little will show little appreciation. He who has been forgiven a lot will show a lot of appreciation. All in all, a child doesn't have to think about themselves being sinners as they should be thinking about the love of Christ.
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You are broken and need to be fixed - only god can do that.
Along with this idea of their inherent 'badness' comes the constant reminder that they are broken. That they are not good enough. That they must seek and find god else they cannot change and moreover even if they do find god they will never be good enough for god. In atheist circles this is often jokingly referred to as convincing someone they have a disease and then offering them the watered down version of the cure. The cure that they must come back and get every Sunday or else. Unfortunately this is no joke. This is really what people do to children by indoctrinating them - by infecting them with the disease of Christianity.
So we're broken spiritually and need to be fixed spiritually. Only God can do that. So do you think we're not broken or that there is another solution? So you don't like this because of this, how do you think it really is?
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Developmental abuse
Fundamentalist and especially creationist religion destroys people's ability to think critically and instills in them a distrust of scientists and 'outsiders' and complete unquestioning dependency on religious authority figures. From an early age they are taught to mistrust or even outright dismiss anything that goes against what they are taught - along with this comes the inability to change their ideas or opinions and always act upon their preconceptions regardless of the evidence presented to them. Not only does this culture of unquestioning loyalty to religious authority figures make people extremely open to manipulation it also opens the door for actual physical abuse that is ignored or covered up by people who are indoctrinated into revering these authority figures, though admittedly not a common occurrence it is statistically significantly more likely that an abused child's abuser in the US will be a christian authority figure, which brings me to my next topic in this thread
I like reading between the lines, from what I read here it follows that your mind, Scaly, can still be changed and you can still come to believe! As for a Christian Authority Figure, they will be judged more strictly. Before they come to teach they will first fully understand the ramifications of becoming a teacher.
James 3:1 Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.
As for unquestioning loyalty to Religious Authority Figures -
Hebrews 13: 17 Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because
they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.
Ofcourse, since we are adults, we have the knowledge to know when to submit and when to not listen to them. We are smart enough to know when something is up.
I'll address the others later on today.