What does a pedophile predator and religious indoctrination have in common? More than most people realize. They both follow the doctrine of “Get ‘em while they’re young.” They both use an attractive gimmick like candy, or a toy, or a puppy to entice their victims. They both have permanent and negative long term impact on the lives, the psyches, of their victims. And both are obscene, while only one is illegal.
A facebook friend* recently posted a video to my page. It was part of a cartoon aired by EWTN, a Catholic TV programming network, geared toward infants and toddlers. It shows a cartoon like baby Virgin Mary or a baby nun (see photo above) gleefully smiling and singing under the crucified body of her “son”. There are a series of these DVDs available to Catholic parents, geared toward the ages “0 to 5 yrs.” That’s ZERO to FIVE years old! One can imagine that the parents who buy these things are living in fear of their newborn child falling under the spell of Satan, or being possessed by a demon, or worse... stumbling across a secularist with their filthy immoral ways and their rejection of religious nonsense before they get out of diapers or into pre-school.
Then there is this delightful video. Gawd only knows what this image is intended to convey to an infant or toddler http://www.throughthefamily.org/holybaby2.jpg
A child priest? Clearly being a priest is just the “funnest” thing in the world. Jesus loves child priests. Priests are just big kids. Now there’s a message you want your toddler to embrace in this day and age. Maybe growing up to be a priest is the bestest thing in the whole wide world! Note the puppy.
What says Jesus loves you better than colorful wooden baby sized rosary beads with cross for your infant to suck on or stick in her eye? The intent is clear: to take this blank slate infant’s mind and accustom it to handling religious paraphernalia so it becomes second nature in a few years.
http://www.catholicmissionaryfamily.com/2010/10/rosary-and-kids-part-4.html
I have considered this phenomenon carefully and have come to the conclusion that indoctrination of babies and toddlers to mindless superstition ranks as one of the most obscene, despicable, and grotesque religious perversions ever conceived. I cannot imagine what the comparable efforts of similarly fanatical atheist parents would be. Perhaps giving the infant a miniature copy of The Origin of Species? A stuffed Darwin doll? A video of a child-like Madalyn Murry O’Hair , or Hitchens or Dawkins figure singing and dancing with puppies while praising the wonders of secular thought, science, reasoning and questioning?
No, atheists aren’t so insecure in their grasp of reason and their rejection of superstitious foolishness to be compelled to perpetrate such things on their children. Freethinking parents understand the value of allowing a child to grow, explore, question, and think.
There’s a fine line between imparting social values, providing guidance, and cultivating a well adjusted child; and co-opting a child’s mind to infest it with his parents’ beliefs or non-beliefs in an effort to avert any possibility of independent thought through the developing years. Marketing religion to infants crosses that line.
But maybe I’m being too rash. In fact, perhaps this represents an opportunity. I’m picturing a line of religious relics for ages 0-5 years. Catholics are big on relics. I’m picturing a mobile made up of baby sized replicas of Jesus’ foreskin; a rattle made from replica nails used to crucify Jesus, blood stained of course; maybe a smiling child like Saint Peter doll, who, in keeping with tradition is crucified upside down naked. A series of devotional DVDs, with forty-two children being torn to pieces by cute teddy bears, or a little girl having her hand cut off by a smiling neighbor boy child; or happy smiling Hebrew children putting happy smiling pagan children to the sword - all documented in the bible as good things.
A facebook friend* recently posted a video to my page. It was part of a cartoon aired by EWTN, a Catholic TV programming network, geared toward infants and toddlers. It shows a cartoon like baby Virgin Mary or a baby nun (see photo above) gleefully smiling and singing under the crucified body of her “son”. There are a series of these DVDs available to Catholic parents, geared toward the ages “0 to 5 yrs.” That’s ZERO to FIVE years old! One can imagine that the parents who buy these things are living in fear of their newborn child falling under the spell of Satan, or being possessed by a demon, or worse... stumbling across a secularist with their filthy immoral ways and their rejection of religious nonsense before they get out of diapers or into pre-school.
Then there is this delightful video. Gawd only knows what this image is intended to convey to an infant or toddler http://www.throughthefamily.org/holybaby2.jpg
A child priest? Clearly being a priest is just the “funnest” thing in the world. Jesus loves child priests. Priests are just big kids. Now there’s a message you want your toddler to embrace in this day and age. Maybe growing up to be a priest is the bestest thing in the whole wide world! Note the puppy.
What says Jesus loves you better than colorful wooden baby sized rosary beads with cross for your infant to suck on or stick in her eye? The intent is clear: to take this blank slate infant’s mind and accustom it to handling religious paraphernalia so it becomes second nature in a few years.
http://www.catholicmissionaryfamily.com/2010/10/rosary-and-kids-part-4.html
I have considered this phenomenon carefully and have come to the conclusion that indoctrination of babies and toddlers to mindless superstition ranks as one of the most obscene, despicable, and grotesque religious perversions ever conceived. I cannot imagine what the comparable efforts of similarly fanatical atheist parents would be. Perhaps giving the infant a miniature copy of The Origin of Species? A stuffed Darwin doll? A video of a child-like Madalyn Murry O’Hair , or Hitchens or Dawkins figure singing and dancing with puppies while praising the wonders of secular thought, science, reasoning and questioning?
No, atheists aren’t so insecure in their grasp of reason and their rejection of superstitious foolishness to be compelled to perpetrate such things on their children. Freethinking parents understand the value of allowing a child to grow, explore, question, and think.
There’s a fine line between imparting social values, providing guidance, and cultivating a well adjusted child; and co-opting a child’s mind to infest it with his parents’ beliefs or non-beliefs in an effort to avert any possibility of independent thought through the developing years. Marketing religion to infants crosses that line.
But maybe I’m being too rash. In fact, perhaps this represents an opportunity. I’m picturing a line of religious relics for ages 0-5 years. Catholics are big on relics. I’m picturing a mobile made up of baby sized replicas of Jesus’ foreskin; a rattle made from replica nails used to crucify Jesus, blood stained of course; maybe a smiling child like Saint Peter doll, who, in keeping with tradition is crucified upside down naked. A series of devotional DVDs, with forty-two children being torn to pieces by cute teddy bears, or a little girl having her hand cut off by a smiling neighbor boy child; or happy smiling Hebrew children putting happy smiling pagan children to the sword - all documented in the bible as good things.
But the child leper doll and its leprous puppy which oozes pus and says “Thank you baby Jesus for healing us.” when you pull its string would be the crown jewel of the line. It would almost be a sin for a devout loving Catholic parent to resist.
* Thanks to my friend Kay Patterson for providing the inspiration for this article.
* Thanks to my friend Kay Patterson for providing the inspiration for this article.
I grew up Catholic and went to church every Sunday and started Catechism when I was six. I actually loved the stories of the saints and found them fascinating. I'm happy to this day to have heard those stories (but today I don't believe a word of them. I stopped considering myself Catholic when I was 13 even though I still continued Catholic private school and still loved even more of the stories that I heard in religion class).
ReplyDeleteI never felt indoctrined. My parents are in their 80s and did what they thought was right, by taking us to church every Sunday and taking us to Catachism every week and having us go through the Catholic either. But ... that was a different era and they did what they thought was right. To their credit, they honored and accepted our own individual choices based on our own individual seeking. We all (with maybe the exception of one of my sisters who still believes in God but doesn't go to church or worship)chose Christianity but one that we were comfortable with.
I enjoyed the early teachings I got but my parents were happy to find that we found something that made their kids happy.
Ah...those lovely stories of the Saints. Call me jaded if you like, but something about Saints who are skinned alive and are depicted carrying knives and their own skin draped over their arms (Bartolomew); a Saint depicted with her eyeballs on a platter ( Lucy); or one whose breats were cut off ( Agatha); or one whose arms were hacked off , or died having her teeth pulled out (Adrian, Appolonia); headless Saints walking around, Saints being burned to death at the stake with the Church's blessing... all seem a little raw for a six year old child.
ReplyDeleteOfcourse, it's possible they didn't share those with you, or perhaps they did and the forms of death and torture and hiddeous imagry is something religionists get off on. I dunno.
The question relains... had you not been indoctrinated at an early age, would you have still found Jesus? Or would you have explored and questioned and followed a different path? You'll never know because the choice was never yours. It was your parents' choice, just as the girls raised by their parents to respect the brutality and subserviance of islam see Islam as the one true faith and willingly succumb to it.
I imagine there is comfort and secrity in having ones thoughts dictated to them. I'm glad I never had to find out; glad my wife and I opted not to do it to our kids.
I am with you all the way! This type of mindless indoctrination is nothing less that child abuse. I am grateful that my parents took the right approach by not baptizing us kids or going to church, leaving it for us to make the choice when we were older. Of course we didn't chose this path since it makes no sense, even to a small child.
ReplyDeleteI think adding a line of "Saint" dolls to your children's toy range would be excellent. May I also suggest including an amputee doll who utters "what about me, what did I do wrong? When are you gonna save me."
tiN..
ReplyDeleteSaint dolls, and talking amputee doll...damn, I think you have a winner there.
Actually, I did search other paths -- including Scientology. Hahahaha! Yes, I laugh now but I wad definitely searching.
ReplyDeleteAfter searching, I found that Christianty worked for me. I was given freedom to search and found what I believe to be the answer for me.
I'd wager $10k that if you were raised in and indoctrinate by a Hindu family you'd have ultimately chosen Hinduism.
ReplyDeletewith 83% of Indians being Hindus, the odds favor my contention.
Similarly, if your were indoctrinated into islam as a child with approx 99% of saudis being Muslim, you'd likely be muslim as well.
You were indoctrinated into christianity; 83% of Americans call themselves Christians. Odds favored your continuity in that belief system.
Your professed "free will" in chosing your beleif system is simply an illusion of your own making.
oops..not 83% Xtian anymore..that was 2004. By 2009 only 77% of Americans called themselves Xtians. I forgot about that wonderful trend.
ReplyDeleteInfact, that may have alot to do with the increased emphasis on getting them while they have no ability to resist. Preservation of the God virus.
Nice update. An encouraging trend indeed, but only if there is a corresponding increase in the numbers of freethinkers. Do you know the figures for other cults (oops, I mean "religions") too? If the trend is just switching from one delusion to another such as Islam, then it's not a step forward for humanity.
ReplyDeletetiN..
ReplyDeleteuh oh..someone didn't read my first book!
The Pew survey showed a corresponding shift in the percentage of people who claim "no religion".
It's a good thing.
I, too, was raised Catholic and went to Catechism, and I remember watching Davey and Goliath. As a child, I thought that show was too out there and remember only watching it a few times. Now, as an adult, I enjoy watching Moral Orel reruns on Adult Swim when I get the chance. That show puts such a hilarious spin on religion.
ReplyDeleteI have a question: Having raised 4 kids of my own, what sane parent gives their 0-12 month old baby a necklace made of small, wooden beads that are obviously a choking hazard? Do they think, because it's a religious symbol, that nothing will happen to their child?
Anyway, I like the idea of the dolls with missing parts. Maybe they can work in something similar to this: http://www.thinkgeek.com/interests/halloween/ac4a/. That could represent Matthew 27:52-53 that when Jesus died, all graves were emptied and the dead rose.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteI can't answer as to what parent would give a kid a choking hazard. But I imagine if the child were to expire the parents would chalk it up to God's will.
A baby rosary? WTF??? I'm an atheist and even I think that's sacrilige.
ReplyDeleteAmazing perspective! Let me help you out with a few facts.
ReplyDeleteYour proclamation:
1. All priests are pedophiles and should not have any contact with these indoctrinated Catholic toddlers and young children because of their uncontrollable desire to have deviate sexual intercourse with them.
Fact: 87% of the child molestation charges that were brought against the one tenth of one percent of the Catholic Priests in the United States were sexual encounters with post-pubescent males. The Priests who were proven to have committed these atrocities are with out doubt predators and should be punished, as should ANYONE who commits this act. The obvious point about these statistics is the outright total avoidance of the use of the word homosexual in the description of these deviate sexual acts. Not even the Catholic Church wanted to push that political hot button. They knew it would be paraded through the media as the Church trying to divert the blame for these deviate acts on the “Gay” community instead of the hand ringing ogling priest salivating over the little ones image that has been built for us by the media. The homosexual community gets to have their cake and eat it to. Just take a ride down Castro Street in San Francisco and look at the “Life Partners” that are hand in hand. It looks like a chicken hawk convention. Sodomy is wrong and deviate no matter if you’re in the church, or “alternative lifestyle.”
2. Stories of the Saints are too much for a six year old to handle because of the explicit and graphic description of how they were martyred or how they died.
Fact: The church provides age appropriate levels of what atrocities the Saints suffered and endured and in most cases these things are mentioned in terms such as suffering, martyred, or died. The more graphic descriptions are recorded history of man’s inhumanity against man, reminiscent of the history of the slave trade and abuse in this country, would you deny that history? In addition the facts are provided for those seeking to understand the level of suffering that they were willing to endure in their service to God and humanity. The Church uses the examples of the Saints to exemplify the things they accomplished in life. Saints exist in our world today and are still martyred, suffer and die for their faith. The way our society is headed in this country it won’t be long until we Catholics will be in the same scenario. Who knows, maybe your beliefs will help expedite this inevitable outcome and maybe you’ll actually be able to participate in creating a few Saints yourself. Now if for some reason the dynamic shifts the other way I’m sure you would be just as willing to give up your life for your fervent belief in atheism, right.
3. Your concern for the child depicted with the large wooden Rosary and your concern about the choking hazard.
Fact: Bravo on your recognition of that potential hazard. Many advertizing strategies use small children with toys and the like to promote their products, action figures, blocks, marbles, tinker toys etc. This doesn’t mean that an individual purchases this item and then out of obligation to the advertisement picture arranges the same situation. There is this little thing called “adult supervision” and “common sense“, weird huh. I wonder what your reaction would be if you saw an actual advertisement of a partial birth abortion, when they bring the entire baby out of the birth canal except for the head and then stick a vacuum tube at the base of the babies’ head, suck the brains out and collapse the skull. Oh yea, I forgot, it’s just tissue and that’s really just “health care.”
Mitch
Hey. Mitch, thanks for that rant.
ReplyDeleteWe don't get too many religious nutters posting here, much less ones who can type in actual paragraphs and without all caps.
That you spent so much time trying to "educate " me and my readers, and have taken certain aspects of this post offered in a humrous vain seriously is, ...well.. quite entertaining.
That you are obviously an enabler of a church that tolerates and has covered up institutionalized child abuse , preferring to obfiscate child molestation with homosexuality , which are two entirely diferent things if you understood the peodphile mind which your lack of education and abundance of prejudice prevents you from understanding, is less entertaining. It's just despicably ignorant.
Thanks for reaffirming everything I always thought about Catholic enabling, apologists.