« Iranian citizens show America what you're supposed to do when an election is stolen. What were you doing after the 2001 hijacking of Democracy? | The Insolent Braggart's Blog | MAX BAUCUS OR MAX F**K-US - FOLLOW THE MONEY TO FIND OUT »
Is it time to reconsider Freedom of Religion? Alienated children and dead 11 year old girl thinks so
If you have read any of my previous writings you know I am an atheist. I personally believe that religion is extremely destructive and counterproductive to a happy life. And obviously - I believe that this life is the only one we get. That thought scares the hell out of many people - most of them Christian. There is a beauty in the brevity and urgency of a finite life. We have an extremely limited time to do some bit of good for future generations.
But there is nothing beautiful about a life that is wasted, or stolen. I just finished looking at how Jehovah's Witnesses treat former members of their cult. They are relentless in tearing families apart. Challenging the Watchtower's absurd positions (positions that have been debunked and thoroughly defy reason) means that you lose all friends and family still associated with the cult. What's particularly sad is the unnecessary persecution and ridicule these children face from classmates because they aren't permitted to celebrate - well anything. Their teachers are instructed that they must be removed when any sort of celebration takes place. Kids are cruel - and tend to pick on things that are different. There is no need to subject children to this, or to take away simple joys especially for no reason.They are indoctrinated at birth and fed propaganda by their parents and the con men in the Watchtower from the time they can understand language. They can't vote, hold public office or serve in the military. The cult demands obedience with their absurd customs. There are hundreds of normal positive activities they are forbidden from engaging in - and the only reason they can't experience these things is because they got the bad luck to get conned into this church.
But as disgusting as these things are - parents have the right to steal joy from their kids and have them waste what limited time they have here participating in this farce. Do I wish that were different - yeah - but it's not nor is it ever likely to be. But what should changed are the times when the lives of children are put at risk by the ignorance of religion. JW's don't corner the market here - although they have one absolutely rediculous practice of not allowing blood transfusions. There is a video on youtube where a young couple was told they had to give their baby a transfusion using their blood - or the baby would certainly die. They went to the window, looked into the sky and asked for God's wisdom. They felt God would want them to remain strong to their medically unsound and rediculous position. They told the Dr's that they would just have to trust God - but they would not give blood. These people were so brainwashed they would let their innocent baby die for religious doctrine? WTF? The State intervened and forced them to do it - or face a murder charge and they eventually complied. Then the church excommunicated them for breaking the rules!!!
And it's not just the fringe versions of Christianity that make me question whether religious freedoms need to be reconsidered in this Country. Good old fashioned "normal" Christians Dale & Leilani Neumann watched as their daughter got sicker and sicker and died from diabetes. They hadn't taken her to a Dr. in 8 years and as the visible signs of the disease ravaged their daughters health, they just thought that an invisible man in the sky would miraculously read their thoughts and heal their daughter. They loved a myth more than they loved their daughter. OK - yes I'm venting. I'm sure they honestly believed in their God - but should blind faith give them the right to steal the life of their daughter for their own beliefs?
Leilani just got convicted - but astoundingly no one thinks she'll face much - or any jail time. Why? Because they don't want to take a mother away from an already hurting family? Why should she be allowed contact with any child - ever? She should not. And why should a Christian white woman get any less of a sentence than the inner city black woman who is addicted to drugs and allows her child to die from neglect? I have much more sympathy for the person that's suffering from addiction than the person who makes a conscious choice to watch their daughter die because they are too proud to admit they might (and in my opinion are) be wrong.
A Pew Research poll shows that over half of all Americans change their religious affiliation at least once in their life - many more than once. By stealing the happiness of childhood - or the precious life of a child because you are certain your religion is 100% accurate is obscene and has no place in a civilized learned society. But we're not there yet.
Advertisement
Sorry, I kind of gave up on this issue. What is is, and what is not is not.
But it must be pointed out, it must be published...that is when religion is used for hurtful purposes.
So good post!!!
June 18, 2009 11:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Watchtower cult is WORSE than Jones town.
WHY? 900 casualties at Jones-town versus accumulated THOUSANDS dead in last 50 years over the Watchtower society cult ban on vaccinations then organ transplants and now currently 'whole' blood transfusions.
Moreover,there are a MILLION members who do not practice optimum health care ( diabetes control,blood pressure,obesity etc) because of the apocalyptic Watchtower's promise that the 'new system' paradise is coming "shortly".
These followers will die PREMATURE deaths.
The Watchtower cult is EVIL!
--
Danny Haszard http://www.dannyhaszard.com
June 19, 2009 5:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
While I understand where you are coming from on the issue of JW's and holiday celebrations, please understand that there are two sides to every story. It is easy to find a lot of negative information from disgruntled former JW's who were unhappy with the faith or the way they were raised. Their experiences are very sad and it is sad that they had such unhappiness as children. However, some JW children (myself included)enjoyed their religion and truly never feel left out, embarrassed or harrassed because of not celebrating holdidays. I voluntarily left the organization as an adult and although I lost all my former associates, I have not experienced the extremes that some other former witnesses have suffered. Please take information presented about witnesses with a grain of salt and balance negative reports and postive reports, the truth usually lies somewhere in the middle.
June 19, 2009 9:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
"By stealing the happiness of childhood - or the precious life of a child because you are certain your religion is 100% accurate is obscene and has no place in a civilized learned society."
Who defines happiness? I damn well have no reason to think you do.
There are a number of studies (one most recently out of the JSSR or the ASA journal--can't remember which) that show that religious people tend to self-report being happier than those who are not. Another showing that religious parents tend to have less delinquent children. There can be a number of reasons for this, but the one I find most plausible is not due to the nature of religion but the nature of humans and the probable anthropological necessity of an ordered cosmos (whether a deity is involved or not), but I digress.
ALL parents present a restricted world to their kids. There are no exceptions. That's what it means to have a worldview, to have a culture. Some things, but not others, are considered "normal" or relevant to an individual's existence. To pretend religion is the only thing that does this is to be nothing short of naive. Further, to pretend that your atheistic view of the world--which would ABSOLUTELY restrict the choice of your child if you do or if you will have any--somehow functions differently than that which you bemoan in your post about religion is unrealistically naive.
June 19, 2009 1:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
I grew up in the JW religion and while my way of life felt normal to me, and I didn't feel neglected when I did not celebrate holidays, I can say with certainty that I did miss out on the feeling of family and memories that other families remember. Did I miss the presents? No, not really, but I missed feeling special, and loved in ways that those types of events make you feel.
I think it is abhorrent that any family is pushed into shunning other family members because they chose a different course. No mother or father should be pushed into turning their backs on their children.
Religion should add to ones life, not detract, and it cannot add to ones life if you lose family over it.
And for the Makaden poster who says that kids being raised in an atheistic world have their choices restricted, that is not always true. My children have choices and they know they have them. They know they can decide what they want to believe when they are older, we tell them that all the time. I was never told that growing up as a JW. One religion, one truth, one way to salvation...until I finally realizd that there is more than one way to live. I will not waste one more day.
Great blog, thanks for sharing.
June 20, 2009 12:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
You might want to reconsider your reconsideration of freedom of religion. What this might mean for you is that under whatever authority prevails, you would be forced to "believe" whatever said authority says you should believe. In your case, it might require that you believe in a God who torments people in hell or rewards them with heavenly life on a whim.
It appears that you have fallen victim to the hate-filled false stories that abound on the internet about Jehovah's Witnesses. That's sad for you. However, the freedom you have to be an athiest also extends to everyone else, including Jehovah's Witnesses. You don't have to like it, but you must accept it.
June 20, 2009 10:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
A Principle says:
"However the freedom you have to be an athiest also extends to everyone else, including Jehovah's Witnesses"
Too bad JW's don't extend that to those who were JW's and exercised their freedom to believe something else. Instead they are shunned. Freedom only works one way in the JW religion.
June 20, 2009 10:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
Freedom for Jehovah's Witnesses includes making the choice to either stay in Jehovah's congregation of people or to leave it. They are free to do either. No one is forced at gunpoint to become one of Jehovah's Witnesses, and no one is forced to remain. That does not mean there are not consequences for deciding to abandon your dedication, such as a barrier between former friends or the family members who've decided to keep their identification as Jehovah's Witnesses. By choosing to leave one erases a huge commonality with their friends and family. And I ask, if a person does not want to be identified as one of Jehovah's Witnesses, why are on earth care if they shun you or just don't have much to do with you anymore? Seems like the person who is so anxious to leave would be glad to be free of all those people.
See, we must all choose one way or another. We can't have this and that; it has to be this or that. It's like trying to work two full-time jobs and give your all to both. So if you leave, do so freely, but don't expect your choice to be free of consequences.
June 20, 2009 7:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
No one and nothing should ever stand in the way of a family loving and associating together. JW's do that. When one family member chooses to believe something different than the rest of their family, the family that continues to be JW's is forced to either shun the person who leaves or face losing their ability to worship in their way (as JW's). You cannot retain family who has left and retain your religion, and those who leave cannot have the true freedom to leave and believe a different way AND retain their family relationships with family who stays. You know it is true and so do I.
Family is family and no one should be forced to leave it.
And don't even get me started on the fact that when people "dedicate" themselves to a lifetime commitment in this religion, many of them are 8 or 9 or 11 or 14 years old. That is not free choice. Free choice is choosing to do so as an adult and then facing the consequences of changing ones mind. A 9 year old should not be making commitments that will last them a lifetime , and should not be forced to live with the consequences of changing those decisions when they reach adulthood and determine that they were lied to...(check out the reality of the date 607 BCE for example).
No one is glad to be free of family, and as I stated above, religion should add to ones life, not take away from it. This religion erases families. That is not an addition.
June 20, 2009 7:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Believe as you will; that's what freedom of religion is about.
June 23, 2009 8:22 PM | Reply | Permalink