The other day, my elder daughter went to Vacation Bible School with a friend of hers. I'm not sure I'll let her do that anymore. This could have been because of the bullshit little story they told about savage indians and their taming by Jesus (okay, that wasnt how the story was told, but it is how it boils down). Or maybe it was because of the Father's Day rock they made with the word "obey" on it. But it wasnt.What got to me was a simple game of dodge-ball. Not the good old-fashioned kind, the democratic (anarchic, perhaps) free-for-all of toss-or-be-tossed-at. Not even the school-style team dodge-ball.
No, this was a different variant, one that might have been less sinister if it didnt have the stink of James Dobson all over it.
Here's how it worked: The kids were divided into two teams. On each side there was a "king", and the object was to protect this "king", even if it meant sacrificing yourself.
Huh?
Had they been playing it in a synagogue, I probably would have been okay with it, but they werent. They were playing it at one of those big-ass Bible churches (the Wal-Marts of Christianity).
I was raised in the Methodist Church. I went to Sunday School, VBS, and Church Camp. I learned a lot of valuable lessons. Maybe those lessons are being sold at the Jesus-Marts, but I cant say as I like the packaging it comes wrapped in, and my kids wont be going to any more of those events (or, at least, not without some serious de-programming afterwards).
Everyone's got their right to have an opinion in America (so far, anyway), but that doesnt mean I have to expose my children to those opinions, especially the stupid ones (opinions, not children). As a parent, it's my job to give my kids the tools to be functional adults. Unquestioning Obedience is a crap tool, one which deserves to be tossed in that bin in the back of the garage, and used only to pry lids off of paint cans when you cant find a screw-driver.
Games arent just fun, they are also learning tools. And there are just some lessons I want my girls to be free of.
6 comments:
man..that is one strange game of dodge-ball..never heard of it..and I hope to never have to deal with it either..
Are you letting the kids go back? if not..how to you explain that?
just wondering..
No, she's not going back. And I told her that it's not that I dont like religion, it's that I dont trust this particular church to tell her the truth, and that I believe that the church she was at is more interested in Power than it is in God. I dont mind her going to church, but it needs to be one I can trust to be interested in the moral lessons, rather than the power politics. Even if I dont really believe in what goes on there, I can believe in the morality behind the belief (assuming it is morality)(at least as I see it).
The photo says it all. Brilliant.
BTW, I was raised a Methodist. in Indiana. But I didn't become a crazy-ass Christian like you see today in the megachurches and on TV. In fact we didn't have crazy-ass Christians in our Methodist church. We sang hymns and did communion and had church suppers and all that Norman Rockwell stuff, except it was in Indiana. My mom wasn't a nutball. My dad wasn't either. I think he voted Democrat, and I think my mom was a Republican. In those days you could have families like that.
But my sister became a crazy-ass Christian. Went to Bob Jones U. Never could figure that out.
Bravo.
I was a Methodist too. I called them suburban Methodists. That meant as long as you followed at least three of the Ten Commandments in any given week, you were doing pretty well.
Oh, and no murder either.
I like your train of thought..the kid took it well then?
As someone who's mother had a "church of the month" thing going for most of my childhood..I have seen them all..and belong to none.
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