if you had to think about that question, you make me sad.
I’ve written a lot about religion in the past - mostly condemning stupid Christian behavior or declaring my atheism for whatever reason or another. In the past little while I’ve started to question my tone toward religion, christianity and my own beliefs. Although this statement has nothing to do with the following post - I just want it known that I am not “against” religion or christianity like I once was, and in no way do I know what to label myself. … Having said that, I think one think I never wrote about was how much I hated people who won’t let their children have medication.
I’ve just read a book called God Grew Tired of Us, and in the last chapter they look at the abuse that religion puts on children - mentally. The one thing it doesn’t really touch on is how religion can hurt children physically, and that is through Christan Science.
First of all - … why do they get their own science??? Okay, okay. Besides the point. But really - Why do they get their own science?!!!!?!?!?!? … Sorry.
Christian Science in a flash:
- Crazy lady, Mary Barker Eddy, writes a book called Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures in 1875
- Other crazy people think the book is pretty neat.
- Essentially - everything on earth is spiritual, not material… (’kay, thanks Buddha.) what you see, feel, hear, touch, smell, breath… etc is actually all an illusion, or an “error”
- Praying enhances spiritualization and heals emotionally, physically and mentally
- In 1866 crazy lady is healed from an injury after reading a passage in the bible and thus concludes that reading the bible and praisin’ the looord jesus! (amen!) heals.
- … No more medicine, yo.
- Oh, and you can heal homos too.
Mary’s “Scientific” Statement of Being:
There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter.
All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all.
Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error.
Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal.
Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness.
Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual. (S&H 468)
So why do I care? I’M not a christian scientist, and neither is my mom… or anyone in my family. In point of fact I’ve never even MET a christian scientist. So why the heck should I care?
There are now statutes in 44 states which contain a provision stating that a child is not to be deemed abused or neglected merely because he or she is receiving treatment by spiritual means, through prayer according to the tenets of a recognized religion. Although these exemptions take different forms and interpretations in different state jurisdictions, the overall effect has been to limit the ability of the state to prosecute parents for suspected or alleged abuse or medical neglect of children when such occurrences may be the result of religious practice.
Uh huh. Your kid is sick. You try to pray! it out of him. He dies… Whaaa? Did you pray SO HARD that his spirituality just became to BIG for this error of a materialistic world that we live in?? How far do we let freedom of religion go?
I am completely and totally supportive of letting people be religious. I am support being able to go to whatever sort of religious gathering you want, praying in public places… I even think it’s fantastic that high schools accommodate for those that need to leave classes to pray. I don’t think religion should be in government, on money or in anything that involves all people. … I REALLY don’t think we should be allowing parents to deny their children health care because they are praying the cancer out of them…
Have children actually died because of this? Yes. A lot of them. There are a few more recent cases found here. In fact:
A landmark study published in the journal Pediatrics uncovered more than 150 reported fatalities over a 10-year period – a tally that one of the study’s authors later said represented only “the tip of the iceberg” of a surprisingly pervasive problem.
Which means:
Assessing whether forms of religion-related child abuse pose a greater risk to children than more widely publicized threats, such as ritual satanic abuse, a wide-ranging study funded by the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect concluded that “there are more children actually being abused in the name of God than in the name of Satan.”
… The problem is that fighting this will bring screams like “But the first amendment says!!!” … vs. … “Children need rights, to protect them from stupid people.” That’s just not a political battle that many people are willing to fight.
Despite parents have control over their children’s life - just like we would take the children away if the parents punched them in the face, so should we if they refuse to let an i.v into their arm. Children shouldn’t suffer because of religion.
