When Children Learn About The Bible Is It Really Fair Not To Teach Them All The Horrible Stuff It Contains?
When ever I learned about the bible and “god” as a child all the stories where those that played on the imagination – stories of magic by God (creation complete with talking snake, Noah, Moses and the Red Sea, Samson and his long hair, David and Goliath, Jesus walking on water and generally being David Blaine).
Never did I learn of the Levite sending his concubine out to be gang raped, or the man being stoned to death for picking up sticks on the Sabbath, or Adulterers being stoned to death, or the wars where God commanded that women and children be slaughtered.
If I had learned these I would have rejected God much earlier.
Is this a typical religious indoctrination tactic for child recruitment? Isn’t this a bit like hiding the small print?
Yes,this is the PR machine at it’s most deceptive.I also only learned of these things much later than I should.
When the child is of age that is the job for parents to teach them all that happened in the Old Test.
I am annoyed at some of the bible books available for young children, they give a sanitised view of the whole thing and leave out questions that should be asked, and disguise the fundamental fact that the 21st century child is being trained to worship a bronze-age thunder god.
Children should learn about the Goodness of God, Not the Old Testament stuff.
This reminds me of a Little story I once read that stuck with me…..”Out of the mouths of Babes!”
The teacher asked the pupils to tell the meaning of loving-kindness. A little boy jumped up ans said,
“Well, if I was hungry and someone gave me a piece of bread that would be kindness. But if they put a little jam on it, that would be loving kindness.”
Sometimes we can learn so much from children, We teach children about the goodness of God. Why bother them with the scary stuff of the old testament before they are old enough to understand?
The comprehension of a 5 year old is not the same as a 15 year old’s. These other accounts are taught (or should be) on an age/comprehension basis.
I see you have a difficult time believing God can do what we call miracles. I think you may wish to look to see if your idea of what God is was made by you, instead of discovering who and what He really is.
You managed to escape just in time……………
I don’t talk about a lot of things religious and non-religious to young children. They deserve a childhood. Mature sin needs to be discussed by mature people.
I see by your post you do not have a clue who God is and anything about His love. Instead you filled your mind with hate and you despise God. I feel sorry for you.
Oh, so the story of thousands of christians being crucified didn’t sink in?
As a child I was taught the whole thing, and we taught our children all the stories too. Children can handle more than we give them credit for.Children who grow up in war-torn countries live with these things on a daily basis, and handle it. You certainly teach them as their comprehension develops but they understand reality. The world has no problem with it. Have you ever watched what your kids are watching on TV?
Once a year parents, preachers and sunday school teachers tell very small children “God had Jesus killed for our sins and jeusw loves us and thats why we hunt easter eggs,,
“the imagination – stories of magic by God (creation complete with talking snake, Noah, Moses and the Red Sea, Samson and his long hair, David and Goliath, Jesus walking on water and generally being David Blaine).”
all this stays ‘fun’ till a kid starts getting older and asking questions ,,,,,
Things that people find upsetting in the Bible can be divided into two catergories: things done by people, and things done by God.
I assume that the upsetting things done by people, regardless of how horrible they are, probably don’t shake most people’s faith. However, the upsetting things done by God clearly are a cause for normal concern. Examples are plentiful and include drowning most of humanity as well as ordering the nation of Israel to slaughter the people who were living in the Promised Land to gain control of the land (genocide).
One way to look at the horrible things done by God is rather than being an unchanging perfect God, God may be changing with time, and part of the beauty of our relationship is that we are learning and growing as a result of each other.
God regretted killing most of humanity after flooding us out in Noah’s time. God changed his mind about wiping out Israel in the desert when Moses pointed out that the rest of humanity would look down upon God if he brought Israel into freedom, only to kill them in the desert.
At the time of the Old Testament, God gave us numerous rules, such as slaughter anybody who is found in adultery, but then Jesus arrived teaching the importance of forgiveness on the very same issue. Jesus didn’t slaughter the woman who was caught in adultery, He merely said don’t do this again.
I take the above as evidence of a changing God, versus an unchanging one, a God who is trying to engage in a loving relationship with all of us, a God who wants to listen to us, and a God who truly considers what we have to say is important. to Him and to the rest of the world.
The book is about life itself. Have we changed so much even today with laws to provide protections for the poor and accountability for the leaders?
Yes, I think children should learn about the evils of life before leaving home so they are prepared to deal with them later in life. The Hebrew Bible teaches us how to live this live, rather than being a path to the afterlife.
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No.
I teach my children all of it, they can see more than that on cable tv, besides i don’t want them to be surprised or confused. Nothing iwas done that wasn’nt before.
This is an example of modern day indoctrination, children should not be taught the bible as they are now, it should be taught to them as just one of the many different opinions and philosophies of the age, for at the moment it is taught to our children as truth!!! what truth is there in the bible ???? the entire book can be intellectually dismissed!
I don’t teach my children anything but the facts and with these facts they have reached their own conclusions. Teaching the bible as fact to children takes away their human rite to choose what to believe, this is against all laws of humanity I can think of.
Yeah same here, i only got disgusted when i decided to pry my head in the bible and have a read for myself.
Anyone who rejects the Lord based on things they obviously “do not understand” is just looking for an avenue or an excuse ( cop-out, more like it ) to not believe. You were never in the running to be God’s child if you choose human reasoning over trust and faith in Him who has and will never fail you. Keep your mindset in the Old Testament and never seek out who Jesus is and what He did for you in the New Testament and you will oficially give Satan the victory. He is dancing over your lost soul, but the even sadder thing is……..you are allowing it!
Would you tell your 5 year old child about the latest rape or murder in your town?
The same criteria is used concerning gory Bible accounts of men’s evil actions (the Bible is a very truthful book, it tells the whole truth when describing an event)
When children are young, they should be taught the basic nice stories first, like how God created the world, Adam and Eve (leave Cain and Abel for later) Noah’s flood, baby Moses, boy Samuel, Elijah and other miracles in the Old Testament, the birth of Jesus (leaving Herod’s killing of the babies for later) the life and miracles of Jesus, and a not very gory account of how Jesus died on the cross, but emphasising His ressurecton . Also Acts of the Apostles, such as the day when the Holy Spirit descended, the healing of the lame man.
When they are little older add deeper stories, like Abraham and Isaac, the plagues of Egypt, Samson and Delilah, David and Goliah, The whole story of Christmas and Easter, etc.
When the are in their early teens they can read the gory stuff by themselves, like I did when I was 12 or 13.
Is there something wrong with protecting kids from the bad stuff until they’re old enough to synthesise it properly?
The Scriptures, the world and life…all are a bedlam of many mirrord kaleidescopic realities. The bruatlity of life. Incidents you have mentioned above, are a part and parcel of life.
When we are happy the world is beautiful.
When we are not, it is not.
The greatest of Gods tormetors reside in these lands of plenty, freedom, free will, and so called liberation.
He gives forth unstintingly and gains incessant endless torment. Whereas eastwards respectors of persons and God, live life with so little, existing, suffering the harsh and turbulent rigours of life with such dignity.
How odd…much armed with nuclear weapons, much monied with trillion dollar surples, free to live as they will, and in the stead of a simple thankyou, an endless unceasing torrent of abuse, fury and ire, the devils most powerful tool, the media, feeding off the pain suffering and helplessness of the mob, cooing over the hapless victims on talks shows complete with microphone, how much do they care…….
The have so much and still in such need and volitiantly berating, blaspheming, scandalising all things and beliefs godly.
My point is..all feel so free to vent their lamentations Upon Gods threshold, but will never speak out at the moral deacy and incredible suffering of western atheists, declared and closeed….
Reject God. He rejects in kind….and we are left mutually much rejected….so what have we achieved….
Why arent proclaimed atheists happy, singing of the joys of life and living in their new found emanicipation with the breaking away from the great one….
I rejected governments, as with most like minded englanders refused to vote for any one of the many political parties contesting, Blair immediately passed a law whereby any person found not voting would be liable to fine or imprisonment. I laughed so much, unfortunately God is far more lenient and tolerant.
Life goes on anyway….
Might as Well Be Happy.
Be Loved
No, it is not. Look at it with a nonbiblical example. I have two sons: one is a teenager, one is not yet 9 years old. My older son is very aware of the war in Iraq, with the IEDs, missing WMDs, torture, etc. He is capable of handling all that information. His little brother knows there is a war, but do you think we show him pictures of waterboarding or burned bodies?
There is a time and place to teach children everything, even from the Bible.
I knew all that as a kid. It didn’t stop me from accepting Christ as Savior.
it is only fair to pass over all the contents of the Bible to our children in the right way and at the right age.
it is not fair, but it is also not right. kids need to know the good and the bad that occured in the past.
All or none.
kinda like in todays world too. people teach how they want. go to school and they teach evolution as fact and dont teach all the things wrong with it. most people tell there kids are a certain age dont teach about death and killings. my kids watched a scary movie at there aunts house cause she wanted to be the first to show them one. we dont do tv or nothing. they would not sleep for weeks they had nightmares all the time. what religious rituals do people perform. all we do is baptize in Jesus name and pray you are filled with the Holy Ghost. take communion now and then. the baptized part we dont do tell they are about 13 or so. i dont know any other rituals unless you are a cult. not saying all are cults but most churches i went to really did nothing else besides the singing and preaching.
i feel it is your choice to do what you want. but make sure you do it right. like not just say God killed half of them but show why. we dont teach our kids simply it is irrelevent at this time and they can hardly comprehend the good things. when they are older and sit with adults they were learn about it all.
and i am not to say or tell people how to teach there children. i dont like people doing it to me. so i dont do it to anyone else. children can handle a lot of things but at the same time some things they cant. or should not be taught. at least what i think. i feel they should be innocent as long as possible.
Thats exactly what it is. Personally I think that there should be more strict laws on how we teach are children religion to make sure they get a reasonable overview of all religions so they can be better informed to make their own decisions.
Pretty much. You’d have to be insane to believe it without being indoctrinated first.
My opinion is not to teach the children anything about the bible. Leave the bible to adults.
I would say their indoctrination tactic is most crooked, hideous, unholy, cheating way of doing things. I don’t blame the parents; after all they are influenced by the church.
Don’t forget about the talking snake – truly terrifying.
the bible should be taught completely just as today’s world there is good and bad everywhere children need to know about God and Jesus but it was not all good,don’t leave your children feeling guilty over small thing because they have been taught that when Jesus walked the earth everything was perfect when it was not,teach them that who ever they are or what ever they have done that God forgives all things you only have to ask for it,even though they may not be able to see him jesus loved children and still does and watches over them
The truth eventually comes out in Scripture.
Children understand violence………all they have to do is turn the tv on.
But when teaching a child about the Scriptures, we concentrate on the important things:
Sin…..our need for salvation…..Christ…….the things that matter the most. Why dwell on the nasty things? There’s much more to the beauty of the Bible than what you’ve pointed out here.