[From the diaries by susanhu.] I was reading the comments on Blog for America earlier this evening, and Kimmy posted this from James Dobson of Focus on the Family:
“Those who control the access to the minds of children will set the agenda for the future of the nation and the future of the western world.”
Reading those words helped me figure out why an encounter I had earlier today keeps gnawing at me.
I was heading out to take my daughter to one of the Columbus Metroparks this afternoon, and while she was still out in front of the house, I ran back inside to grab my water bottle. When I stepped back outside, this pleasant older woman was standing there, and my daughter said, “This lady wants to talk to you”. The woman started talking about some church program–actually, she didn’t even say church program right away, but said that “We pick up Billy and Joey down the street every week–you know Billy and Joey, right? Everybody knows Billy and Joey!”
Blank stare from Renee. “Oh, you don’t know Billy and Joey?” Then she goes on to rattle off the names of a couple other neighborhood kids who are picked up every week by their church bus. She went on to tell me that they feed the kids breakfast and then they feed them God. Okay, she didn’t say it that way. I don’t remember what it was that she actually said, because once I realized what she was talking about, I wasn’t really listening any more, as I was composing my pleasant, “no thanks” in my head.
Get them while they’re young. I started thinking about a local megachurch. Hypothetically Speaking, over at MyDD has told me about their youth program and how they market themselves to teens.
As I thought more about this, I found it more disturbing. She gave me this little handout about their program for kids. It says “Have the children ready by 8 a.m. Bus arrives between 8 and 9.”
Imagine how appealing this is to a lot of people who don’t go to church themselves, but always have this gnawing sense of guilt that, now that they have kids, they really should be getting them “churched”. But they don’t actually have a church themselves, and, frankly, they aren’t really keen on the idea of getting out of bed on Sunday morning to cart the whole family to church.
What? You’ll pick my kids up at the house? Feed them? Take care of that “Christian formation” thing that we haven’t been doing with them, but feel like we should be doing?
I can see how a lot of people would go for that sort of thing.
I did a Google search for the Dobson quote at the beginning of this diary, and found it on this page
Quotes about Public Schools by The Religious Right
http://www.holysmoke.org/sdhok/sch6.htm
Yikes.
Here’s the church web site, by the way:
http://www.eaglesnestfellowship.com/
On it I found this link: Exposing Jezebel
http://www.eaglesnestfellowship.com/attack_of_jezebel.htm
“Read this powerful study it will change your life.”
Since it was written by the pastor, I thought I’d check it out to get some insight, but dang that thing is way too long.
Renee in OH I think I know you… if your last name ends with “ton” and you recognize me, email me.
As for the “church bus”, when I was in HS I used to ride on of those… we got a REAL breakfast, pancakes, bacon, eggs, the works… in exchange for listening to a short sermon. I did it because there was never any good food in our house..
I already knew the Bible quite well so nothing they said influenced me whatsoever.. but I’m sure it did for a lot of other kids.
BTW Eagles Nest is a college campus ministry.. not for younger children.
Pax
Renee, my post from this morning is along the same lines in a way. Our Florida Pre-Ks will be mostly handled by private religious schools with public school, tax-payer money.
About 200,000 four and five year olds will be getting vouchers for the Pre-K program….which will not be regulated by the public school system or the state. That is what I heard from some in the school system. Since I am a retired teacher, I usually get pretty good facts on this.
Here is my post from this morning, and you are very right. They are appealing to those who are in need of this loving and nurturing….and we should be doing it also. Bush’s faith-based programs are working.
Private religious schools will get more public money
I teach sunday school in an urban church. We have a very small core set of kids who come on Sundays, about 6-8 show up out of a pool of 16.
We don’t have many members with young kids, but we do have some grandkids and some other children that come without their parents. Many of them are poor. We feed snack, and play games, and feel secure together. I will win if they don’t have babies when they are teenagers. Speaking of teenagers, there are a few of those too, who want to sit in a safe place where their family members won’t yell at them. We are all the colors of the rainbow, mixed blood black, white, red, and yellow. It is very peaceful, and sometimes we go to the zoo after church.
The closest museum to us is the Burke museum, home of Kennewick man. I have been intending to take them there someday and explain evolution to them, and how there is a beautiful poem about it in the bible.
Can you imagine what we could do if we had a bus? We could get all of these kids I love so much every week. And I definitely wouldn’t send my own kids to the church you’re talking about. Is that cognitive dissonance? no. It is just my prophetic sense sending off alarms again.
Kosposted here
Thank you for sharing this. I certainly wouldn’t say that all such programs are bad, and indeed some provide something quite positive for the kids.
I cannot imagine any parent allowing a complete stranger suggesting taking a child to an unknown ‘church’ on a bus out of the blue to even consider it.
And in Florida I would be very concerned that it is not scientology behind the lure.
It is so sad that the religious nuts have ruined the god thing. One can only speculate the god-damage now as opposed to god-good stuff.
This is interesting, because it’s part of the pattern. Right wing organizations as well as conservative Christian churches are very good at providing what kids don’t have–breakfast and direction, for instance. They can attract troubled kid by giving them certainty and self-esteem, even status and real work, and a real community.
Churches have always been good at this. Their communities may be stifling, conformist and ultimately totalitarian, but they recognize and use and believe in the nurturing and supportive side, that progressives talk about but have largely abandoned.
When the right got budgets cut for state-supported services, these churches could selectively filled the gaps, which progressives neglected. Kids in more affluent but broken homes, or with always-working parent(s) also have needs that must be met. It’s scary who might be meeting them, but that’s what happens when needs are neglected in the here and now.
“People don’t eat in the long term. People eat every day.” The Wisdom of Harry Hopkins pertains.
HE took young kids and turned them into anti semites… they were loyal and did what they were told! So it is no surprise that the churches want that action… get the kids while they are young… and turn them into wingers.
on a personal note, i was raised catholic. went to catholic school. and went to ccd classes. but school was more about learning… we had religious classes, but i don’t remember them being like i see now going on.
i struggle with how i want religion in my daughter’s life. i don’t believe in religion. when we were at the trailer park last year a neighbor lady told me about a kids thing at her church. i never took my daughter there. emy went ot preschool that was held in a church… but it seemed harmless to me. they learned some songs, but it seemed like a normal preschool other than that.
i have also been involved with MOPS, which lays on the religious stuff heavily. it kind of makes me uncomfortable, even though they say its not about the religious stuff. i volunteered this past year, and the lady kept playing christian kids songs… which drove me nuts!! the kids were like 2 there!
i think as long as you are there to answer questions the kids have, and to give them a real world perspective they should be ok. i dread the day my daughter actually wants to go to church! i tell her she should consider herself lucky because i was forced to go to church.
i have five siblings. wanna guess how many of us actually go to church?
we get the point without the histrionics.
As for the general pointof this diary, i don’t really see the big deal. If you weren’t planning on sending your kids to church, then this bus approach wouldn’t really affect or matter to you anyway, save for the temporary annoyance of dealing with the ‘salesperson.’
But if you DID have an interest in sending your kid to church, then so what? Might this program actually be a GOOD thing? The kids are taken care of for a while, they get fed, etc.
It’s pretty ridiculous (if not inherently anti-religious) to say that if kids are being given Bible lessons, it’s automatically an evil thing. Believe it or not, there are plenty of people who would LOVE to give their kids some serious Bible schoolin’ but don’t have the time or energy to do so.
Now, if these salespeople start getting agnostics or Jews to send their kids to these programs, that might be troubling. But who cares if they’re preaching to the flock?
its brainwashing. kids are too young to understand or to make decisions about what they believe. i wouldn’t send my kids to some church i don’t know anything about with people i don’t know anything about! and i will make hitler references if they fit… i am not saying that all churches are trying to necessarily brainwash kids… but i don’t trust them any more than i would trust some stranger on the street coming up and offering to watch my kids for me. like i said, they may not all be trying to brainwash kids… but history shows that getting them while they are young pretty much guarantees an unquestioning follower! that is unless you have someone else to counteract it… and there are plenty of parents out there that are too busy working and trying to keep a roof over their family’s head to have time to do that!
You are assuming that being a ‘follower’ is not what these parents want. It’s not like telling a parent you’ll take their kid to a fun science camp and then secreting them away to Bible study. If I ask you, “Would you like me to take your kid to Bible class?” and you say yes, something tells me you know exactly what your kid is getting.
It’s not the choice you or I might make, and in an ideal world, everyone would let their kids pick and choose their own belief system. (Then again, didn’t most of us here become Democrats because the affiliation was passed down from our parents?)
But the main point here is that absolutely nothing in this diary indicates the program is run by hate-mongering Dobsonites. Equating kiddy Bible school with the Hitler Youth smacks of the secular elitism (if not paranoia) that idiots on the right are constantly harping about.
but my father is NOT a democrat… and i was sure as hell not raisedto be one. i am the first to admit that i can never be objective when it comes to religion. but tell me there aren’t going to be parents that send their kids just to get htem out of their hair for a while! and the parents might know what ‘bible school’ means, yet i wonder if in some cases they know to what extent.
the hitler reference btw is only to the extent that he understood the importance of getting the kids young. i am not equating these bible schools with teaching nazism… just that youth are more pliable and gullible… especially when there is nothing to counter what they are being taught.
i guess my main peeve with this, is how many of these parents go and see what is going on exactly… what is being taught. some might, but i would bet the majority don’t. after all… its ‘christian’ isn’t it! can’t be bad. and i think that burns me more than anything. the same reason no one questioned priests in the catholic church… and kids got blamed… and no, i am not saying these bible schools are full of pedophiles either. i am saying that just because they are a religious organization does not automatically mean that they are without need to be checked out. that you should trust them without knowing them or what they are about.