When Freedom Is a Dirty Word by Frank Schaeffer

[Shallah Kali]

http://frank-schaeffer.blogspot.com/2009/09/when-freedom-is-dirty-word.html
or
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/when-freedom-is-a-dirty-w_b_294891.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/when-freedom-is-a-dirty-w_b_294891.html?view=print

Make no mistake about it, there is a scarily large subculture within our society that, in terms of its "life values," is utterly hypocritical. At the recent so-called Values Voter Summit (September 22, 2009) held by the top Republicans and their Religious Right supporters where were the protests against bad parenting where crimes are committed in the name of God?

Where were the speeches against gun-toting nuts?

Nowhere.

Because the Religious Right is not religious or conservative: they are nihilists. Call 911 for that child? No! Arrest someone for carrying a loaded weapon to a presidential meeting place? Don't tread on me! I have rights!

Every day the "family values" religious extremest chip away at actual family values, and not just when they're letting little children die of neglect in the name of God. The evangelical/fundamentalist America within the ordinary everyday decent caring America is largely responsible for banning, effectively curtailing or harassing and minimizing effective sex education in our schools. This leads directly to a far higher incidence of abortion. This same group has now turned its collective will against reforming our health care system in a way that would give women and children an opportunity to have access to family care that would not just reduce the incidence of abortion but the incidence of mortality in everything from childhood diabetes to lacking prenatal care.

If ever a case pointed to the fact that we need government intervention in the curtailing of our insane levels of "religious freedom" the Worthington case is a perfect example.

It's time that all American children "belonging" to fundamentalist extremists come under the care of the state. It's time that all children are guaranteed an education wherein they will be taught facts rather than religious mythology. It is time to look at child-hurting homeschoolers and demand a curriculum that is fact-based.

With the Republican Party in the grip of the Religious Right it did everything in its power to turn the case of Terri Schiavo into a circus fraught with political "family values" overtones. Where were they as baby Worthington died -- killed by faith in God?

Thousands of children in this country are raised in everything from polygamous child-abusing religious communes to homes where medical care is denied because of "religious freedom." Tens of thousands more are beaten according to the teachings of James Dobson and his pro-corporal punishment child-intimidation manuals. Where is the law?

Religious freedom means freedom to worship in the Church of your choosing and -- after your're 18 -- to believe anything you want. Before you're 18, society should protect you. Freedom in the hands of fools is becoming a dirty word. It is time to reconnect with reality and real family values, free from abusive religion.


Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/when-freedom-is-a-dirty-w_b_294891.html

[Sinistrous]

1. Keep preachin' there, Frank.

Maybe a few of the lost souls in the abyss of fundamentalist quackery will hear and heed you.

[housewolf]

2. That's a powerful inditment

Thanks for posting

[Shallah Kali]

3. 'James Dobson and religiously motivated child abuse'

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2006/9/15/224228/895

I have been writing an ongoing series in regards to the troubling subject of religiously motivated child abuse--one of the darker secrets of the dominionist community--starting with an article regarding one of the five to fifteen or more reported deaths a year in the US attributable to religiously motivated child abuse and which are largely summarised in a wrap-up here. Some of these cases are truly horrifying--including kids being shuttled to multiple locations for continuation of abuse and even some of the very parties legally required to report such abuse being some of the perpetrators.

The folks behind Stop The Rod have been some of the best folks around at exposing this dirty secret of dominionism and keeping the promoters of "Bible-based baby-beating" from sweeping the subject--and the occasional corpse, and the scores more psychically and physically wounded from this--under the rug. Among other things, they were among some of the first to do an expose of the works from the Pearls now linked to the death of a child, and have done valuable work in also exposing the promotion of religiously motivated child abuse by Tedd Tripp (whose methods in some ways are even more abusive than the Pearls'!), Richard Fugate, Reb Bradley (who at times literally commits plagarism of Fugate's baby-beating manuals), Lisa Welchel (who became quite infamous when she promoted the use of "hot saucing"--placing hot-sauces and extracts--on the tongues of small children for things like "sassing"; Tabasco's manufacturers (McIlheny Inc.) and Texas Pete's makers both issued statements calling the practice "strange and scary" and giving strong warnings about it) and has a heartbreaking and horrifying story from a survivor of--and the main test subject for--Roy Lessin's baby-beating books.

snip

"But this is not a book about the discipline of dogs; there is an important moral to my story that is highly relevant to the world of children. JUST AS SURELY AS A DOG WILL OCCASIONALLY CHALLENGE THE AUTHORITY OF HIS LEADERS, SO WILL A LITTLE CHILD -- ONLY MORE SO."

"t is possible to create a fussy, demanding baby by rushing to pick him up every time he utters a whimper or sigh. Infants are fully capable of learning to manipulate their parents through a process called reinforcement, whereby any behavior that produces a pleasant result will tend to recur. Thus, a healthy baby can keep his mother hopping around his nursery twelve hours a day (or night) by simply forcing air past his sandpaper larynx."


Dobson, much like other promoters of "Bible-based baby-beating", claims that if you don't whack the hell out of your kids (literally) they'll be damned:

"Perhaps this tendency toward self-will is the essence of 'original sin' which has infiltrated the human family. It certainly explains why I place such stress on the proper response to willful defiance during childhood, for that rebellion can plant the seeds of personal disaster."

snip

The fun continues with the claims of Infantile Tyranny, as documented by Stop The Rod:

Dobson calls children many insulting names in this book: brat, bratty, pugnacious, spitfires, defiant, confirmed anarchists, hot lava, Goody Two-Shoes, sneaky, horrid, little revolutionaries, defiant, contentious, double trouble, hardheaded as mules, tough-minded, little fat-fingers, defiant, toughie, irritating, pack of adolescent wolves, confirmed revolutionary, Hurricane Hannah, little chameleon, negative, sour, sullen, ill-tempered, prissy, stick of dynamite, flighty, spoiled brat, goof-off, obnoxious, fireball, snippy, defiant, rambunctious, difficult, testy, groaning lump, nasty, all legs, all nose and ears, cantankerous, rude, unruly, stubborn, defiant, hostile, mischievous, gangly legs, foolish, selfish, insane. Did I mention "defiant"? On p. 6 he makes the bizarre claim that some children have "crooked wheels" and that's why they are "defiant"!

Dobson has some particularly disturbing ideas about infants, claiming that some are "defiant upon exit from the womb" (p.x) "They come into the world smoking a cigar and yelling about the temperature in the delivery room" (back cover). Dobson also says "A healthy baby can keep her mother or father hopping around her nursery twelve hours a day (or night) by simply forcing air past her sandpaper larynx" and "Don't be afraid to let her cry." (p.94)

Dobson says children cause "constant battles" (p.xii) they "pull stunts" and "they just love to go toe-to-toe with their parents. They get their kicks by playing power games." (p.17). Dobson claims "most children seem to have a need to take on those in authority." (p.39) He says "children are naturally inclined toward rebellion, selfishness, dishonesty, aggression, exploitation, and greed." (p.45)


Frighteningly, the theme of "tyrant babies" and the need for children to be broken is a recurrent theme in these books--and a recurrent theme in dominionism in general.

Of course, the recommended tactic is to whack the kid, starting at around fifteen months of age (incidentially, the age at which children start recognising themselves as separate beings from their parents) on page 136. Dobson even recommends making kids cut their own "chastening rods" to be used on them, a common tactic among dominionist "child training" manuals to make kids an active participant in their torture:

[Bluenorthwest]

4. Sadly we must bear in mind that when the Schiavo circus

came to Congress, Obama voted with the Republicans who were in the grip of the religious right. Not just Republicans play these religious games. Democrats join that circus too often, too easily.
What chess strategy was he playing with that vote?

[marew]

5. I was a Hospice volunteer in the same county at the same time

this Schiavo incident took place. Another volunteer, very involved with the case, told me that the husband was very caring and had taken her many, many places to get help for his wife's condition. He came to the conclusion he did after many years of doing whatever he could. Yet he was smeared by the Rethugs for political gain! They have no compassion and no shame.