Children in the Bible--We'll Keep the Flames of Molech on for You.
One thing is for sure...the Bible is not child friendly. Actually, if you really know the book, Old and New, you will have to admit that small children must not have been much a part of the culture. The first humans were the first parents, Adam and Eve, not the first children so I imagine they have no good childhood memories. Well actually they have none since they never were children. Their kids, Cain and Abel come on the scene pretty much full grown. No pleasant times frolicking in the Garden of Eden.
They actually show up just in time to have Cain murder his brother and get himself booted out of the Garden by God afraid of those who don't exist killing him, go figure. Seth comes along, pretty much fully grown too. We certainly get no hint that this family every had picnics, hugs or good memories of being glad they had each other. The grown kids marry, who knows who, must be sisters that weren't worth mentioning who also only show up as full grown women having babies by brothers. Ewwwwwww, but that's the alternative since they had no girls or boys next door to get their attention. There was no next door. Incest was a necessary thing, so say literalists, until they got enough humans on the planet to marry mere cousins and then people you eventually figured you weren't related to, but were.
The main heroes of the Old Testament were adults, who in some cases were given remarkable birth and childhood mythologies to show how great an adult they really were. Often stories from previous or surrounding cultures were borrowed for the baby to show what an amazing adult he was. You know, Abe Lincoln was never really a kid until he was a famous adult. Then we find he was so darn honest as a kid, studied by the light of one lone candle by night but did succeed in not being born of a virgin as we might not have taken that all that seriously. You never heard that the child called George Washington, "could not tell a lie," until he was famous. No one waits at the hospital for famous baby to be born. The stories of remarkable children always come when the adult becomes remarkable. After all, remarkable adults must have had remarkable childhoods. This is how Moses, David and Jesus are portrayed, but any idea that we are seeing the lives of real children is illusionary. Amazing adults are pretty ordinary kids I would imagine, unless you are Bible Times adults.
We read about grown armies killing "men, women and children," but that's just a sanitation problem and incidental to the great exploits of Israel obeying the Loving Heavenly Father. Sometimes the children get murdered in the womb or special attention is paid to the fact that their heads were smashed against the wall. Nice touch there. Sometimes they get sacrificed as in the case or near case of Abraham and Isaac. Great story of childhood ala Bible times. Even though it worked out ok, according the script, I imagine Isaac was no longer interested in following Dad into the hills for weekend campouts. He prolly wondered what nonesense Dad was into now and passed choosing rather to hid under the table until Dad fell asleep.
Here are some of the Bible's greatest childhood hits...
Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod [sceptre], he shall not die.
-- Proverbs 23:13 (AV)
This is really good to know. Beating them was fine and dandy and it doesn't say spank. It says beat with a rod! Hit with a stick. Bash with a hoe. Smash with a sceptre. The reason is because "it won't kill them." Whew...good news there.
Execute stubborn kids
If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son ... Then shall his father and his mother ... bring him out unto the elders of his city ... And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die.
-- Deuteronomy 21:18-21 (AV)
Whoa! Excellent! No attempt to encourage or find out why this might be occuring in the child's life. Prolly is the parents beating him all the time with rods, knowing full well he won't die. He might be mentally ill, but we can attribute that to demons and not take any personal responsibility. The Bible is not big on understanding how one way of being leads to other ways of being or how abuse leads to mental illness. It's all about Dad. It's all about the parents. It's really never about the kids.
Kids killed for mocking hero
Some small boys came out of the city and jeered at [the prophet Elisha], saying, "Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!" And ... he cursed them in the name of the Lord. And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys.
-- II Kings 2:23-24 (RSV)
Well that should teach them. Of course the kids were making fun of Elisha's boss who was taken up in a fiery chariot and thought Elisha should give it a try. I sense they were skeptical the first rapture happened. At least, they seem not to have been convinced so as not to make fun of the man who took over after the boss left rather abruptly.
God orders child sacrifice
God did tempt Abraham, ... And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest ... and offer him there for a burnt offering...
-- Genesis 22:1-2 (AV)
Oh I know, God didn't really mean it. He was just joshin Abe, but in those days, God's didn't Josh. If you asked God if he loved children, like WC Fields, He would have said, "If they are properly cooked." Kids just had no value and certainly no say in the fantascies of their adult parents.
Daughter: a burnt offering
Jephthah made a vow to the Lord: "If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return ... will be the Lord's, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering." ... and the Lord gave them into his hands.... When Jephthah returned to his home..., who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of tambourines! And he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin.
-- Judges 11:30-32, 34, 39 (NIV)
So in come his sweetie, Biblical Ipod blaring and pow! "Sorry Sarah, I had a chat with God and told him if I got to win as a Bible man needs to win...well...just follow me. I'll explain it on the way." Of course, Mom just said, "Sarah, do as your father says. Love ya!" Later that night as Jephthah and Mrs. J held each other gently in bed, the both thought back on how the Lord had blessed them even though it had been a difficult day.
I have always been inspired and informed by these two examples of what it was like being a young Bible Times girl.
Woman must marry rapist
If a man [meets] a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her ... He must marry the girl ... He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
-- Deuteronomy 22:28-29 (NIV)
A marriage literally made in heaven! "Ok, I raped you. You want to kill me. You must marry me...me who raped you and we are stuck forever or they will cut both our heads off. Kiss me and act like you mean it."
Virgin women are war booty
"Have you allowed all the women to live?" he [Moses] asked them.... "Now ... kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man."
-- Numbers 31:1-18 (NIV)
"So you like women do you....caught you, caught you! Ok, check out these sweet things _________. If it is not intact, kill the _________. If she is pure and new...keep her for your pleasure and enjoy boys. "I, the Lord, through my Servant Moses, the most meek man on the planet, decree it." Uh huh.
Lets see...New Testament kids that got into the story...
There would be demon possessed ones that Jesus heals. There would be kids that were dead that Jesus and few of the skilled Apostles resurrected, and of course Jesus himself, who had an amazing birth because he was an amazing adult. We have some great stories of Jesus killing some of his playmates for mocking him, but those books didn't make the cut. Oh yes, we have the infants slaughtered by Herod as Mary and family slipped out of town smirking "I know something you don't know," at her neighbors with small children. I know some adults were called "children of the Devil," so that counts I suppose and false churches were called whores but those would be older kids.
No, kids don't make out so good in the Bible. They are used, abused, disowned, fried, burnt, slapped, kicked, hit, beat, sacrificed, speared, sold, eaten, ignored, marginalized and mauled. The famous ones that make it to adulthood get delivered, Angelic choirs, Kingdoms and babes galore. They get visited by Wise Men, who survived their own childhoods intact but left home as soon as they could, which is why there were called Wise Men. Bible Times were something no kid in his right mind would ever wish to return to. I'm sorry that babies were born in cultures where Bible Times parents were so ignorant of what to do next they just asked the Priests. Like they knew.
There are some kids in this world today who sadly do live in Bible Times. Their parents read the Bible and faithfully follow it's loving guidelines for child rearing and interpersonal family communications. These kids learn that all they need is "the rod of correction," or be told, "because we said so that's why." The often hear, "God is not going to be happy with you," or "you might go to hell for that Johnny." Every week they get to hear the Minister remind parent and child that they must bring up that kid in the way he "should" go, should being relative to whatever the Preacher thinks they should be, so that "when they are old, they will not depart from. it." Of course most depart long before they are old just to recover and get their minds back in tact. There are American Bible Times Talibanic parents who are soaked in the child rearing techniques of the Bible (see the list above) every week or most every month. God said it, we practice it, that does it for us. Of course, when the child grows up a bit, they will walk and should.
Go get a concordance, or topical Bible and look up "snuggle, kiss, blowbelly, "a boo", picnic, swimming, hugs, vacation, free time, love you mom, love you dad, love you son, love you sis, sports, college, education, free thinking, respect, reading, children's literature, Goldilocks, quiet time, caress, self esteem, mental health, smiling, mommy, daddy, bedtime, stuffed animals, puppets, cook out, fishing, zoo, did I say "blowbellies?" .... oh you know, the good words. Good luck... and we'll keep the flames of Molech on for ya!
Oh, what sadness this all fills me with. All I can say for myself is that I, and especially my super-stern wife of the time, was ignorant of what damage I and she were doing to our beaustiful little children.
ReplyDeleteI liken that evil book to Hitler's Mein Kampf and the holocaust that it helped bring upon our world. What we ignorantly did to our children in trying to follow "god's way" was in many ways a holocaust also.
Sad thing is that it's still going on in far too many places and far too many lives. It's very disheartening to realize that.
This child abuse still goes on in Flurry's cultdumb as well as with people in Merrydeath's cult.
ReplyDeleteAllen, you meant well. We all thought we had to somehow go by the book. It was not so much the church as the Book. The Book gives parents permission to be what they would never be of and by themselves.
ReplyDeleteForgive yourself. It's a very common story. Fundy Baptists are doing that by the hundreds within two miles of me here around Bob Jones University which goes by the Book to this day.
But it's still relevant for the 21st Century, right? It deserves to be studied, right? People can still carve out an academic niche, or get a PhD by studying this dynamic, relevant tome, right?
ReplyDeletePaul Ray
Well actually the guys who used to be ministers in other churches and have awakened with good credentials and PHD's are helping folks the most who wish to step out of the box of fundamentalism and break free.
ReplyDeleteThe most credible are those who have been on both sides of it,
I was recently contacted by some high profile former pastor now very well known with popular books at Barnes and Noble types, to help in an upcoming project not to be yet spoken of...so I won't :)
Den
Years ago I made a video entitled The Child. Real stories from the mouth of the wcg kids. It still the same now days, just another cult doing it. The child molester taught his pupils well.
ReplyDeleteDennis, if you're willing to get behind that project, it muset be OK. I'll look forward to learning more.
ReplyDeleteAs to forgiving myself, I have. That still doesn't take away the sadness over my past stupidity, but that is all too common to everyone.
I knew Merrydeath very well, too well, in fact. Even GTA recognized him as a self-righteous hypocrit. Don't think I ever had an occasion to know anything about Flurry. But, it's not limited to the COG spinoffs. The most reprehensible bunch I know of right now is that Westboro Baptist Church.
"....wish to step out of the box of fundamentalism and break free."
ReplyDeleteBreak free into what, exactly? From a fundamentalist belief in imaginary beings to a more enlightened, progressive belief in imaginary beings?
The root cause here is belief in imaginary beings. It's not Fundamentalist Christianity, or Radical Islam, it's belief in imaginary beings. There would be no Fundamentalist religion whatsoever if there were no belief in imaginary beings in the first place.
If these people, by showing that the Bible is a work of fiction, are trying to get believers to understand that it's all pretend, then I applaud them. But a lot of these works, from what I have seen, are just a move from viewing the Bible is literal to a sort-of-literal view of the Bible: "Folks, the Flood is just a myth. But Jesus still lives!"
I have a bit more respect for the nutjob who takes the Bible literally (for he worships the God of the Bible) than the enlightened believers who reject the icky parts but cling to the more palatable ones. For the latter is nothing more than extreme intellectual dishonesty. How can the Flood be a myth but the Resurrection a fact?
These enlightened pastors and theologians look down upon their Fundamentalist brethren for taking the Bible literally, for they, modern believers as they are, know the Bible is fiction- yet still believe that the god described in those fictional pages actually exist.
At that point, they aren't even worshipping the god of the Bible anymore, but one of their own construction. And they have no more evidence that their Kindler, Gentler god exists than they do for the god of the Bible.
And it goes downhill from there....The Truly Enlightened Theologian Believers can't even be bothered with such obtuse concepts such as "god" and "belief," yet still continue to carve a career out of the Bible, and belief in imaginary...somethings.
How about we skip from the Psychopathic God of the Bible straight to logic and reason, and just leave the Kindler Gentler God of the Bible out of the picture? Sure, everyone has their "journey," but the journey could be a lot quicker when these leaders, the Enlightened Ministers/Theologians, connect the dots and realize that not only is the Bible fiction, but their god (whatever he/she/it is at the moment) is too.
Paul Ray
Going back to Allen's point on child rearing- religion aside- I have been disturbed at how many people who grew up in unhappy families commit the same errors as their parents did. My only conclusion is that many never realize it. Subconsciously they see that they are treating their children the same way as they were treated, but it never becomes a concrete realization for them.
ReplyDeleteOthers realize it, and it bothers them, but they never take the time to sit down and think it through.
A + B = C. "My mother beat the crap out of me; I was unhappy and it had detrimental effects on myself and my relationship with my mother; therefore, to ensure this doesn't occur with my own children, I need to change direction and do not repeat the same mistakes" Etc.
I think the second point is due to lack of critical thinking skills, or mental laziness, or a combination of the two. And we have more than enough of that going around in the world.
I didn't have too bad of a childhood, myself, even as a semi-WWCG kid. But I can tell you this; I sit myself down often and connect the dots. I see myself acting a certain way and analyze my behavior, compare it to my childhood. If the action is detrimental, I make myself confront and think of the appropriate actions to take. It's not easy, but it works.
My point- I wouldn't be able to think things out like this if I were still a believer; others might, but I couldn't have. As a believer, I simply couldn't think critically and logically. My belief in imaginary beings prevented it.
Paul Ray
Paul:
ReplyDeleteThe former minister who contacted me has come to the conclusion that Jesus, at least the Gospel Jesus, did not actually exist. The other person he mentioned goes way beyond that and is very well known.
Both have best selling books
"Both have best selling books..."
ReplyDeleteBut what is their ultimate conclusion?
Paul Ray
I like you, Dennis. I think I might have a book written by the former pastor you mentioned. ;) Good luck with that project, whatever it is--it sounds like fun.
ReplyDelete