Childhood Religious Indoctrination is Psychological Abuse

I feel I should note that I assume for the most part that we are talking of Christian socialization in Western cultures, but since this is not specified, I will bring in some other examples from around the world. --- Terrorizing --- Defined in relevant part as "setting unrealistic expectations with threat of loss, harm, or danger if they are not met," this threshold can be satisfied by the various behaviors parents expect from their children. All religious motivators carry a threat of loss, harm, or danger - i. e. hell, purgatory, sheol, no 40 virgins, etc. .. Thus, any prima facia expectation or expectation as applied that is deemed unrealistic would qualify here. This article (. http://203.10.46.30/ren2/gr09.doc) describes how educating children in a religious framework often sets aside immediate, realizable goals by a preoccupation with faith and hope for long-term goals. The author states that this creates "unrealistic expectations for personal change. " Another article (. http://www.childrenshealthcare.org...) illustrates the point that fundamentalists have unrealistic expectations of their children because of their strict belief in the Bible, holding among other things that they are "men" and "women" by early adolescence. Lastly, the child soldiers used in Somalia, Uganda, and the Central African Republic in religious conflicts can hardly be said to have been placed under realistic expectations - in fact, these children are essentially unrealistically expected to be essentially martyrs for their faith - perhaps best pointing out the terrorizing that takes place in religious socialization. --- Exploitation --- The relevant part to this position is the development of "antisocial or developmentally inappropriate behavior. " Religious indoctrination, especially in children that are more inclined to believe the fairy tales they are told are true, can develop a bigoted view of others - i. e. "I won't play with Saheem because he's Muslim and I'm Christian. " The goings-on in France should be plenty to convince anyone of this point. --- Isolating --- Surely it can be said that the indoctrination of women in a Wahhabist culture would be an "unreasonable limitation of freedom of movement or social interactions. " Further, even in a Christian society, many Children are simply incapable of functioning in a world where the majority of people are aware of simple facts like the Earth's shape or that fire is not a miracle. This sort of misinformation damages social interactions for the child when he reaches adulthood. --- Unreliable Parenting -- Ambivalent demands would be those that produce positive and negative feelings at the same time. There is also a connotation of spuriousness that is paired to ambivalence. However, the bizarre expectations that parents place on their children in religious frameworks certainly lead to ambivalence. For example, children dragged to Church may feel positively about practicing their faith, but negatively that they are forced to go to Church. --- Neglect --- There are many, MANY cases of religiously indoctrinated children being neglected by their parents as they "fail to provide treatments or services for the physical (medical) needs or problems" of the children. Here (. http://www.childrenshealthcare.org...) is an article detailing the accounts of seven children who died as a result of the indoctrination procedures they were forced to undergo. Furthermore, those children that are indoctrinated to believe in "faith healing" will grow to be parents who believe this nonsense. .. parents who prolong the vicious cycle of abuse. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* Some quick responses: >> "Would my opponent please note that I specifically mentioned authorities who eventually revealed the period of sexual abuse within the church by some clergy. " While this is correct, and I will admit I misread the first statement, the "authorities" may have simply not discovered the psychological abuse. Either way, we are both speculating on this point. >> "religious organizations are in and of themselves cultural entities" Muslims in the US and Muslims in Iran do not share a culture. They share a belief. At best, a religious organization is a sub-culture of it's larger society - i. e. Catholics are not a "culture" anymore than Democrats are a "culture. " *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* This debate is not about socialization. It is about indoctrination, which requires a partisan structure - an opposing view. If religions are cultural entities in themselves, we would be talking about socialization. The resolution presupposes religious institutions are part of a larger culture, and as such, stands AFFIRMED.