Bigger, longer, uncut

I was sent this news story today, and was asked to comment on it.


My response was:

I don't support the idea that a parent has the right to mutilate their children's bodies without a solid reason for doing so.

From what I have heard and read (podcasts, books etc) the health claims made about circumcision are all either false, or negligable when compared to the possible defecits.

If a person chooses to get a circumcision for cosmetic or cultural reasons, I believe that they should be able to choose when they are capable of doing so, with all the relevant information at their disposal.

At the heart of it, circumcision is a cultural/religious practice which may have come from many ancient sources, including health, identifying races, and spiritual beliefs. The modern medical claims seem to be an attempt to justify the practice post hoc, and to me, that's not good enough.

I believe that laws protecting male children from circumcision are a good move, and may help to break down an outdated, irrational practice.

You can read a much better response to the circumcision debate by Harriet Hall, the Skepdoc here: http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=269

Friday video megamix!

Lies for Children

I don't know what to say... that's just awful!

Video Mixed Bag

Segundo De Chomon - Satan s'amuse (1907)
by Galaxy_Of_Terror

Baby-Eating Catholic Veloceraptor

I am proud to say that this is perhaps the greatest title for a blog post I have ever written.
It has everything!
And they say atheists eat babies, peh!
From E-merl.com

Child Witches: Accused in the Name of Jesus

Shocking account of exorcism rituals in African evangelical churches where children are convicted of practicing witchcraft.

This is what is wrong with religion.

This will happen when people believe.

The happy-clappy church around the corner from you is giving legitimacy to this kind of horrible belief system. The churches should all be up in arms against this kind of thing and do what they can to abolish it.

But even in Western Sydney, Mercy Ministries have been performing exorcisms on young women with mental health problems and eating disorders. Is that so different?

Please be advised, these videos contain footage of child abuse and disturbing imagery.

More brainwashed children

About a month ago, I blogged about a video of a child preacher, yelling and screaming from the pulpit. It was an eye opening display of a child's perception of the church experience, showing how the child is not seeing the soft, 'love thy neighbor', baby Jesus and little sheepies version of the church, but sees a person yelling and screaming fanatically at the front of a big room.

It's pretty obvious that the children aren't getting the message, that their attendance at church is inappropriate and that they ought to be protected from being exposed from this kind of material.

It's similar to when we went to the Bethlehem Experience, where they were showing the goriest scenes from 'Passion of the Christ' as all the children were walking past, leaving a number of children in our group crying, upset by the experience.

It seems like, in these cases, some people are willing to subject their children to traumatic experiences, justified by the fact that they are doing so as a way to indoctrinate children into the faith.

I say that if you are using methods like this to scare, shock and traumatise children into staying in your church, you are commiting child abuse and should be stopped.

There are standards of classification designed to protect people from offensive material. I would liek to see these standards enforced upon churches too.

Please speak out against abuse of children whenever you see it.




To add to the previous post on child preachers, here's a selection of kid preachers. It's pretty scary stuff!

Islam is not for me

Ooh... I hope this doesn't make it into a Danish newspaper!



Hat tip to Peter

A child's perception of church

In this video, a child (toddler) delivers a sermon in raving gibberish. What is most concerning about this is that the child is simply mimicking the behaviour modeled to him by the regular preachers. In his mind, church is about going to a big pretty room and being yelled at by a wildly gesticulating man pacing around the stage.

It's scary to think that children are being exposed to this type of service (I recognise that not all religious services are like this), where they can't yet understand the message being delivered and are just exposed to the tone of the delivery.

Church should be a child-free environment. If a child wishes to start learning about their parent's faith at an age where they are able to demonstrate an understanding of the concepts involved, I don't so much mind. But to expose very young children to the frightening sermons of the more 'enthusiastic' rligious denominations is wrong and comarable to child abuse.

Hil$ong Crosses the Line... Again!

Hill$ong, Australia's own A$$emblies of God Penteco$tal evangelical mega-church have reportedly been secretly trying to convert primary school children. There have been complaints from teachers and parents about Exo Days, a free lunchtime BBQ and concert being driven by 'Youth Alive' who are a youth ministry branch of the Hillsong Church.

The church deny that it is a recruitment drive and also say that particpation in the events is voluntary and that students are made well aware of what's going on.

This is not out of character for the church, which uses marketing techniques to make the church seem appealing to kids, which includes 'pop' music (in the broadest definition of the term), using 'street language' (Life is excellent (Exo) with Jesus!), fashion and social opportunities as bait to draw the attention of the kids and start the process of religious brainwashing ... indoctrination ... child abuse ... youth ministry.

This really pisses me off! The fact that they have their sights so firmly set on the children is bad enough and then they have to go and invade the schools as well! It is a despicable thing they are doing. The minds of our children are not a battlefield.

More info here here here here and here

Here's a video of Tanya Levin talking about Hill$ong with Andrew Denton


...and The Chaser, just to lighten the mood after such a depressing story