Red Tory v.2.0
God bless that woman in the pink dress on her T-shirt. And that plant on the counter.
You know the sad part is that you could get this little tike to recite just about anything and it would be just as cute. Like say… oh, I don’t know… some enabling act of parliament or Das Kapital perhaps. Or maybe some extracts from Nietzsche or better yet, the evanescent banter of P.G. Woodhouse. Actually, now that would be immensely funny.
just beacuse you do not agree with something does not give you the right to shit all over it.
Really? Who says?
Shameless exploitation - pure & simple.
Disgusting ...
"just beacuse you do not agree with something does not give you the right to shit all over it."
manure makes a fine growth medium for demon seed....
KEvron
What a pompous curmudgeon you are being here, RT. I can just hear you whining that, if she must be exposed to religion, she should at least treat us to a video on the ambiguities of the ontological proof for the existence of God. Don't tell me you are that sort of gruesome modern parent who thinks sparing his tykes the Santa Claus myth is a blow for Enlightenment rationalism?
Ah, but the budding evil of this little one screams out at us, doesn't it? The incipient warped sexuality, racism and American imperialism is right there for we clever types to see. If only she were taught life was random and purposeless and her parents loved her because their invisible genes commanded them to, our future would be so much sunnier.
Peter — You seem to be imputing a lot of things that I never said, or even implied.
I don’t find anything particularly “cute” about having a small child recite things that have little to no meaning whatsoever to them as part of a process of mindless religious indoctrination, that’s all.
And no, contrary to your presumption, I have no objection whatsoever to kids being “exposed” to religion at all. I was quite happy to have my kids explore different churches in the area for themselves and arrive at their own conclusions. We happily facilitated that for them, went to the activities they participated in and supported them without criticism in this regard. I made my feelings on the subject known, but never imposed it on them in any way. Two of my daughters were quite involved with local churches, but eventually weren’t impressed by what was on offer. Also, our oldest daughter went to Catholic School and this was something that I endorsed. In fact, I was a little disappointed that my son refused to go.
To me it’s not about dogmatic ideology or genetic imperatives (or however else you want to caricature my POV), but about the encouragement of “free-thinking” and this is something that’s a bit tricky to come to terms with regardless of the parents’ predisposition, but I think we managed to pull it off with a good a degree of success four times over.
Nothing personal implied, old chap. But I am astounded that anyone would see a three or four year old doing a cutely-botched recitation of Psalm 23 as a victim of "mindless religious indocrination". Forgive me my fun, but I have this image of you dutifully and admirably ensuring your kids were exposed to religion while leaving them terrified Dad might catch them reciting the Lord's Prayer.
When I was nine, I won a prize for reciting the Beatitudes. Of course the experience left me deeply scarred, but after five years of intensive therapy, I recovered.
Peter — Quite understandable. Had my kids decided to wander down that path, it would have been fine by me, although at the same time I would have been more than happy to needle them about it and engage them in debate about the matter — but hardly to the point of giving them cause for terror.
And for whatever it’s worth, I was a dutiful, fairly reverent Sunday school pupil and bear no particular ill-will towards the church based on my personal experiences which, on the whole, were entirely benign and that I happen to recollect with a good deal of fondness.
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