Vacation Bible School has gone off the deep end.

Forums: Vacation Bible School, Evangelical Christians, Religion, Church, Texas
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Yaya and Keetah have been attending vacation bible school. I never went, but T has good memories. I gathered it supposed to be all about love and rainbows, art, and running around with your friends. They both had fun at a different church last week; this week Yaya is going with one of her friends to a different church. Last church: fun. New church: bat-**** crazy.

Yesterday, T picked up Yaya who was freaking out after an actor dressed as Moses got up and told the passover story... Killing babies. Plagues. God drowning people in the Red Sea.

WTF? This is what you tell five-year-olds?

Snack this week: Burning bush in a cup. Bugs and Boils (that was yesterday). Tomorrow is "Berried" and Raised.

Jesus would be so pleased....

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YIKES!

I remember Mo having an overnight at his bio-grandparents and coming home ranting about people going to hell. It was very disturbing.

I think Yaya will come out of this VBS experience appreciating a more moderate form of Christianity so there is a bright side (?).

Good luck!

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@DrewDad,

Sounds like one of the churches I grew up in: all blood and sacrifice, not much love and forgiveness.

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T observed some this morning. They were teaching some kind of incantation with a response from the kids.

Teacher: Blah blah blah God.
Kids: Fear God!
Teacher: Blah blah blah blah.
Kids: Fear Not!

What kind of insanity is this? A psychological double-bind: Fear God, but don't fear!

It's just for a week. And she's with her friends. And my response was kind of link Boomerang's: "Thanks for teaching my kid about the hypocrisy of the Church so early in life!"

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@DrewDad,

Whoa nelly. That does sound just a mite bat-shitty. OK quite bat-shitty.

What does Yaya think about it all?

edit: oh, you said at the beginning that she was freaking out over Moses. Does she like it in general or is she dreading going back?

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They are teaching kids that God's an asshole. And we should be more like God.

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@sozobe,

She's OK in general. We discussed that they were telling a story, and that sometimes stories can be scary. She loved Bolt, for example, but got freaked out at the end because someone wanted to give the little girl a shot.

I'm wondering when she's going to ask them, "why does God kill babies?"

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@DrewDad,

As one who is very involved in Sunday School, I can only say that what you experienced is totally unacceptable. It makes me furious that this kind of thing goes on.

When "guest" children attend VBS , they should be treated as such and not have dread and hellfire driven into them. It is, after all, supposed to be about fellowship and fun.

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This is funny that you bring this up right now drewdad.

Yesterday I was driving past a church with a sign about vacation bible camp and all I could think was "where do the words 'vacation' and 'bible' belong together?
I don't get that at all.

Maybe some other people who grew up in the North East can confirm or deny, but I don't remember ever hearing the term vacation bible school growing up.

I'm sure it's largely due to the fact that I went to Catholic school from 1st grade through high school, where we had some kind of religion class every day. There really wasn't a need to be aware of any extra bible stuff.

The first time I ever became away of this bible vacation stuff had to be in the last few years.

Quite frankly, the entire thing sounds dreadful.

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@chai2,

my guess is that "vacation bible school" is actually a respite program for parents with kids that are driving them nuts (I'm bored) in mid summer.

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@chai2,

If I may, perhaps I could expand on what vacation bible school is (or should be)

The school part comes from the fact that it is a form of schooling (usually religious content) for children that includes games, crafts, bible stories, singing and other forms of fun and recreation. At least that is what our is.

The vacation part of it would refer to the fact that it occurs during school summer vacation. Some parents could look at it that it is a vacation for them since it usually lasts about a week. For some children, it may be the only time away from the family that they have in a summer.

I understand that some churches actually charge a fee for this. We do not and everything, including meals and snacks, is provided. After all, it is about the children.

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@dyslexia,

dyslexia wrote:

my guess is that "vacation bible school" is actually a respite program for parents with kids that are driving them nuts (I'm bored) in mid summer.

I was very careful about saying "I'm bored" in the summer.

Somehow my mother was able to find plenty of stuff for me to do.

That was still better I'm sure than vacation bible school.

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@sozobe,

sozobe wrote:

Whoa nelly. That does sound just a mite bat-shitty. OK quite bat-shitty.

They sound like regular old Southern Baptists to me. Burning in hell is standard fare for the true believers.

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@boomerang,

boomerang wrote:

I remember Mo having an overnight at his bio-grandparents and coming home ranting about people going to hell. It was very disturbing.

That happened to me when I was a kid. My Grandmother meant well (trying to "save" me), but scared the crap out of me and my sister (both under 5 years old). My father was furious when he got home and found out why we were hysterical with fear, and threatened to never let Grandmom see us again if she ever tried that again (she never did, although tried to nudge us gently down the Jesus path for the rest of her life).

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@chai2,

Quote:

I'm sure it's largely due to the fact that I went to Catholic school from 1st grade through high school, where we had some kind of religion class every day. There really wasn't a need to be aware of any extra bible stuff.

In places in which the Catholic church does not run parochial schools, there are Catholic equivalents of vacation bible school. They're much scarier, i suspect, though--the nuns are scary any time of day, and especially to children who don't deal with them every day during the school year. Also, i suspect that those heavy, black wool habits gave them prickly heat and made them that much meaner.

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@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

Quote:
I'm sure it's largely due to the fact that I went to Catholic school from 1st grade through high school, where we had some kind of religion class every day. There really wasn't a need to be aware of any extra bible stuff.

In places in which the Catholic church does not run parochial schools, there are Catholic equivalents of vacation bible school. They're much scarier, i suspect, though--the nuns are scary any time of day, and especially to children who don't deal with them every day during the school year. Also, i suspect that those heavy, black wool habits gave them prickly heat and made them that much meaner.

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@DrewDad,

DrewDad wrote:

It's just for a week. And she's with her friends. And my response was kind of link Boomerang's: "Thanks for teaching my kid about the hypocrisy of the Church so early in life!"

good luck to all of you.

I still get the heebie-jeebies from being exposed to something like this about 45 years ago. My exposure to it only lasted a couple of hours. It seems like psychological torture to expose your child to it deliberately after you know what's going on.

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I never went to any kind of religious indoctrination camp, but I remember my best friend went to a Catholic summer program and came back trying to make stigmata appear on her hands and feet. She learned about some saint who had this happen to him and she thought it would really cool to have blood flowing from her appendages. When it didn't happen for real she sometimes took a red sharpie pen and would draw the marks on. I guess it didn't damage her too much, and maybe it even inspired her, today she works as a surgical nurse.

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@DrewDad,

We've did some significant re-education when our kids were little. They heard one thing, we described/taught an alternative. You've got a good line of communication with your girls. That's what matters most.

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@Intrepid,

Intrepid, isn't it also kinda used as a time for before kids start regular sleepaway camp (or after), e. g. a kind of alternative child care during the Summer months? At least that's how a former boss of mine viewed it for her daughter.

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