I received a flyer in today's mail from a church group. There's nothing unusual about that. It seems that here in the Southern United States (aka the bible belt), there's a church on almost every corner and they use flyers and such as recruiting tools. This one was giving a recap of a recent outing to a local lake for the kids. I generally do read these things just because it amuses me to see how rabid the fundies get in their zeal for their skydaddy. Toward the end of today's flyer was a notation that "two kids were saved at the end of the day." Because they were at a lake, my first thought was "well, why did you let them get in danger in the first place." I had images of non-swimmers with no life jackets floundering in the water, but then it hit me. They didn't really mean they saved someone from peril. Nope. They "saved" another soul for their lord and savior Jesus Christ. (Note to the reader, here in Arkansas, Jesus is a two syllable word - Jay-zus - with heavy emphasis on the first syllable. "Lord and savior" is prounounced in such a way that it sounds like "lardass savior.")
The time to have "saved" these kids was BEFORE they went on the trip. Churches in this area, and probably worldwide, put a lot of resources and effort into recruiting they young pups - the "youth" as the fundies call them. Bring 'em young. For some kids the indoctrination starts at birth, being drug to church with the parents. For other kids, the parents view church as a free babysitter and send the kids on a church bus or with the fundy neighbor. I've always been suspicious of people who spend too much time working with the youth, but that's a whole 'nuther blog entry altogether. Someone on a favorite forum of mine recently posted about this indoctrination being a form of child abuse. I couldn't agree more, and couldn't have said it better myself. That's exactly what it is. Mental child abuse. While you're dragging your children to church for a good christian upbringing, why don't you tell your toddler that there really is a boogyman under the bed, and when she gets up to go potty in the middle of the night, the boogyman is going to grab her by the leg and pull her under the bed and eat her. What's the difference between the boogyman under the bed and skydaddy, junior and the righteous spook? The boogyman only eats you once. Skydaddy, Jr. and the spook torment you forever.

It puzzles me that the believers are so worried about being "saved." They spend so much time worrying about what's going to happen to them after they die that they never seem to fully enjoy living. I don't guess I'll ever understand it. I just wish they'd quit inflicting this disease on children.