Today my son learned that God gave us AIDS to punish us

[prozacnation]

My 6th grader is in a private Christian school. He is going back to public school next year. :) The whys and hows he ended up there are way too numerous to get into. Trust me when I say that it was the lesser of many evils.

In any event he came home today and told me that he learned that God gave us AIDS to punish us for our sins. EXCUSE ME??? Apparently it's true because Dobson said so in a book. This was taught to him in a class to prepare him for adolescence. Huh? He was also under the impression that people get AIDS because they deserve it.

I believe in God although I've been struggling lately with religion and church, etc. However, I don't believe for one second that AIDS is from God. What sane person would? What crap...

I am going to be so happy when this school year is over.

[GOPBasher]

1. Unbelievably disgusting.

These people are so frickin crazy. I'm scared of them. :scared:

[GOPBasher]

2. Oh and..

good luck getting him in public school. :-)

[ScreamingMeemie]

3. My daughter goes to a Catholic High School and I have given her my

"blessing" as it were to debate these ideas. One of her teachers told me that class has been more productive for her (the teacher) than it ever has been because of the debates. It's tough on my daughter, but it's instilling even stronger values dealing with some of the hypocrisy on a day to day basis. :hi:

[Deja Q]

4. As with everything self-mutating and destructive,

mankind invented it.

God had very little to do with it.

[patrice]

36. It doesn't have to be that way. Mankind doesn't have to invent it, do we?

Except that, that's our "likeness" to "God" our (somewhat limited) creativity : his unlimited creativity.

That's IF you're into the godthing.

[Lilyhoney]

37. god is EVERYWHERE and in EVERYTHING

So god must actually be a part of the HIV/AIDS. So god is punishing people. But the reason why? We may never know.

[patrice]

41. "punish" is not a word I use much outside of talking about capital punish

ment.

People make mistakes, errors have consequences. One of the errors with the MOST consequences is dishonesty, especially with one's self.

Things do happen to people whose mistakes were disproportionately small, and un-intended by them, relative to the effect of the mistake, like being born in Iraq, or living as chattel to some "man" somewhere in the World.

[RetroLounge]

38. "self-mutating and destructive"

Do you mean Aids or Religion?

:shrug:

RL

[politicaholic]

5. Are you going to talk to the teacher and the principle?

If the teacher is telling lies they should be reprimanded.

[asthmaticeog]

7. It's a private Christian school and the information's in a textbook.

Reprimand? Ain't gonna happen.

[prozacnation]

8. I will

Today at his school the 6th grade boys and girls were separated and attended this adolescence class. The boys were taught by two teachers and the text apparently came from a Dobson book. I don't read Dobson so I wouldn't know.

However, if that's true then I would imagine the principal agreed to the curriculum.

I will bring it up on Monday but I doubt I'll get far.

[politicaholic]

11. Is it too much to ask for religious teachings to come from the bible?

[prozacnation]

13. Apparently Dobson is interpreting the bible now

Perhaps he is adding the parts that God forgot to mention in the first edition. God does talk to him, you know??

[politicaholic]

17. God sure does talk to a lot of assholes, He should keep better company.

[southlandshari]

23. Excellent!

There seems to be a whole different playbook for conservative fundamentalists that I've never seen, but it sure as heck doesn't reflect anything I learned growing up in a mainstream United Methodist congregation!

[Beaverhausen]

14. Do you mean this Dobson?

http://www.family.org/

he's fucking wacko. Trust me...he will be found with a dead girl or a live boy any day now.

[prozacnation]

16. One and the same

[Beaverhausen]

18. Do you plan to send your son to that school next year?

just wondering.

[prozacnation]

19. That would be a big No

He needed to be in a small school environment this year due to many issues. However, he is doing much better now and he should be fine in public school next year.

[China_cat]

27. You might also want to find out if he's being taught

that men have one less rib than women.

(The amount of misinformation...oh hell, call it what it is...LIES, that these kids are fed is amazing)

[ContraBass Black]

47. I was taught that.

:D

[patrice]

6. I was raised with a lot of religion too, BUT it wasn't anything like

the mindless stuff you see going on around us now. My mother would say things about excessive pride and vanity and Pharisees in the Bible.

[bigwillq]

9. What utter bullshit

:puke:

[GirlinContempt]

10. 3rd grade

My little sister went to a Mennonite school (was really bizarre, we're all atheists, but long story...)
Anyway, she would come home in tears almost every day because her teacher told her that her parents were going to hell to burn for eternity, and would be tortured, because they don't believe in god.
My sister had never encountered real religion before, let alone religion like THAT. And, she'd also been raised to believe that teachers told the truth, period.

We got many a bible-lesson over dinner until we managed to sort her out.

[prozacnation]

12. That is truly horrible

Fear isn't a reason to believe in God. You should make the choice freely. You do or you don't. If you don't no-one should have the right to scare the crap out of you.

[geniph]

15. Anyone who becomes a Christian solely out of fear

of burning in hell should get a pass solely on the basis of illegal coercion! Fear is not faith. I would venture to guess that at least half the shiny-eyed zealots I know became Christian solely on the basis of fear of hell, which is bizarro-world in the extreme to me.

[Zookeeper]

31. I'm not a Christian, but I have wondered...

if you accept Christ because you'll go to hell if you don't, does that really count? Wouldn't St. Peter at the pearly gates spot you as a phony? Claiming to be a Christian "just in case" doesn't seem like a truly heartfelt acceptance of Jesus.

Yes, it's bizarro world.

[Pushed To The Left]

46. God is supposed to be all about love, but

he will burn you for eternity if you have the wrong beliefs? That just doesn't make sense!

[Deja Q]

20. The same grade where that teacher said the USA had 52 states.

:crazy:

People are nuts.

[MountainLaurel]

48. Happened to a good friend -- in public school

She was a UUer in an area filled with fundies (remember the articles a couple months ago about the VA county where entire schools go to bible study in the middle of the day? that was her hometown), and spent most of her childhood having teachers let her know she and her parents were godless heathens who would be feeling the flames of eternal hellfire.

[Rabrrrrrr]

21. AIDS come from Reagan's policies

and the policies and activities of other rightwing so-called "Super Christians".

Or maybe not.

But AIDS is definitely NOT something that God sent in order to punish us. God is not in the business of sending punishment at all. God is in the business of sending grace and love and hope, with the idea that eventually we'll catch on and start doing the same thing for others.

[AuntieM1957]

22. Real Christians don't

teach hate.

I've spent years struggling with the label Christian because I hated to call myself what those people called themselves.

Sick and tired of hiding my faith because of their filth.

Good luck in your personal spiritual search. Glad your son has the voice of reason to guide him.

[warrens]

24. These people are such vicious, nasty, thuggish brutes

They think, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that they are living good lives. When in fact they are the personification of evil.

My daughter was offered scholarships to two private schools in Chicago. She is going to public school (and one that is better than either of the private schools) because of crap like that.

When I was a kid, the Catholic high school in town closed down because all of the good students had transferred to our public school because of nonsense like that. One can only hope this will happen to your child's school.

Intolerance, smug superiority, hypocrisy, and thuggishness is all they teach.

When I was living in Florida, my company hired a punk kid who had just graduated from a Xtian high school. He thought there was nothing wrong with walking into work with a t-shirt that said, You're Going to Hell and I Am Not.

I told the the office manager if that was considered OK, I would have one made up saying Christ Is Rolling in His Grave Because of "Christians."

He got warned, did it again, and got fired. But he thought that was TESTIMONY and his two-toothed FRetard friends were no doubt telling him that he brought Jesus' message to the heathen.

At some point, we are going to have to get the real Xtians to slap these thugs down.

[Liberalynn]

26. Religious Schools

In Catholic school my third grade teacher, a nun, used to tell us every time we heard a siren:

"I hope you told your parents you loved them and didn't fight with them before you left your house, because that could be your home or their work place burning down with them in it, and you might not have the chance to say your sorry because you might never see them again."

And they wonder why I have anxiety disorder? Even my older sister who is one of the most sensible people I know jumps a little every time she hears a siren to this day. She had the same teacher a few years before I did.

Bless my parents for letting me go to the Public highschool.

I am glad for you and your son that he will be able to go to public school soon.

[China_cat]

30. At some point, we are going to have to get the real Xtians to slap these t

I wish that would happen. But if the past 20-30 years is any indicator, all you're going to get is more 'well they're not real christians and we just won't have anything to do with them'.

When those who preach love and inclusion stop pretending that there's nothing they can do about their hate-mongering, loud-mouthed brethren, that's the day I might just start to entertain the idea of perhaps there being some entity.

[uppityperson]

35. My best friend went to a great Catholic scholl with great teachers

The teachers were able to actually teach what they knew and loved rather than what the system said they had to. Little standardized testing and the teachers were hired by ability, not because they had a state teachers certificate. (There are many great teachers out there, but just having qualified to be 1 doesn't mean you're any good)It was a really good school and she really liked it and has not ben a practicing Catholic since a child. After she graduated (early 70's) a few of the teachers took her out to fill her in on the gossip, since she was no longer a student. They had a good time.

[tinfoilinfor2005]

25. The answer is textbook...

1. Tell him that what he learned is wrong, and tell him why.
2. Take him with you when you explain to his teacher that what he/she is teaching him is wrong, and why.
3. Take him to a hospital or nursing home with AIDS patients and let the nurses explain to him that what he was taught is wrong...and why. He is plenty old enough to understand the truth.
4. Find out what other options you have to remove him from this atmosphere of hate and bigotry and then do it. You may have to make some sacrifices, but you won't regret it in the long run.

Signed...been there, done that!!

[Anarcho-Socialist]

28. All those haemophilliacs who got AIDS by contaminated factor 8 in the '80s

really deserved it. Also, someone very close to me who is a nurse got infected after a patient jerked and a needlestick went into her arm. Yeah, she really deserved it.

:sarcasm:

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

40. In my business I've seen numerous people become HIV and Hep C

positive due to needlesticks...DObson wouldn't know about this since he's a millionaire preacher whose never served the public

[ChoralScholar]

29. I love it when people 'inform' us of God's motives

What? Did he get a freakin' memo? Dobson is a nutcase.

[patrice]

32. They are blasphemers. Choice when it comes to Wars, . . . . .

too bad about those Innocent Iraqi children, and then they're really so humanisticly-ego-centric as anyone else, maybe more so, so strongly Choice in regards to War and then otherwise obssessed with fetuses, but not much else, like clean water and clean air, or some wild lands, or blood for oil.

Pardon my rambling . . .

[hickman1937]

33. I'm so confused.

My memory is going, but I think I saw something on the Discovery channel about scientists starting to believe that aids started when monkeys with the disease(I think it's nonlethal in them) were eaten by humans. Maybe I'm wrong. Is this Dobson guy a biologist? Where did he get his degree? If that school is teaching his stuff, can they defend his credentials? Or is he a cino(christian in name only) who gets a piece of the action every time a pretend school uses his stuff?

[prozacnation]

34. I don't know anything about him except..

He has some plan about raising children that includes scheduling (even babies) and lots of spanking. He's such a sweet man, not.

[intrepid_wanderer]

39. 'God works in mysterious ways' you know!

so say MANY... and obviously there is no room for a natural course, nor anything other than the "almighty's" CREATION-ism...


At least it's consistent with the other CREATED rationales - which have only one thing in common... inconsistency!


religion... frustrating

[ComerPerro]

42. And they want to be able to teach this in public schools, because

"all views should be heard"

[thecai]

43. GOD Is Not The Author of Confusion

GOD follows His Own Commandments. He does not punish His children with disease or death. Earthly parents don't correct or punish their children that way, why would GOD?

Even though "they've removed GOD from public schools", it is better to send your children to a public school, than a hypocrite so-called "Christian" school, (they're poison, IMO)...

[Left Is Write]

44. How much longer is the school year?

I'm not sure I'd be able to wait until next year to get my kid away from that.

I'm sick to my stomach that such disgusting ideas were planted in your son's head. I'm glad he told you about it, though.

[Pushed To The Left]

45. A good reason to oppose vouchers

Crap like that should not be publically funded!