The parents who sends their kids to these camps are more ignorant than ever. It shows how this country’s fanatism is “somewhat” similar to the ones in the Middle East.

I agree Div Gopal and it’s very sad. I can’t understand why anyone would want to do that to their child even. The problem is whatever we call it, even if we call it abuse, the government’s hands are rather tied in such matters due to separation of Church and State. So what can we do about it?

The parents who sends their kids to these camps are more ignorant than ever. It shows how this country’s fanatism is “somewhat” similar to the ones in the Middle East.

I used to avoid reading about things that disturbed me and kept me awake at night. But I realized that is a terrible way to dishonor the people who have been and are being mistreated. Now I try not to use avoidance as a way to make my own life more pleasant.

Use the discomfort and pain you experience when watching things like this as a guide to show you what action you can take to fight against these disturbing things and to help the victims.

Siamang said,

May 12, 2007 at 4:30 pm

Mriana,

Is there anywhere you’ve written about your story? I’d like to read it.

It’s in the works. I haven’t actually written a book about it yet, but bits and pieces of it are on various boards- I think the Roddenberry board is the main one where there are bits and pieces of it, with one article as to how they and Bishop Spong both showed me something different. I think my experience with Fundamentalism as a child was mentioned briefly in that 5 page article. The article was originally written for Hope Humanists Ministries, a Spiritual Humanist board, but it ended up else where. lol I’ve grown a little since I posted that article on the Roddenberry board too. As I was working on an article for the Showcase feature on the main site, I noticed that one posted on the board should have been polished more before I posted it though.

Oh I’ll take that back. CFI forum has a rough version (unpolished) of my story with more details posted on it, I was more open given the audience and a little more vocal about my feelings concerning the religious extremism I experienced as a child. The Roddenberry influence, as well as Bishop Spong’s influence, and I THINK the Sea of Faith was mentioned there too. What I didn’t say, was that as a Religious (Christian) Humanist I was slammed even more by the Religious Reich, which drove me further into Spiritual Humanism.

Both of them mainly focus on how Humanism and the Roddenberrys influenced me, but the reason as to why they were influencial is there too. The one on the Roddenberry board has more of the spiritual growth in it than the one on CFI does. CFI has more of the emotional issues caused by Fundamentalism behind the why I was so heavily influenced by the Roddenberrys and Humanism.

I make this distinction, using the adjective before Humanism, because there area differences, though minor, between Secular Humanism, Spiritual Humanism, and Religious Humanism. I can post the links to them, but if I post both links at the same time, it will have to wait until Hemant gets around to approving them before it’s posted.

Tell me which version you want or if you would like to read both since there are some differences and I’ll post one or both.