What Is Happening
With Our Kids Today?
[A Spam] Response By Shirley Johns
Christian spammer: What in the world is happening with our kids today? Let's see ...
It started when Madeline Murray O'Hare complained that she didn't want any prayer in our schools, and we said OK.
Shirley: Prayer does not belong in school as an organized activity, but if prayer
is your choice, no one can stop students from praying silently or in groups.
Knowing this, don't you think the people pushing prayer in school either
have an agenda or are just stupid? Actually, I don't know why you bother
with prayer. How long have you been praying? Has anything changed? And
most important of all, for separation of church and state we must keep
prayer out of schools.
Christian spammer: Then someone said you had better not read the Bible in school -- the Bible that says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said, OK
Shirley: It's hard to believe that so many people are ignorant about the Bible. To allow the Bible to be read in public schools, to impress upon young minds a belief that the Bible is the infallible word of God, is criminal and insane.
The Bible is filled with killing, and stealing. In the Old Testament, when the Jews were about ready to allegedly leave Egypt, Moses told them to go and borrow from the Egyptians all the jewelry they could get their hands on. They stole it! What happened to "Thou shalt not steal"?
The Bible does not belong in school. I don't think that it even belongs in a family. It is filled with perverted stories; rape, genocide, murder, incest, adultery, slavery.... Nothing that is capable of shocking the mind of a child should be used in school, and read by children. This Bible that you want in the schools has more sex and violence then any book or movie that Christians seek to ban. God is always telling the children of Israel to go and wipeout some village. Run the sword through the belly of every woman who has known a man, including those with child. Dash the infants against the stones. Save all the virgins for yourselves. You want this to be an example in your schools?
Or maybe you like the way David, most beloved of god, lied, raped and murdered in cold blood? He raped his daughter in-law and then covered it up so he would not have to pay the penalty of death. There is story about a brother raping his sister, you want them to read that one? Abraham told his wife to pretend she was his sister because he feared men would kill him to get his wife. He wasn't to concerned with what happened to her. The Bible is filled with these kinds of stories. What kind of a lesson is that? Where are the morals you want taught to the children in these stories?
You might prefer to have a brother respect and protect his sister, and a husband love and protect his wife, not turn her into a prostitute to protect himself. If you want to protect your family keep the Bible away from them.
I suggest you actually read the Bible -- all of it -- before you insist
on putting it in the schools. Read it for what it actually says instead
of taking someone's word for it. Pay attention to all the contradictions
and see if you still have the same opinion when you've finished it. We
need to get rid of fear, prejudice, hatred and superstition, not increase
it. The only way to do that is to teach people the truth about what the
Bible really contains.
Christian spammer: Remember Dr. Benjamin Spock, who said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem? And we said, OK, we won't spank them even tho the Bible says "spare the rod and you'll spoil the child".
Shirley: The Bible is nothing but mythology. It also says to bring any rebellious
child to the elders to be stoned stoned to death. Do you really want to
stone your child to death because he talked back to you, or resisted you
in some way? Would you even want young children to hear about this?
What could images like this, and images of hell-fire and brimstone, do
the minds of young children?
Christian spammer: Then someone said that teachers and principals better not discipline our children when they misbehave. And our administrators said whoa, no one in his school better touch a student when they misbehave because we don't want any bad publicity, and we surely don't want to be sued
Shirley: The school doesn't need to spank a child. They can punish in other ways,
such as detention and expulsion. Spanking breaks the spirit of a child.
It will also cause mental and physical damage. As the child of a father
who believed that horrid scripture "spare the rod and spoil the child",
I can testify to the damage it does. It took me years to recover from the
psychological affects and I have permanent back damage as a result.
Christian spammer: Then someone said, let's let our daughters have abortions if they want or give them birth control pills, and we won't even have to tell there parents. And we said, that's a grand idea.
Shirley: Kids are going to have sex if and when they want to. Don't you think it is better for them to have birth control, then to start there lives with a baby they are not ready for? If they have birth control available to them, they may never have to make a decision about abortion.
Abortion is a great evil. But to punish women and doctors for having
and performing abortions is even worse. Women would still get abortions,
but they would be in back alleys, and many women would die needlessly.
Christian spammer: Then someone else said, let's give our sons all the condoms they want, so they can have all the "fun" they desire, and we won't have to tell their parents. And we said, that's another great idea.
Shirley: If they are "gonna do it" and they are, don't you want your
children protected? Most young boys are much too timid to walk into a drug
store and buy condoms. If they have a condom chances are good that they
will use it.
Christian spammer: Then someone said, let's teach and discuss sex in the class room instead of allowing morals to be presented hand in hand with a love based sexual relationship and sex knowledge by parents
Shirley: What happens to the kids who have parents who won't talk about sex?
There was a congressman who pulled his daughter out of every class that
taught sex education. She grew up and became a teacher. She was recently
convicted and sent to prison for having a sexual relationship with a child.
She is now a registered sex offender. Maybe she would have benefitted from
having some sex education.
Christian spammer: And then families decided that going to church was just for the preacher's family only. That is wasn't necessary to raise kids in church. That the parents would never have to answer to God for not teaching their children about God, Hell, the Bible and the needs to be spiritually healthy.
Shirley: First of all there is no proof that a god exists. You are teaching them to live without reality. There is very little historical proof that Jesus ever existed. The only talk about Jesus is from the Bible. The Bible is just a myth based on still older myths.
The church is nothing but brainwashing. It's chains on the mind, slavery by the priesthood, and rule through fear. The priesthood of the world is out for total control, power, and money. Just take a good look at them. They will do anything for money. They spend their lives begging and devising ways of getting the money from your pocket to their pocket.
If you want the children to be healthy, stop teaching them this bunk.
You take them to church, scare them with tales of hell, demons, the devil
and his so-called evil. Then push on them a book filled with filth, lies
and disgusting characters, and tell them this is what God wants. Why are
you surprised when they rape or/and murder?
Christian spammer: So now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, why sex is no longer an act of love, why there are no spiritual value, no morals instilled in our children and why it doesn't bother them to kill.
Shirley: I don't for a minute believe most children are not bothered by murder. Just because a few are mentally unbalanced does not in any way mean they are all bad. Most of the kids who have committed these terrible atrocities have been Christians. Maybe they spent too much time reading "The Book of the Wars of the Lord" (Num. 14:21), in which case they were only doing as the Bible taught.
Can you expect a person who truly believes these myths to do less than the god of these myths? Doesn't it just make him or her a better Christian then you? They are carrying out the letter of the law, with its full intent. Over and over again the Bible says, utterly destroy them.
Right and wrong should be taught in the home. That is a responsibility that belongs to parents. You can't expect a school to do everything for you. True, the schools should supplement this with the basics about obeying the law, and the school is a great place to learn how to get along with others.
Maybe you should examine the way you are bringing up children if you are experiencing these kinds of problems.
The writers of the Bible didn't have any idea of what was moral or right.
The Bible doesn't teach morality, it only teaches tribal loyalty and obedience.
Any crime was okay if it was committed against someone who was not a "neighbor"
-- not a member of the clan. Otherwise, they were only concerned with robbery,
slavery, rape, murder, lawlessness, savage ignorance and degrading superstition.
Christian spammer: Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "we reap what we sow"
Shirley: I think the outpouring of sympathy from this nation after the Colorado school shooting proves that this nation is right where it belongs. Every time something dreadful happens in this country, or in the world for that matter, people are right there volunteering help, food, clothing and money. The vast majority of us are on the right track when it comes to feeling and expressing human compassion.
Exploiters use these tragedies to draw support for their cause. I am afraid you have been taken in by some of these exploiters, because you have repeated -- word for word -- the dogmas of some pretty low-class organizations. (You even spelled Madalyn Murray-O'Hair's name the same way they do.) If you would like to discuss this with me, I will be more than happy. I promise to grant you all the dignity and patience I can muster.
![]()
Material by Cliff Walker (including unsigned editorial commentary) is copyright ©1995-2006 by Cliff Walker. Each submission is copyrighted by its writer, who retains control of the work except that by submitting it to Positive Atheism, permission has been granted to use the material or an edited version: (1) on the Positive Atheism web site; (2) in Positive Atheism Magazine; (3) in subsequent works controlled by Cliff Walker or Positive Atheism Magazine (including published or posted compilations). Excerpts not exceeding 500 words are allowed provided the proper copyright notice is affixed. Other use requires permission; Positive Atheism will work to protect the rights of all who submit their writings to us.