These are some of the words that are included in a new picture book published by a Puritan organisation in the United States last month.
The book, whose title I choose not to state so that it is not given
any further free publicity, is targeted at five to nine year olds and
uses quotes and interpretation of lines from the bible to outline the
usual nonsense about hell being a place of eternal fire where
supposed sinners are “locked in [solitary] cages.”
In
a note to parents at the back of the book, the author says:
“Some
parents may be thinking that this kind of exhortation to children
will give little ones horrible nightmares… It would be better for
them to have nightmares now while you teach them about the realities
of hell… than to wind up in the reality of the nightmare that is
hell.”
Ignoring
the obvious absurdity of such a place existing after death, writers
such as Christopher Hitchens have questioned whether any good at all
can come from terrifying children in this way.
Others, such as Greta
Christina have called it “child abuse.”
Author Dan Arel has
suggested “using a more Socratic method” of questioning children
about what they already think as a better method of then exploring
ideas about what happens to us when we eventually die.
Meanwhile
in separate case of backwardness, a senior Vatican official has
denounced the same-sex marriage referendum result in Ireland as a
“defeat for humanity” after the country overwhelmingly voted to
support it.
On the same day as the Irish vote, reports emerged that
Taiwanese pop songstress Jolin Tsai's song and her music video “We're
All Different, Yet The Same” had been banned from broadcast in
Singapore. The video shows two women in a marriage ceremony kissing
(with closed mouths) for about seven seconds.
Also
recently, two judges in Argentina are still somehow sitting at the
head of their courts, after saying that the rape of a six year old
boy wasn’t too serious because he was “already gay”. They
reduced the rapist's sentence, saying the boy was used to being
abused and had “homosexual tendencies”.
In
Australia (that far off country that I used to call home) their
ultra-conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott blocked both
legislation and the possibility of a referendum on gay marriage.
In
more encouraging news though, back on this side of the planet,
Greenland’s Parliament has unanimously approved same-sex marriage
and adoption.
MPs in the country, which has a population of 57,000,
voted to adopt Danish laws on the issue, scrapping Greenland’s
domestic partnership legislation, adopted from Denmark in 1996.
Also,
a lesbian fleeing persecution (because of her sexuality) in her
native Cameroon has now received asylum in Spain after a long legal
battle.
Progress
moves slowly - in fits and starts through the world - a world that
calls itself modern.
I
wish all readers a very enjoyable summer.
[This
article was first published in Catalonia Today magazine, July 2015.]
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