Is Teaching Children They Might Go to Hell Child Abuse?

[painter49]

I grew up in the Catholic church , and hell was a huge motivational teaching tool ... it has taken me most of my life to overcome this... I am just now beginning to understand the love of God!!!

 

[Madhuri]

Indoctrinating people through fear is not the greatest method for inciting real belief and love. If somebody tells you to love someone or they will punish you, how is that real love? You may convince yourself that you love this person who you have never even met, but I do not believe the feeling is love.

 

[Wannabe Yogi]

Is it abusive to teach children that they might go to hell? Why or why not?

My son had a play date at his Christian friends home when he was around 6 or 7. These "Christians" ( the adults not the kids) told him that He and his mom and dad are going to hell because we are not Christians. If this was not enough they went into vivid descriptions of what they believed hell to be like. Then they tried to convert him then and there. He told me about it that night while he was crying at bed time. He said daddy I kept telling them to stop but they just kept telling me. Then at school this friend told him he would not play with him any more. I dealt with the parents in a public manor at our school coop. What I found to be disturbing is that a few of the Christian families just believed that the perpetrators were spreading the gospel and they were surprised at my response, the good news spreaders eventually apologized to my son because they just did not want to deal with me anymore.

This just seemed to make my son hate christians. It has taken years of work to get him to see that some Christians are nice. I even took him to a church for a few months to try to get him over his dislike of Christians. I just don't want him to hate anyone that much.

This type of thing is much more common then most christians would believe.