“We don’t know what the future holds but we know who holds the future…”

I spent all of Saturday with an old comrade – a blast from a very unintelligible past if you will.

The gentleman is now more gainfully employed than he used to be. He traverses the length and breadth of this marvellous planet aboard a cruise liner. He works as an Entertainment Manager – a coveted position normally reserved for the fair skinned among us. His appointment created more than the ensuing quiver across the fleet of 18 liners, and wasn’t well received.

Braving this unique brand of entertainment bigotry, the man is now well respected and spends his days in profligacy the sort you have only ever imagined.

Well behaved and exceptionally polite, he is a Born Again – a wing of the populace I’ve had the misfortune of dealing with in dreadfully nauseous propinquity off late.

Talk veered from things big and small, the momentous and the trivial until, others we met along the way, confabulated or at least attempted to, about the Lord and the acquiescence of our ways over caffeine and assorted confectionary. The gentleman we encountered while we ran into providence had tales to recount.

Unlike my agnostic self, he bespoke of philosophy, religion and the underlying curriculum for mankind without vexation. Until, natter swerved towards impious preachers and the horror that’s befallen toddler America.

The Christian Evangelist Movement is growing 3 times faster than the world’s population and Born again Americans are increasingly pitting their children in the front-lane of the crusades to convert sinners.

A documentary currently doing the rounds of the internet is an unsettling enumeration in recognisance of fanatical vehemence that is currently ripping the fabric that is humankind. This film follows the stories of three young preachers, their relationship with God, their families and their congregations.

“For many children their first words are mum…dad. His first word was Hallelujah”

Terry Durham is a 9 year old evangelist from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He is hailed as the new Messiah; many believe he can touch and cure any illness.

Terry’s grandma first spotted his potential when he was four. As a pastor in her own right, she ordained Terry as the youngest minister when he was just 6 and he quickly became a hit with most congregations.

Terry is painfully shy and has trouble mixing with kids his own age because of his imagined messiah complex.

“Jesus Christ is the only way..He’s our Lord..He’s our God..The only lord…He’s the King of the universe. Obey the Bible!!”

Samuel Bellwell is 7 years old and gave his first sermon at tender age of 3. A resident of Brookhaven Mississippi - Samuel is the youngest evangelist in the area. He descends from a long line of preachers – his parents are unrivalled in their commitment. In his spare time, he is home schooled by his mum.

He began preaching while still a toddler. His mission is to save sinners from rotting in eternal hell. And the sinners he has to convert include drunkards, liars, fornicators, adulterers, thieves, homosexuals, blasphemers, idolaters, hypocrites and money lovers among others.

“Please don’t murder your child!!!!”

This precocious and indubitably disenchanted child is unshakable in his fortitude – For years he’s been preaching against abortion.

“For every clinic that stays open, I’ll just keep on preaching until it close!…They kill children in here..They go in there to abort their child cause they don’t have the money to raise em..or they just don’t want em “

How much does a seven year old understand about abortion? Or homosexuality?

The bible, according to some, condemns both – abortion and homosexuality; calling it a sin of the highest order. Yet, the Old Testament or the new fails to cough up any literal revelations to that affect. The interpretation of the Holy Scriptures serves as a convenient mechanism for missionaries and other bigots of religion to tout their ware and persuade those impressionable.

Are these children just innocent conduits of God’s work? Or are they the work of overzealous parents and desperate congregations in search of the miraculous?

There is something innately disquieting about these baby-bible-bashers. I watched the documentary and recoiled in very real horror because this to me is an exploitation of the relentless kind. We’re quick to admonish the use of children in questionable advertising and are vehement in our ardour to curb paedophiles. But pimping one’s child for the sake of propagating one’s faith ought to be as preposterous as the concept of blasphemy itself.

In the age of information and technology, no advancement in science is an achievement if we still subject our children to archaic theories that rely on the indoctrination of the agile mind that could instead be moulded into one that could truly achieve miracles to help millions plagued with real maladies such as disease, starvation and poverty.

I mourn the loss of judicious nurturing (although who’s to say what is or isn’t) where children are free to play, determine and discover life as did our ancestors. Religion must aid, if anything, in conforming to a life that is rife with possibilities, equipping mortals with an imaginary supremacy to push the envelope and realise new territories.

To prevaricate on non-issues such as abortion and homosexuality is to reverse the process of evolution. Neither is any religions personal fiefdom. Both are personal choices (some not even) and must remain every man’s/woman’s prerogative.

PZ Myers already posted this at Pharyngula, but its really something people should see. A documentary on three children used by their parents as religious props. It’s soccer moms meats intolerant religion. I am all for teaching children etc, but should parents be teaching them to speak against abortion and homosexuals?

Eltern machen ihren Kindern klar, was für furchtbare Sünder sie sind und wie sie deshalb im ewigen Höllenfeuer brennen werden — einmal so motiviert, bilden sie die kleinen 5-Jährigen zu herumreisenden Predigern aus, lassen sie an Straßenecken und vor Gemeinden missionieren. Und die wirklich begabten Heranwachsenden dürfen sogar Homosexualität und Lungenkrebs heilen…

Channel 4 hat darüber eine Dokumentation gemacht (Cutting Edge: Baby Bible Bashers),und zumindest eine Zusammenfassung, ein paar Bilder und kurze Videoauszüge ins Netz gestellt. Paul Sims vom britischen New Humanist Blog hat’s gesehen und schreibt seine Zusammenfassung.

Das sind natürlich Einzelfälle, extreme Ausnahmen. Da ist hier ja auch keiner dafür.

Bleibt die Frage, ob die (nach konservativer Schätzung) hunderte bis tausende Gläubige, die das alles mitmachen und sich von den putzigen kleinen Predigern begeistern lassen, das auch so sehen.