Robin Richardson, a member of the Eastern Iowa Atheists, recalls a difficult experience she had with her special needs son where rather than another child being taught to apologize for their actions for the sake of them being wrong, they were threatened with Jesus instead.
"Daddy, he has a baby head. That's weird. Ba-by head! Ba-by head! Ba-by head!"
"Timmy, stop that! Jesus doesn't want you to do that!"
I sat in the lobby aghast as the father reprimanded his child for making fun of my ten year old. My son Sam has Down's syndrome. He's partially nonverbal, and we were in the lobby waiting for his speech therapy appointment with various other parents and children, all waiting for the same type of therapy services. My son didn't hold the incident against little Timmy. Sam continued to wave hello and tried to instigate play.
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"Timmy, stop that! Jesus doesn't want you to do that!"
I sat in the lobby aghast as the father reprimanded his child for making fun of my ten year old. My son Sam has Down's syndrome. He's partially nonverbal, and we were in the lobby waiting for his speech therapy appointment with various other parents and children, all waiting for the same type of therapy services. My son didn't hold the incident against little Timmy. Sam continued to wave hello and tried to instigate play.
"Daddy, he's gross. He has bougars," little Timmy, a bright an active child of maybe 4 or 5, continued to whine. Another child we see on a regular basis arrived in the lobby, and Sam went to go play with him. Their game of choice was tag, and it spread quickly to the other waiting children, including little Timmy, until Timmy's sibling was done with therapy and their whole family left.
At no point in time did Timmy's father explain that making fun of people's physical appearance is wrong. He could have used the incident as a teachable moment and spoken with his son about how all people look differently from one another, and that's a good thing. He could have taught tolerance and acceptance to his urchin, a lifelong lesson that all children need at some point in time, or spoken about respect for other people and their differences. Instead, he chose to tell his wee one that the behavior was wrong solely because Jesus didn't want him to do it. It's wrong because Jesus says so.
The father didn't make his child apologize to my son or to me, and I got to walk around for the rest of the day with the baby head chant running through my brain. I know my son looks and acts differently than other children around him. I know intellectually that these differences will always make him a target for the poorly educated and poorly socialized folks present in our society. That doesn't make it any easier when a person makes fun of my son, blatantly, in front of other people as if it's an accepted societal norm. It doesn't help when the offender wasn't disciplined for the infraction, even though a parent was present.
As my child worked with his therapist, my mind turned towards the lessons little Timmy learned today. He learned that morality comes solely from Jesus. This is why people have such a hard time separating their moral compass from religion. When you are indoctrinated from childhood to believe that your inherent sense of right and wrong comes solely from what pleases a religious icon, the accompanying belief that anyone without faith has no sense of morality becomes a natural progression of thought. People believe my atheism makes me immoral because they were taught as small children that morality only comes from a religious icon and not from themselves. As I do not have a religious icon, I must be immoral.
It's an interesting thought that carries over to people with different religious icons. If morality comes from Jesus but other people follow the teaching of Mohammed instead, they must be immoral as well. This must be the root of intolerance and hatred towards others. Intolerance and hatred spawn political inequality, socioeconomic inequality, hate crimes, terrorism, and war... and I got to watch the next generation being indoctrinated into this system, in the lobby of a speech therapy clinic at my local hospital.
The father didn't make his child apologize to my son or to me, and I got to walk around for the rest of the day with the baby head chant running through my brain. I know my son looks and acts differently than other children around him. I know intellectually that these differences will always make him a target for the poorly educated and poorly socialized folks present in our society. That doesn't make it any easier when a person makes fun of my son, blatantly, in front of other people as if it's an accepted societal norm. It doesn't help when the offender wasn't disciplined for the infraction, even though a parent was present.
As my child worked with his therapist, my mind turned towards the lessons little Timmy learned today. He learned that morality comes solely from Jesus. This is why people have such a hard time separating their moral compass from religion. When you are indoctrinated from childhood to believe that your inherent sense of right and wrong comes solely from what pleases a religious icon, the accompanying belief that anyone without faith has no sense of morality becomes a natural progression of thought. People believe my atheism makes me immoral because they were taught as small children that morality only comes from a religious icon and not from themselves. As I do not have a religious icon, I must be immoral.
It's an interesting thought that carries over to people with different religious icons. If morality comes from Jesus but other people follow the teaching of Mohammed instead, they must be immoral as well. This must be the root of intolerance and hatred towards others. Intolerance and hatred spawn political inequality, socioeconomic inequality, hate crimes, terrorism, and war... and I got to watch the next generation being indoctrinated into this system, in the lobby of a speech therapy clinic at my local hospital.
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Please direct all feedback on this blog post to easterniowaatheists@gmail.com with the subject line: Robin: Jesus Says No!
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