The destruction of childhood innocence?

As long as I have any evangelical FB friends, this blog will never lack for content.

Today one of them posted a meme from something called "@TruthAgape" saying "Perhaps the most disturbing cultural trend I have seen in the last 5 years is the destruction of childhood innocence in an attempt to validate adults".

When I was seven, I had adults telling me that there was an invisible man watching everything I did and hearing everything I thought, and that I had already by the age of seven done things that made him so angry that he would have had no choice but to let an invisible monster drag me to a dimension of fire and torture me forever... EXCEPT that this invisible man had his son horribly tortured by driving nails through his metacarpals and slowly suffocating to death to pay for my otherwise unforgivable crimes. The first time I heard about Jesus' crucifixion to save me from my sins, I felt so guilty that I went to the altar call sobbing and saying that I wished I could have died instead of Jesus. At the age of SEVEN they had me convinced that I deserved death by torture for my "sins" and it was only because Jesus loved me that I didn't get what I deserved. 

Also, even thinking the wrong things - or even NOT thinking the right things - warranted eternal torment. And my grandparents were in danger of eternal torment because even though they believed all that too they were Catholic and so they didn't believe it in, like, the RIGHT way. And this was, I was told, what perfect Love looks like - torture and death to pay the blood price for that one time I fibbed a little about doing my homework before playing video games. I should feel infinite guilt for my unforgivable crimes, and this invisible guy who said he loved me - I'd damn well better love him back OR ELSE. 

When I was eight, I had adults telling me that I was in the wrong because another kid bet me a nickel I couldn't beat them at Pac-Man and I took the bet and won - betting of any kind was evil, and I had to give that nickel to church plus an extra nickel to make up for it. I had adults telling me that Halloween, a Christian holiday designed to be fun and awesome for kids, was actually the Devil's holiday and celebrating it was evil. I had adults telling me listening to music that wasn't Jesus-y enough was evil. I had adults telling me that magic was evil (instead of being adult enough to understand that magic is make-believe) and therefore any show, movie, or toy based on a story that included magic was evil. And of course, doing evil things meant falling away from God and heading for that fire dimension. So I threw out my He-Man and Star Wars toys to be on the safe side. (I could pay off my house if I had them in good condition now, by the way.) I had adults telling me what suicide was, that it was an unforgivable sin and therefore an automatic ticket to Hell. I watched those adults doing skits to Petra's song "Too Late for Annie" portraying a girl who committed suicide because no one had told her Jesus loves her (therefore implying that if ever I knew someone who committed suicide, it would be at least partly my fault for not pushing Jesus on them hard enough). Also, no word on whether it was partly Evangelicals' fault that LGBTQ kids who are told they're an abomination are the most likely kids to attempt suicide.

When I was nine, I had adults telling me that if only I believed hard enough my grandma's cancer would go away... and then it didn't go away and it killed her after a slow and painful 2 years, so I blamed myself for not believing hard enough. I learned what a period is because a preacher was talking about someone who married a girl before she had her first period, and so naturally I asked my parents what that meant. So this meant that one of the first things I learned about sexuality was that there were adults who would exploit children's bodies under the guise of marriage. (Tennessee, looking at you here.) I had adults telling me about AIDS and how the same invisible man who had to kill his kid to stop himself from sending me into eternal torment, also had sent a deadly incurable disease to punish people for having sex the wrong way. Also, all those gay people were predators who would rape me given half a chance. 

When I was ten, I had adults telling me about abortion and how "babies" were being "murdered" and anyone who voted for those evil Democrats was an accessory to a second Holocaust. (No word on whether forcing an impregnated child to have a baby was also evil). I had adults telling me that the Rapture could happen anytime, and even people who thought they had repented and accepted Jesus might be wrong about that and could get left behind in a world run by the invisible fire dimension monster, and be tortured and horribly killed for not accepting his mark and eternal damnation with it. These adults also told me the mark of the Beast was already present because bar codes had three sixes in them, so even buying something at the grocery store was risky. Adults told me Gorbachev was the Antichrist because he had a birthmark on his forehead. Adults told me any Democrat running for office was the Antichrist (because Democrats didn't think that the Evangelical view of sexuality and marriage should be imposed on everyone by law, or that non-Christian kids should be forced to participate in Christian prayer at school.) Everything was a sign that the world was going to end before I ever got a chance to grow up, and I'd better spend all my time and energy making sure I was right with our god or else.

When I was eleven, I had adults telling me that invisible monsters from the fiery torture dimension could possess people - take over someone's body and take away their will - and the only way to be safe from that was to be REALLY, REALLY into Jesus. And even if I thought I was sufficiently into Jesus, I might be wrong, because many who call him lord aren't actually saved. Adults told me that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit was an unforgivable sin... and since I already knew that he hears what we think, the logical conclusion was that even thinking something blasphemous was an automatic and irreversible ticket to Hell, which made me super anxious I could think the wrong thing by ACCIDENT and be damned for it. It literally gave me OCD as I kept struggling to make myself not think that unthinkable thought, created counter-rituals to undo thinking it and repent for thinking it.

When I was twelve, I had adults telling me that Christians are supposed to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, and that the sign this has happened is that they start speaking in other languages. Which carried the implication that if I asked and did NOT suddenly become possessed by my god, then I wasn't baptized. And of course it didn't happen, and of course I wasn't going to fake it because I knew THAT would be a sin... so I was left to wonder what was wrong with me, why my god was willing to enter all the people around me but not me, whether I was really good enough for Love Himself to love me if he wouldn't even take five minutes to confirm that I was doing what he wanted.

When I was a teenager, I had adults telling me that even looking at or thinking about a girl while feeling sexual desire was sinful and therefore putting me in danger of eternal torment. Also, any sexual touch of any kind, ever, was highly likely to result in unwanted pregnancy and AIDS unless I waited till I was married because condoms aren't 100% effective and that's basically the same as being 100% ineffective. And not only was I not supposed to touch a girl sexually (even with mutual consent), I wasn't even supposed to touch MYSELF sexually. My own body wasn't mine - it belonged to this invisible guy who created it, filled it with all these urges, and then forbade me to act on those urges on pain of eternal torture. And I had it easy compared to female peers, let alone closeted LBGTQ peers, and the messages they got about their sexuality from adults.

All those adults telling me those things were conservative Evangelicals. And my experience was absolutely typical for a child who was raised by conservative Evangelicals.

And they told me those things because, if they admitted to me that any of those things was untrue, they would also have to admit that to themselves... and their worldview demanded that all those things MUST be true and could not be questioned.

But please, go on about how liberals telling kids "LGBTQ people exist and you shouldn't be mean to them" is the destruction of childhood innocence in an attempt to validate adults.