In this debate about Henson, it struck me yet again how easy it is for people to be swept into 'fury' like a mob and how difficult it is for them to think rationally about something. Is it really that hard to form a consistent, concrete argument? I say this because the arguments against Henson simply are not credible. Period. Disagree all you want but you are wrong for multiple reasons and from multiple angles. No one of you can demonstrate this teenager was harmed in any shape or form.

No one has been 'abused'. Normal people are not pedophiles. Nudity is natural. Images, films and music ARE. NOT. mind control. Everything was consented. The model is both happy and proud.

With this in mind, I want to raise an issue about something that is actually destructive to children across the world, because it reveals a lot of hypocrisy and blindness and complete lack of perspective that many adults seem to be afflicted with. It twists and shapes the young mind. The proponents of it often abuse and rape children under their duty of care. This is religion.

Threatening children with eternal damnation and endless pain is child abuse. Telling them lies about the world from such a young age is exploitative and destructive to the normal development of their minds and emotions. Saying they are sinful by birth is instilling shame and fear. This is Christianity and Islam.

This is Kevin Rudd's religion and his belief system. He is a part of it and condones it. This is happening now. And it is happening without consent of the victim. It is happening to extremely young children. And it's perfectly legal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X043xVrQBr8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nTHNGFvBJ0

Then there are the religious circumcisions, that mutilate and violate thousands of children every year across the world without their consent.

Now what some people are doing, including the PM and the 'Bravehearts' representative, are silently condoning all this while pointing their filthy fingers at a teenager and her parents who expressed herself through art (with all the contradictions and critical weaknesses inherent in their 'arguments')

Dear Steel
to be on the correct legal footing, and to avert any possible legal action against you, you should have added a question mark at the end of your title.

You cannot state as fact "is Child abuse" .. you can raise it as a question which can then be debated, but not vilify all religions as you have done.

I don't mind debating the 'issue'..but I DO take strong exception to your assertion as a 'stated fact'....

You could have redone your title "In my opinion.... etc"

Please re-think how you word things in future.

ON TOPIC.

You said:

1/ Threatening children with eternal damnation and endless pain is child abuse.

2/ Telling them lies about the world from such a young age is exploitative and destructive to the normal development of their minds and emotions.

3/ Saying they are sinful by birth is instilling shame and fear. This is Christianity and Islam.

We can and will of course debate points 1 and 2, but point 3 is factually incorrect.
CHRISTIANITY DOES teach a fallen human nature from Adam and hence from birth.

ISLAM does not. Islam teaches people are born sinless. This rather appeals to the shallow sentimental mind, but is theologically flawed.
"Salvation" is similarly shallow "be kind to a dog and you will goto paradise".. there are many such statements in the Hadith from Mohammad.

As for teaching children about 'eternal damnation and endless pain'

Just like the shop "NotQuiteRight".. I think teaching children about the horrors of hell should be done in an 'age appropriate' manner.
Also, the central focus of the Bible is reconciliation to the Love of our Creator...a re-union with His grace not that He is a great Ogre in the sky who is out to 'get' you.

I presume you are telling us more about your own sad childhood experience than the reality of Christian truth.

So, to the extent that children are 'dangled over hells fires' at an impressionable age, I can agree.. there is potential for abuse.

Its not wrong to speak the truth about hell to children Steel.
Go over to Mary K Baxter-a divine revelation of hell heaven.
Take your time and read it.
When I first heard her testimony on tape years ago I knew it was true... and it terrified me.
We have to remember that God is a Holy God of huge, vast Power and Might and doesnt like rebellion to His Word and what it says.
The Holy Bible is only for the betterment of mankind.
Children are "fallen lifeforms" from birth (out of relationship with God because of Adam and Eves' fall) and need correction from early on so they dont grow up to become criminally-minded bashers, drug addicts, drunkards, pornographers and sexual deviants that destroy societies.
Dont spare the rod or firm correction.
Shivers...hell is so real.

Steel is obviously exaggerating slightly here, but we do seem to be experiencing a re-definition of 'child abuse', don't we?

I mean if a work of art is construed by many to be a form of child abuse, it is hardly more hysterical to extend that to psychological damage caused by religious indoctrination. Clearly, many of these poor kids are scarred for life!

Somebody alert Hetty Johnson to this scandalous state of affairs. I believe it's been going on for decades with general social approval, but I've just become aware of it.

"No one of you can demonstrate this teenager was harmed in any shape or form."

Presumably it hasn't yet got to the subjudice stage? Are you arguing that the relevant criminal law should require evidence of harm?

"Everything was consented."

Are you saying that the parent could legally consent on the child's behalf or that the child could consent to nude pics?

"Threatening children with eternal damnation and endless pain is child abuse. Telling them lies about the world from such a young age is exploitative and destructive to the normal development of their minds and emotions. Saying they are sinful by birth is instilling shame and fear. This is Christianity and Islam."

How often are Christian children threatened will eternal damnation? It certainly isn't the approach normally taken in religious education. What lies are told about the world? The point you are misguidedly attempting to make about sinfulness at birth is unsustainable due to the message of love and forgiveness integrally tied to the sinfulness one.

"...religious circumcisions, that mutilate and violate thousands of children every year across the world without their consent."

That is as silly as saying that immunisation brutalises and violates children without their consent. Irrespective of whether immunisation was carried out for medical reasons or (hypothetically) religious reasons it doesn't violate children. Ditto for circumcision. Brutalise is probably too strong but having sat through immunisations it seems a bit like it. I have heard ritual circumcisions of infants are not as bad but it is beyond my experience. I presume you are covertly singling out Jews as I believe Islamic faith doesn't require infant circumcision to be ritualistic and believe that indigenous Australians, Africans, and Pacific Islanders do it as a rite of passage later on. Christianity doesn't require circumcision for faith.

"...pointing their filthy fingers at a teenager and her parents who expressed herself through art..."

So the unwashed masses (which curiously includes a wealthy PM) are pointing their fingers at the child they consider exploited not the guy who's nude pictures of kids have been seized as part of a police investigation.

Steel

"...how easy it is for people to be swept into 'fury' like a mob..."

The only 'fury' I have seen is one person from Bravehearts - hardly a mob - dissent does not always imply 'fury'. Emotiveness is fine but let's keep some persepctive.

I personally think religion of any denomination is bollocks but I have many Christian friends who have raised their children (without fanaticism) and they are now happy and well adjusted young adults.

The current world frenzy of fundamentalism is a concern but don't equate moderate and peaceful religious practitioners with extremists, Christian or otherwise. Culture and religion are very closely connected and the 'new' world is still coming to terms with those differences.