How do you feel when your son or daughter lies to you? Angry? Sad? Disappointed? Where do they learn to lie? Is it from their peers, teachers, clergy, the news, or you?
Have you told your children not to lie, then repeatedly lied to them?
Have you taught your children that the world took six days to create? (And when they questioned) Explain that days were longer back then. (And when they questioned) That fossils and evolution are an evil fraud.
How did you explain why an all-powerful being needed rest after only six days?
Did you tell them to be good because Santa is coming, that Easter bunnies deliver colored eggs, tooth fairies exchange teeth for cash, and a mythical figure in their sacred book of folktales was tortured and died for their sins?
(When they questioned) How did you explain to them which sin they had committed before they were even born that required a soul cleansing at birth?
Do good parents perpetuate lies out of fear, to avoid making waves, to fit in? Do you confess your lies?
Silence is its own confession.
Did you explain that the majority of humanity is not baptized and is therefore sentenced to hellfire and damnation? (Did they understand?)
What do you feel when you lie to your children: guilt, sadness, disappointment? What is the code you live by?
Have you told your children that infidels should be destroyed, nonbelievers should be tortured and put to death and that some of those might later be declared saints to whom they can pray?
Do you tell your children not to lie, then show them how? Are your lies forgiven? By whom?
Did you mention that indigenous people should be enslaved and their children separated from their loved ones for reeducation?
Did you teach your children that god gave them free will then cursed them with instincts and desires that lead to sin, ensuring a free ride to hell.
Do you make penance? Does the cycle of lies and confessions ever end?
Truth lingers at the altar.
Did you tell your children not to lie, then teach them that the best methods of contraception are the rhythm method and early withdrawal, when you knew neither method is effective.
Are some lies good and others bad, or are they all neutral?
Did you teach your children that church leaders may molest them and the church will deny it and cover up?
Did you blow out the candle of truth to keep the peace?
Did you teach your children that their body is shameful? That physical love is wrong?
Did you teach your children that god condones war?
That blacks are bad, that arabs are terrorists, that gays are abominations?
Did you tell them the creator made angels, devils, and transsexuals?
(And when they questioned)
Did you teach your children that some humans, gods’ creations, are less than…?
Did you teach your children that to enter the kingdom they need only to believe (the lies)?
Have you told your sons and daughters not to lie? Will they do as you say or follow your example?
Desert Dweller 