Telling children that they are going to hell is abusive?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Suppose I had a child (I don’t) who was misbehaving.  Rather than try to correct their behaviour by some other means, I took them out into the garden, set their favourite toy on fire and told them, ‘I love you, but if you don’t be good, that’s what I’m going to do to you.’

Would that qualify as child abuse?

Boru

Yes it would. And where I live it's a criminal offence to threaten anyone in that manner. Why do you ask...? If you think that parents should be forbidden to teach Christianity to their children then it's really the start of a civil war. My kids are adults now but I have grandchildren.  I'd fight you over this issue although at my age I'd need a desk job. It's something right out of Mao's China or Stalin's Russia. 

Is that what you meant? Hard to tell because you didn't explicitly finish your thought. You'd like to oppress Christians with the power of the state? Take their children away from them?

Then what - if any - is the moral difference between me telling I'm going to burn my child and me telling them that God is going to do the same thing?  If the first is abusive and criminal, why isn't the second?

My point is that religion is by its very nature abusive and immoral.  I'd prefer that the Church reform to the point where it doesn't abuse children.  But yes - I think the state has the right to remove a child from an abusive environment, whether that environment is secular or religious.

It's been a number of years since I've engaged in fisticuffs over religious matters, and I don't plan to take it up again (but I do think you should be more careful about extending offers to fight strangers).

Boru