Is the Bible appropriate for children?

[Rikoujin]

What better place to introduce children to these kinds of things than in the church using a Bible. These things are always shown in a negative light, as they should be. Censoring the Bible is like telling God to shut up. Now, I fully support the idea that people who teach children should try to steer away from focusing on this stuff too much, but if it's important to the story, then it's important not to leave anything out. There are plenty of good stories from the Bible that don't need censorship. These are the stories that are conventionally taught at young ages anyways. In the end, God obviously thought it was important enough to leave in or it wouldn't be there.  

[Blue-ROMan]

There are really only a few basic tenets of Christianity that are necessary for anyone to become a Christian, and the kids are exposed to those.
Yes there are things that kids are not mature enough to handle but those are not really the important things, yes those play a part in the beautiful waltz that is God's history with man, but children really only need something along the lines of romans road to be saved. You know the "everybody sins-> God cannot allow sin into his kingdom-> Jesus died for our sins-> all we have to do is accept the free gift of salvation from God" type thing.  

[Smeagle the Great]

I'll tell you why nobody wants to censor the Bible.

Anyone ever read the last passage in Revelation?  

[Deo_Machina]

MidgetSoldierOnyx

I'll tell you why nobody wants to censor the Bible.

Anyone ever read the last passage in Revelation?

What's it say?  

[Smeagle the Great]

More or less that anyone who changes the Bible's message will have the plagues of Egypt upon them,but 10 times worse. And,anyone who knows enough about the Bible to see the "wisdom" in censoring it ought to know that the 10 plagues were bad enough by themselves. Of course,those who don't believe in God wouldn't care,but then,you don't see a bunch of "censored" bibles lying around in stores,so the warning must be doing it's job fairly well.  

[Blue-ROMan]

MidgetSoldierOnyx

More or less that anyone who changes the Bible's message will have the plagues of Egypt upon them,but 10 times worse. And,anyone who knows enough about the Bible to see the "wisdom" in censoring it ought to know that the 10 plagues were bad enough by themselves. Of course,those who don't believe in God wouldn't care,but then,you don't see a bunch of "censored" bibles lying around in stores,so the warning must be doing it's job fairly well.

making a bible age appropriate is not the same as taking out pieces of the bible... A while ago you had to be thriteen just to read song of songs, that verse is more about if you only take the parts of the bible that you want and ignore the rest(or adding in ridiculous passages that are unneccessary, or cause people to sin), and many scholars speculate that the specific verse only refers to the book of revelation, also punishment of breaking the verse is the plagues described in revelation not the plagues of egypt...  

[Smeagle the Great]

Well sorry. confused  

[Canuckaluck]

The Bible teaches, what is right and wrong. Parents are told how to teach their children and they should obviously help their children to understand.  

[Wind-Whisper]

Lethkhar

Fushigi na Butterfly

The Bible is censored for children. Children's Bibles and picture Bibles usually skip over alot of stuff in the Bible, and all the things like the Exodus are sugar-coated so that it's not so over their heads. Once they're older, it's the parents' responsibility to graduate them to actual Bibles and fill in all the blaniks.

Wow, so kids miss out on about half of their faith...

I wonder if kids would accept it just as well if you taught it all...It might reduce the brainwashing...I mean, the hypocrisy's quite clear at an age when your mind hasn't been distorted so much that it turns a blind eye to it.

That might be an interesting study...

Not so! When you were little, did your mother read to you some of the grimmer of Anderson's fairy tales or the really nasty versions of the Grimm fairy tales? No they did not, not until you were considerably older did you probably get those versions. Likewise, there are children's versions of Shakespeare's plays that will entertain them and not put them to sleep with long-winded Elizabethan English that even many adults fine tedious. But the basic stories are always told to children, in the fiary talkes, in Shakespeare, and in the Bible. When i was a kid, I knew all about the 10 plagues of Egypt, tyrants killing babies, and about Jesus' crucifixion. These things were never hidden, just softened in language that children can understand.

Far more hypocritical is telling people that certain other religions stand for peace and tolerance when it is clear to everyone that it simply isn't true.  

[Deo_Machina]

Which certain other religions?  

[Sarcastic_Angel]

We shouldn't censor the bible. That would be covering up what God wants us to know. But parents and the church should regulate what the children are taught, and slowly introduce them to the more adult content when they are individually ready.  

[Lethkhar]

Kaizzer

Lethkhar

Kaizzer

Lethkhar

Kaizzer

Lethkhar

I'm not "copping out". I honestly have no idea what it does to children. That's what I'm asking you guys.

Then, from what do you derive this: "the Bible is hardly appropriate for children to read."?

I'm offering a statement for you to argue or support. Haven't you ever evaluated a statement?

If that is your intent, the OP is very misleading... As well your answer to my question.

I'm sorry you feel that way.

Okay. This still does not explain why you did not distinguish your point.

I'm afraid I don't understand what your confusion is.  

[GuardianAngel44]

Lethkhar

sweetly~broken~by~Him

Lethkhar

laurabee86

there are Bibles for kids that make it nice smile

But it's not a real Bible, is it?

yes it is a real bible but "Dumbed" down if you will. Almost censored for little kids! So yes there is a censor on the Bible

But then are they really learning completely about their religion?

So, Lekthar, did you learn advanced calculus when you were five? How to program a computer? How to fly an airplane? You didn't learn everything at once. You learned it step by step, level by level. Your teachers waited to teach you the advanced stuff untill you were ready, so that you could understand it.

It's the same with the bible. It's not censorship. It's teaching it slowly.  

[The Amazing Ryuu]

Smeagle the Great

More or less that anyone who changes the Bible's message will have the plagues of Egypt upon them,but 10 times worse. And,anyone who knows enough about the Bible to see the "wisdom" in censoring it ought to know that the 10 plagues were bad enough by themselves. Of course,those who don't believe in God wouldn't care,but then,you don't see a bunch of "censored" bibles lying around in stores,so the warning must be doing it's job fairly well.

The funny thing here is that we'll never really know the amount of stuff that never made it into the Bible. The NT was written over decades, and it wasn't until the council of Carthage that the whole thing was put together. In fact, they even haggled over the divinity of Jesus. So, just about everything you know and believe today was decided there. There has to be thousands of other letters and gospels, for lack of a better word, floating out there that people today will never read.

more info on the history of the church
more info on the Councils of Carthage

Anyhow, I don't think making the Bible age-appropriate is censoring. Throwing stuff at them that's over their head isn't making them less "brainwashed." They're not brainwashed at all. Haven't you noticed the amount of people who went to church as children and decided otherwise around the age of 10 or so? We're not holding the truth back from them. We're waiting until they're old enough to understand. Like anything else in the world, you have to take things one little baby step at a time.  

[Edith Puthie]

I agree with both sides, on censoring, and not censoring. You know, its up to the parent. Not everyone learns the bible fast, so why not start out on the easy stories that kids with understand and slowly bring them into the more mature stories?
Also, Lethkar, you gave this topic a double edged sword. Its rather not nice, or relevant because as much as TV censors, there is still violence, and that stuff on it. Also, would you make you child stay home all the time just because there are bad people in the world? I mean, there are good things, and bad things in everything.