Watching children parrot the words they were taught by their parents as part of their indoctrination to the church is always so heart warming....bless their little hearts.
So heart warming that they asked parents to stop doing that in F&T meetings. Years ago, the bishop got up and said just that before opening it up for testimonies. He said they can do it on their own if they want, but no more help from parents. Sure enough, the first up was a mom and her 4 year old with her whispering the words to say in his ear.
They would have NEVER done this and they didn't bear their testimonies either and none of us did either. I only bore my testimony when forced to like at girls' camp.
I always thought these kid testimonies were all for show.
What the children were saying are very adult concepts that require a maturity these children do not have. The Church should be ashamed to be using children as a tool to convert people. I am old and I still do not understand the concepts of God Jesus or the atonement. I do believe I prayers. I have studied and I mean studied books on the life of Christ both Lds and non Lds books. These kids probably cannot spell Jesus yet they are testifying of him. They probably do not know what testifying is or means. For Dusty Rusty to use children this way is a sin. As I said cute kids, cute video until you stop and really think about it. Of course I would expect nothing less than this from Rusty
you used to. I always watched for your posts about what they are doing at church NOW! My daughter won't tell me those things and she is TBM, so it was nice to hear what is going on and what is influencing her.
They've been doing these testimonies since I was a little girl and I'm 63. So ALL the leaders are guilty and the parents who encourage this and the teachers in primary, etc., are guilty of promoting this idea. I think my parents actually would have been embarrassed if one of us got up and bore our testimony when we were little. I actually do not believe that in my years growing up that any person in my family stood up and bore their testimony. My mom may have once--but more than likely not. We weren't into "show." I've always thought my beliefs were personal and unique, and I didn't like sharing them.
I've got to stop following this blog, more bad memories. I did the testimony thing twice at 12. Once at Boy Scout camp where there was a lot peer pressure (I did like Scout camp) and once when all the deacons (myself included) gave testimony at fast sunday. I had no idea was I saying.
I converted to LDS Inc. just becore I became a Beehive. I had missed out on primary and didn't know much about it
Fast forward about 10 years when I returned from my mission and was asked to be a primary teacher. I had my first experience with primary and was shocked to see a teacher whisper word for word into a child's ear the exact words he/she then repeated while bearing testimony in the mini primary chapel.
Teacher: "I know the church is true." Child: "I know the church is true."
Teacher: "I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God." Child: "I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.
We all learn by memorizing/repeating what we've been taught, but to tell a child to declare publicly they know something to be true they can't possibly know is true is brainwashing and teaching a child to lie and be dishonest with him/herself.
Even when I was a TBM adult I always felt like I was being dishonest when I declared I knew "the church" was true. I wanted it to be true but didn't know it was true. There is no way to know. I was just being obedient by repeating what I was told to say.
I have heard many statements of "I know this, that. or the other.
I have never heard the "testimony" part. Per Webster's dictionary, a testimony is "statements given in support of a statement.
I have had some fun asking, after the fact, how come they never got to the testimony part, and watching them squirm realizing they had NO supporting statements of HOW they know.
A good finish goes something like this: "So! You have no testimony, only a bunch of statements you have been trained to repeat without any actual evidence whatever."
I have a dim memory of having to make a flannel board show for church, which I did. That is where the background is flannel, and you cut out things and glue sandpaper on the back to make them stick.
Mine mostly sheep and one horse. People thought I was slow witted.