Ban Religion from Social Work

969 Words2 Pages

Over the past decades, social workers have encountered and helped children who have experienced unimaginable types of abuse. In most cases the abuse is done by someone who the child is already familiar with. Usually, the child will become close to the person and put their faith in them only to receive harm and betrayal of trust. And in what kinds of abusive situations does a child tend to end up more mentally distraught? The answer is during religious abuse. Social workers know about the children that have been done wrong by men and women who claim to be spiritual leaders, yet many of them claim religion as well, as the means to help the religiously abused children. Religion should not be included in social work, period. Social workers should not use religion as their method to help abused or abandoned children because it may cause the children to become bitter and resentful toward them and the religion due to separation from the child’s other siblings during home displacement, it may cause the children to have anxiety and doubt about religion when they become adults, and, while they are under the care of the religious social-working organizations, it may cause them to constantly remember the religious leaders and individuals who have abused them, which can lead to mental illness and/or suicidal thoughts. Religious abuse is abuse given under the façade of religion, typically done by religious leaders. Children have been experiencing physical, mental, and sexual abuse by religious individuals for centuries, although all cases have not been documented. Some social-working organizations have used religion to help abandoned and religiously abused children, which is a common, but critical, error. The abandoned children that receive a... ... middle of paper ... ... the trust of these young children, causing them to be leery of religion as adults. These and other abusers have no idea what kind of suffering they have inflicted on these young children. Social-working organizations are performing the noble role by helping these young children find environments to live safely in, however, some of these organizations are going about doing this the wrong way. Their job is not to teach or help the abused children discover or believe in religion, but it is to help the children get to a better state of physical and mental health. Why make the religiously abused children suffer by triggering memories of their horrifying and belittling experiences? I believe religion should be completely banned from social work to prevent further damage to the intellects of religiously abused children. After all, “a mind is a terrible thing to waste.”

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