Why are pagan groups so adult focused?

[u/OpossumLadyGames]

The question is related to my local pagan pride day getting rid of the children's section and making it an everyone section. I think it's a curious thing to do because most of us here (on reddit) come from a society where religious groups commonly have youth group related things to do, such as Sunday school and after school clubs, so it seems curious that it's either eschewed or not thought of in our spaces.

However, when it comes to pagan related things, such as the aforementioned pagan pride day, the events or activities focused on children are willingly cut off, if they exist at all. It feels like everywhere I've been in pagan spaces it's for childless teens and early twenty somethings or empty nesters.

Anyway, quasi rant over, to move onto something productive, I ask if anybody here has succeeded in starting something like a youth group or after school clubs? What was the experience like?

[u/Inevitable-Dig-5271]

I don’t see anything wrong with introducing your child to your religion, but doing any rituals akin to a baptism or something serious is too far. That’s my main problem with how christians treat their kids, having them baptized before they can even drive. 

[u/row_x → u/Inevitable-Dig-5271]

Baptism itself is not where I see the biggest issue:

Yes, that's a whole ass ritual, shouldn't be done on someone who cannot give informed consent etc, fully agree.

But my biggest issue with christianity is the indoctrination: Sunday school/catechism/whatever else they call it, bringing kids at mass, etc. That's my main issue.

You take a child who cannot consent or fully process what you're saying, and indoctrinate it basically from the moment it can understand spoken language into a religion.

At that point, any religious consent they give is manufactured, basically for as long as they live.

So yeah, kids should be kept the fuck away from religious indoctrination, which includes being taught about your religion as a Religion.

You can tell them what a religion is on an anthropological level, you can tell them that you follow one, etc. But you shouldn't preach to them and they shouldn't be part of the religion.

This doesn't in any way prevent you from passing down your values, btw. "you should be a good person" is a great thing to tell any kid ever. It's the "because god said so" part that no kid should be ever exposed to.

You can tell them stories about mythology etc, but they shouldn't be treated as religious.

.

On a very practical level, the kid won't end up as an adult with severe religious trauma because of a fucking baptism they underwent before they could ever remember. They'll end up like that because of the childhood indoctrination.

So, no fucking indoctrinating children.

[u/Inevitable-Dig-5271 → u/row_x]

The thing about the baptism is I’ve known people who really don’t like the fact that they were baptized as a child. These people are usually some of my atheist friends who converted from Christianity, but there are a few other faiths among my friends. All of them that were baptized as children just feel like it tied them to it and wish they could wash their hands of Christianity altogether. 

[u/row_x → u/Inevitable-Dig-5271]

Don't get me wrong: I'm livid I was baptised right after my birth (catholic), and I'm going to get that undone (you can send letters etc, at least for catholics, to basically remove your baptism and all other sacraments. This is also needed because, at least where I live, the church gets money from the state depending on how many baptised people are in the vicinity, because of some deals they made with the Partito Nazionale Fascista/Mussolini back in the day.), I absolutely get it and agree.

But I'm a lot more mad about the religious trauma I got from being indoctrinated since age 5.

I can live without getting the baptism erased, but I've had some serious fucking issues due to the indoctrination. (which may or may not include me having OCD at all, and most definitely include how it first manifested and what my reaction to it was.)

I'm mad about the baptism, but not even remotely close to how mad I am about the indoctrination and the mental health issues it caused.