I agree 1000%
This is one of the main reasons I left the Org. I couldn't stand to see the pain inflicted on the young ones any longer (including my non-baptized daughter who was living a moral life, but not making the decision to be baptized fast enough for the elders in the congo, so she was therefore concidered to be weak and wicked). Some of them were having nervous breakdowns and mental problems and then making poor choices which ended in their Df-ing. Now you have an already broken young one and you isolate them--shun them and treat them like they are dead. Now the Org encourages familites being even stricter as to how they treat these ones who are still living at home. Case in my former congo:
Young witness boy (forced into baptism at 15) by dysfunctional parents whose father is physically and mentally abusive of the mother (the mother is mentally ill herself). Anyway, this kid not surprisingly grows up with a lot of emotional problems. He falls in love with some girl and longs for her so much he tries to commit suicide and ends up in the mental hospital and is put on medication. The elders and his family, of course, think it is because he is not being "spiritual" enough and focusing too much on the "things in the world" (things such as friendships with the opposite sex). Eventually after a few rough years boy falls in love again and commits the act and is Dfd. He is given a choice by the parents to either leave the house or make steps to be reinstated. He leaves the house moves in with a woman twice his age and starts drinking heavily. He eventually ends up sleeping in his car and his family takes mercy on him says he can return home, but only if he obeys the rules, which are to go to all the meetings and to have limited contact with the other family members in the household, which means: While eating meals at the table with the other family members there will be no conversation. He can only watch TV in his own room away from the family and not in the living room with the family. The sister (his mother) makes sure that everyone in the congo knew of these arangements as they wanted to be obiedient to what the FDS said about not giving the impression that "things were as they were before" the son was Dfd. Well, this didn't work for long and this whole story ended very badly...I can't go into any more of the details--it's too upsetting. I despise this unconditional love program.
When my daughter wasn't getting bapized fast enough for the elders liking one of them told me that they preferred that the kids get baptized so they can have more control over what they do (his words almost exactly)
Forcing the kids into being baptized at an early age should be illegal in my book. It is not an adult decison, but it is one with far reaching effects on their lives. 13 year olds are not of legal age to marry, drink, drive, or vote, or sign legal documents. Baptism is a legally binding contract according to the Org, but forcing these young ones into baptism at an early age and then Dfing them for being normal kids is most definitely a heinious vile CRIME.
Has anyone Dfd at a young age ever taken this one to court?
