"Sunday school"

[jerry mcmasters]

Saw a reddit post about it and got me thinking, and remembering.  Any of you remember such a thing, and is it a thing outside the US?  My memories are very vague but I remember being picked on by some of the older kids and I remember not liking it.  That's about all.  Most of my church memories are of sitting in the pew (Methodist) so I assume I must have told my parents I would prefer to do solitary confinement in church rather than be with the general population in Sunday school.  I definitely don't remember any religious doctrine being pumped into me but I assume it must have.

[Dānu]

My mother taught Sunday school, so attendance wasn't optional for me.

[Dom]

Catholics don't have it, unless that changed since I was a kid. We just went to mass.

[Minimalist]

Sunday School (catholick) was where I realized that those people were fucking idiots.  I considered it a life changing experience!

[Chas]

Mother had us go to church until age 16, then we could opt out.
We would attend Sunday School until some time in  early teens, then it was Youth Fellowship through the high school years.

In retrospect, I'm quite sure that she made us go to church because it was the socially accepted way.  Her parents came of age in Canada in the Victorian era, and she grew up in a conservative society.   We went to the closest church, The First Church Evangelical Congregational, even though there were a lot of Baptists (shudder) in the family history.  Read that 'Evangelical' in a New England way; it just meant the church supported missions.  It joined the new United Church of Christ in the 60's.

At 16 I was elected President of the Youth Fellowship and we had a cool Youth Minister - Charlie Savage, a student from Andover Newton Theological Seminary.  We had to put on the youth church service each Sunday.  When I had to do it, I tried to choose subversive Bible readings.

For me, it was largely really a social activity.  Good friends from school were members. When I was 17 and a senior in high school, my girlfriend was a member. That year, the group had an overnight ski trip to New Hampshire.  It was on that trip that we had sex for the first time.

It was in Sunday School when I was about 12 that I realized I was an atheist.

[julep]

First hour of church every Sunday, grouped by ages.  Infants, preschool, elementary, junior high, senior high, young adults, young marrieds, adults, seniors. Followed by two more hours of church, followed after an afternoon break by evening church.   

It was as awful as you’d expect a southern Baptist Sunday school to be.   Lots of messages about sin, shame, and guilt, inferiority of women and other races, and hellfire, plus the occasional craft project.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Went to Sunday School once. Asked awkward questions about the Noah family's life after the flood. Preacher asked that I not come back.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Yeah, raised Southern Baptist, our Sunday school came after the main service. We'd go over the preacher's sermon and discuss that. Fucking annoying.

[abaris]

Any of you remember such a thing, and is it a thing outside the US?

It's not a thing in Europe, far as I know. But that doesn't mean, religion doesn't sneak into the classrooms. We had religious classes, depending on your denomination, as part of our curriculum. Your parents could opt you out and once you turned 16, you could opt out without the consent of your parents. Which I did, out of principle. There's an ongoing debate about replacing the religious courses with ethics in general, but of course, conservatives stand against that plan.

[Vera]

No such thing when I was a kid (them communists weren't too crazy about religion) and while communism fell while I was still a child, religion was never taught in school. The parasites - sorry - priests - of our church would now and then try to have religion introduced in schools but I don't see it happening, unless it's some sort of comparative thing and even that seems highly unlikely. We did philosophy and ethics in high school and that's much more useful imo.

Churches do appear to have sunday schools and someone *must* be attending them but I personally don't know of anyone whose children do.

[Minimalist]

them communists weren't too crazy about religion

Even they weren't all bad!

[SYZ]

Me?  Methodist Sunday "School" from age 5 yrs to 12 yrs.  By 13 I'd
realised all the fantastical stories were just that—stories.  Didn't fully
realise at that time that this was the beginning of my lifelong atheism.

In hindsight, I think the term Sunday school is definitely a misnomer;
schools as such are meant to be places where children or young adults
are imbued with logic and clear thinking, the sciences, history in its true
sense, deductive reasoning etc.

On the other hand, Sunday schools "teach" from a basis of fantasy fiction,
superstition, legends and magic, and blatant indoctrination to the cause.
Oh, and don't forget the ever-pervading fear factor.  Could God really see
me when I had a quick wank in the shower?

[airportkid]

... Lots of messages about sin, shame, and guilt, inferiority of women and other races, and hellfire, plus the occasional craft project ...

It's a good thing I hadn't made my coffee yet because it would have come out my nose reading that sentence 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Sunday School was a way to get a second round of donations.

[isbelldl]

First hour of church every Sunday, grouped by ages.  Infants, preschool, elementary, junior high, senior high, young adults, young marrieds, adults, seniors. Followed by two more hours of church, followed after an afternoon break by evening church.   

It was as awful as you’d expect a southern Baptist Sunday school to be.   Lots of messages about sin, shame, and guilt, inferiority of women and other races, and hellfire, plus the occasional craft project.

That's very similar to my experience growing up in the Church of God (Pentecostal). Sunday morning was 1hr "Sunday School" then 1hr regular service. Sunday afternoon was 2hr regular service. Wednesday evening was 1hr services separated by age group. My parents were always involved with the music, so we were stuck there for all of it. I liked it at the time, but resent it in hindsight.

[Dancefortwo]

I didn't know who Jesus was until I was 10.   Not counting weddings and funerals I've been to only one church service once in my life which was an Episcipal church (or however you spell it) and it was boring and very stupid.  I find churches depressing places.  After spending my childhood running around in the open mountain air I can't imagine being forced to go to such a dark foreboding place that tells you you're a miserable sinner and the only way out of this awful prediciment is cannibalism in the form of a cracker.  

I know grown men and women who go to "Bible study".  Whatever the fuck THAT is.  It seems to be a Wednesday thing at various people's houses.   I have no idea what this is about but I'm guessing they study the bible to self-indoctrinate  even more.  I can just picture them all nodding their heads in complete agreement with each other as they wipe away all doubt and make doubly sure the indoctrination is complete.   

Am I right?

[mordant]

Sunday School originated in the 1700s in England in something called "the Sunday School movement" and its original purpose was to provide basic education for children in an era before child labor laws and compulsory public education. It was not 100% religious; the texts provided included books on spelling. Adults also attended public lectures while their children were in class. So there was an ethos of trying to raise people's circumstances through education.

After compulsory public education became common, Sunday School evolved into more of a sports and social club sort of affair.

Sunday school had by the 1960s evolved into its present form, most popular in evangelical denominations where piety consists in part of devoting the entire "Lord's Day" to god. Sunday School is what you do before the church service. Youth groups meet in the late afternoon before the evening service. Sunday School has for generations now been 100% about catechism, basically, whether a particular denomination actually calls it that or not or whether it culminates in some sort of ceremonial "first communion" or similar. But it didn't start out that way.

AFAIK it's not very popular anymore outside the US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunday_school

[jerry mcmasters]

Could God really see
me when I had a quick wank in the shower?

Yes I did, and I must say it gave me a bit of a chubby.

-God

[RobbyPants]

Saw a reddit post about it and got me thinking, and remembering.  Any of you remember such a thing, and is it a thing outside the US?  My memories are very vague but I remember being picked on by some of the older kids and I remember not liking it.  That's about all.  Most of my church memories are of sitting in the pew (Methodist) so I assume I must have told my parents I would prefer to do solitary confinement in church rather than be with the general population in Sunday school.  I definitely don't remember any religious doctrine being pumped into me but I assume it must have.

Yeah, I went from grade school all through high school. I don't know about the churches in Southern Ontario, but the one in the First Nations community where we lived had a Sunday school. It focused on snacks, arts, crafts, and child indoctrination. The usual fare.

[Minimalist]

Who could learn anything from this?

[Nursey]

I was forced to go to Sunday School. It was pretty typical of most churches in the area to have an early service at 0830, Sunday School at 0945, and Traditional service at 1100. With the contemporary service movements, now there are Sunday schools at varying times, different times for worship services, also depends on the size of the church. One of the churches I attended in my 20s had Sunday schools at all three times, three traditional services to pick from in the morning, and two contemporary services, all from 0830 to noon. Sometimes it was fun with arts and crafts, the being forced to memorize Bible verses, not so much.

If you’re really die hard, then you go to the Sunday Evening service, small group during the week, additional small group/youth group plus Wednesday night service. Then throw in choir practice, perhaps handbell practice, “Fifth Quarter” on Friday nights during football season. Then there’s weekend retreats, mission trips, Revival week with guest pastors every night and southern gospel quartets, Vacation Bible School, Judgment House in October, Emmaus cult gatherings. I was there every. time. the. doors. were. open. until I left for college. My biological father was a preacher and my dad is a deacon and has been a Sunday school teacher for yeaaaars. Every now and then I get roped into attending his class, if there’s one positive thing to come out of the pandemic - my heathen ass hasn’t stepped foot in a church in over a year.

[mordant]

I was forced to go to Sunday School. It was pretty typical of most churches in the area to have an early service at 0830, Sunday School at 0945, and Traditional service at 1100. With the contemporary service movements, now there are Sunday schools at varying times, different times for worship services, also depends on the size of the church. One of the churches I attended in my 20s had Sunday schools at all three times, three traditional services to pick from in the morning, and two contemporary services, all from 0830 to noon. Sometimes it was fun with arts and crafts, the being forced to memorize Bible verses, not so much.

If you’re really die hard, then you go to the Sunday Evening service, small group during the week, additional small group/youth group plus Wednesday night service. Then throw in choir practice, perhaps handbell practice, “Fifth Quarter” on Friday nights during football season. Then there’s weekend retreats, mission trips, Revival week with guest pastors every night and southern gospel quartets, Vacation Bible School, Judgment House in October, Emmaus cult gatherings. I was there every. time. the. doors. were. open. until I left for college. My biological father was a preacher and my dad is a deacon and has been a Sunday school teacher for yeaaaars. Every now and then I get roped into attending his class, if there’s one positive thing to come out of the pandemic - my heathen ass hasn’t stepped foot in a church in over a year.

Yeah if you didn't attend, at minimum, Sunday morning AND evening service plus Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting as a family, then you were definitely "backsliders". Sunday School was something you could occasionally cut, but going to that before the church service was pretty much expected as well.

My father was Sunday School "superintendent" but in our small church it was a low bar to serve. He also was in charge of changing up the church sign every week. His best one that I remember was SEVEN DAYS WITHOUT PRAYER MAKES ONE WEAK. Hardy-har-har.

[jerry mcmasters]

My dad was an usher. I always thought that was kind of cool when I was little. Dude could pass that damn plate around, can't take that away from him.

[Dom]

I was forced to go to Sunday School. It was pretty typical of most churches in the area to have an early service at 0830, Sunday School at 0945, and Traditional service at 1100. With the contemporary service movements, now there are Sunday schools at varying times, different times for worship services, also depends on the size of the church. One of the churches I attended in my 20s had Sunday schools at all three times, three traditional services to pick from in the morning, and two contemporary services, all from 0830 to noon. Sometimes it was fun with arts and crafts, the being forced to memorize Bible verses, not so much.

If you’re really die hard, then you go to the Sunday Evening service, small group during the week, additional small group/youth group plus Wednesday night service. Then throw in choir practice, perhaps handbell practice, “Fifth Quarter” on Friday nights during football season. Then there’s weekend retreats, mission trips, Revival week with guest pastors every night and southern gospel quartets, Vacation Bible School, Judgment House in October, Emmaus cult gatherings. I was there every. time. the. doors. were. open. until I left for college. My biological father was a preacher and my dad is a deacon and has been a Sunday school teacher for yeaaaars. Every now and then I get roped into attending his class, if there’s one positive thing to come out of the pandemic - my heathen ass hasn’t stepped foot in a church in over a year.

Yeah if you didn't attend, at minimum, Sunday morning AND evening service plus Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting as a family, then you were definitely "backsliders". Sunday School was something you could occasionally cut, but going to that before the church service was pretty much expected as well.

My father was Sunday School "superintendent" but in our small church it was a low bar to serve. He also was in charge of changing up the church sign every week. His best one that I remember was SEVEN DAYS WITHOUT PRAYER MAKES ONE WEAK. Hardy-har-har.

I grew up in catholic Bavaria, where churches are elaborate and there are lots of chapels and shrines out in the woods and on the mountains and all that. But most people didn't go to church. Maybe Easter and xmas. There was no Sunday school, you were a great catholic if you showed up for mass.  Most churches had mass Wednesday eves and Sunday there were often two masses read, so everyone could make it. They were quite sparsely attended in most churches, with exception of the cathedrals, they were always full of all kinds of people during mass. Church wasn't the social thing it is here, you went and prayed along (in Latin) whether you knew what the words meant or not. It was all about rituals. Then you went home feeling good about being in god's graces. It wasn't oppressive then and there, like all the stories I hear about here.

Of course, if you went to school with the nuns.... that was pretty oppressive.

[trdsf]

Jeez, I wish it had been only Sunday -- I went to the parish school. Between that and mass on either Saturday or Sunday, I only really had one day off. And even though we were Catholic, I usually got sent to summer bible school across the street at the Methodist church.