Jesus H Christ, now what do I do?

This is one of those tough days to be a parent.

As I may have mentioned before, my daughter Emma is on a religion kick. As a child I was forced to attend Holy Hellfire & Brimstone (aka Catholic church) and I decided way back then that I would not force my children into a religion, ANY religion. I figured I would allow them to make up their own minds. Of course, I did not take them to any churches to even dabble, see if they like it... and that was purely selfish reasoning: I did NOT want to go.

Now the past few weeks, Emma has been going to a church youth group with a friend of hers. She walks over to friend's house, and her parents drive them to said church. No, I do not know which church in town it is, and I do not know where it is, I only know that she goes, and she appears to like it.

I have no issue with that, or rather, I didn't, until she showed me this...propaganda. It's a worksheet type thing, checkpoints for progress in the youth group (coughCULTcough). The main thing that bothers me is the verses they are making kids memorize.

A sample:
John 3:36
"He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

Ok, anything that babbles about "non believers" seeing the wrath of God is not the sort of thing I want my daughter exposed to. This sounds like the kind of scary shit that turned me off to religion.

Another:
Romans 6:23
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord"

Do I really need to explain my dislike for this one? Maybe if I couple it with the next one, you will see why it bothers me...

Psalm 130:3
"If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?"

So this last one says "hey, if you pointed out sinners, who would be left?" Add that to the one above it, paraphrased "sin=death" and holy shit, that is just horrible.

Now, I don't want to start a religious debate, in fact, I promise that any comments that I don't like will be deleted. I am not asking for someone to explain (as if ya could) this shit to me, I am not asking for the opinion of a bible banger. I am merely venting on the fact that my daughter is doing something that I do not approve of, but 'society' deems it acceptable and if I stifle this eagerness to learn, what kind of mother am I?

If she were dabbling in the occult, or drugs, what have you, I would stop it, and be patted on the back as a 'good mum' but if I tell her that I do not like the direction this religion is going, if I tell her that I forbid her to go back there, then suddenly I am the bad guy.

In my opinion, the Bible is a book of stories. I do not believe that any of it is fact. I am a skeptic at best, and more likely I am agnostic, possibly even atheist.

How does an atheist end up raising a nun? Probably the same way a homophobe ends up with a gay child... karmic irony... or, in the immortal words of my friend Scott, maybe it's just PDL.

funny thing to add to the bottom of this though, on the religion line of discussion: The other day I heard Emma and Eric talking in the living room. I hid around the corner and eavesdropped.

Emma: Do you know what God's first name is?
Eric: It's God, just God.
Emma: No, dummy, he's got a first name.
Eric: Yeah? So what is it?
Emma: James.
Eric: Bull
Emma: No, really, says right here on the front "King James"...