>

You're assuming conservatives participate in political debate in good faith. They don't. "Grooming is good, actually, as long as we are the ones doing it." is their literal unironic position on the subject.
I can’t disagree with this. I was molested at church youth camp. The only time I went. My mom wanted me to make friends. I was miserable and got molested. Never again. I would NEVER send my own kids on one of these trips. >

I went on one when I was like 12 with a friend and the cliques were worse than highschool. I hid in the bathroom to avoid going to church as everything felt super force and pressured. I did not have fun. I had to sort of fight my way to just call my mom and ask them to pick me up. I lasted two days. >

The cliques were TERRIBLE. I was 12, too. And we had just moved to that area the year before. Everyone felt so fake. I just couldn’t figure out how to get an in. I did not make friends, and I started coming up with every excuse in the book to not go to church after the experience. >

I was super religious and went to a religious camp. I never made new friends at one. Luckily our camp allowed us to go in as groups, so that worked for me, but that just meant that kids going alone had it worse off.
Our camp was pretty mild on the religiousity as camps went, so I generally enjoyed it and worked there as a summer job later, but in retrospect it was not a good fit for almost anyone, as though the kids were limited to about an hour and a half of religious activity a day, the requirements for the staff was bizarre. 
I ended up being a mid-level leader there, so I did not create policy, but was expected to enforce it. They wanted me to do like two Bible studies a day and several longer activities a week for the younger, volunteer staff members. But these staff were expected to work from literally dawn to dusk, and so the only time they could all make it to the Bible study would have been before sunrise. They also stayed in the group cabins with the kids 6 out of 7 days, and so generally did not ever sleep well.
There was also a morning meeting at like 6:30 am (which is insanely after the prospective Bible study time) and I was repeatedly told that I had to write people up for being late or missing the meeting after they got like 4-5 hours of sleep every night for weeks in a row. They literally were working from dawn to the early hours of morning every day and their "day" off was Saturday noon to Sunday noon, so it was not even a day off. On top of that they were expected to spend their off time helping clean and set up for the next week, so they were not even off on their fake day off.
It was illusion shattering for me. I legitimately became depressed and got angry with the people in charge and just stopped doing anything. I just gave up and refused to enforce their stupid rules or play along with their insane legalism. 
I was probably the "worst" person they ever had at my job, in that I literally did nothing, but as I was being told that my whole job was to be a religiously affiliated slave driver for 16 year old unpaid volunteers, just being there and refusing to do anything was the best thing I could do for them.
That and I constantly lied to my supervisor saying I punished them or wrote them up, but never did so. >

Seems like that job was perfectly made for "let’s just not and say we did". 
Bible study: "Guys this is the Bible, you've probably already read it since it's literally the only book we have. Ok, box ticked, who wants hot chocolate?" >

Nah.
"Jesus was one who helped the poor, the immigrants and the most vulnerable. That's why people should push for egalitarian position, because love is good blablabla."
Proactively push for a left-wing, pro-egalitarian view. By quoting some very carefully chosen bible verses.
Forced to push an agenda? Might as well push one that benefit people. >

I had zero physical abuse situations at church camp, but I can confirm the emotional manipulation is OUT OF CONTROL and very disturbing to think back on. >

I remember, as a child, being told in vivid detail what hell would be like for those who didn’t believe. They told us about the smell of rotting flesh falling off of non believer’s bones as they cried out in agony while demons shoved flaming hot metal spikes through their eyes. This would be done over and over for eternity because they rejected Jesus. But he loves you. Took me until mid thirties to leave religion. >

…..…None of that is remotely biblical. >

That annoys me a lot.  Nothing about eternal suffering is in the Bible at all.  No Hellfire It’s been borrowed from other religious afterlife concepts.  The Bible actually says that burning someone alive was horrible and God condemned the practice.
That and the bit where people say God must need another angel when a kid dies drives me right up the wall. >


Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Revelation Ch. 20, V 14-15.
There are more discussions of eternal suffering and flame all throughout Revelation. It's DEFINITELY in the Bible. >

Then of course it gets into the debate of biblical literalism.
Fun fact, it’s theorized by many secular and (more sensible) religious scholars that Revelations is more akin to how people write dystopian novels as a commentary on the current state of the world, rather than a literal prediction of the future. >

I am biased because I am an atheist but the debates about biblical literalism are hilarious to me. 
A religion's foundational texts, which speak to the existence of an omnipotent god who merely wants us to make the right decision about what to believe and who to worship, are so unclear that reasonable people within that religion can't even agree on whether it should be taken literally.
That bit about eternal damnation vs. eternal peace? Meh. Could be literal. Could maybe be just a thousands year old social commentary novella. >

I’m happy just letting all of them burn themselves out >

If you're going to do stuff like this you need to be loud about it. Make sure every time you are interviewed/asked about this bill you mention children being abused in churches. The religious right will be forced into a corner of having to defend actual pedophiles and groomers. >

You mean like they defend actual pedophiles and groomers right now?
Like they have for Dennis Hastert and Matt Geatz?
Hypocrisy is part and parcel of the religious right. >

The point is to make these as*holes play defense and stop letting them control the narrative of every issue just because the Democrats want to take the high road because they're afraid of offending their "friends and colleagues." No one cares about the DC theater outside the beltway. No one cares if you're on good terms with Republicans. I don't vote for Democrats so they can befriend Republicans. They aren't anyone's friends. They are enemies of the state and the people, and it's time Democrats get their s*it together and treat them as such. House Democrats have nothing to do for the next two years. There is no reason for them to not come out swinging every single day and just hammer away at conservatives. In this case, you have to make Republicans defend why they are unwilling to protect children.