Last night I watched a programme on television called Baby Bible Bashers about child evangelists whose young minds had been twisted into the service of god by fear, greed or a desperate need to win the love of a parent. Samuel had been told at the age of three that he had to become a preacher or he would burn in hell. Aged seven he had become a mascot of his Mississippi community, railing against the evil of drink, abortion and homosexuality – concepts that he hardly understood. His meat-head parents were quick to point out that they did not spare the rod when he rebelled and whilst we we're subjected to his father's god-fearing crap, we hear the cries of the little lad in the background as he is beaten by his mother.

We then saw the missionary zeal of Terry, ordained as a Baptist minister at eight and now making a healthy profit for his father and grandmother as congregations clamour for his sermons and 'miracle healing'. His father talked about 'the organisation that is Terry', selling merchandise with Little Man of God slogans and telling us about his ambition to see Terry preaching to audiences of 30,000. It seems there are millions out there who believe in these mini messiahs. There was more but I was so angry and upset I turned it off.

In the UK the parents would be prosecuted for child abuse, which this undoubtedly was, and the children would be taken into care by social services. I the US we saw whole congregations not only colluding with this abuse, but encouraging it. Can anyone tell me: are these people congenitally stupid or has religious brainwashing destroyed every iota of common sense?