the 4th grade science test that has gone viral: sad but its true

[Sirveri]

150. You need to think about what he's saying from a different angle.

You calling it child abuse puts those who are religious on a defensive footing, which makes them much more resistant to change and generally intractable. You won't win any hearts and minds using that style of rhetoric. If your goal is to actually encourage change, you're going about it the wrong way.

Yes, you might think and know in your heart that it's child abuse, or it meets whatever your definition is, that's fine. The point is to convince other people that it's bad, not that it's child abuse.

For instance, female genital integrity campaigners in Africa typically use the term FGC or female genital cutting instead of FGM or female genital mutilation. Why, because they obviously get better traction if they don't tell people that they're mutilated. They might THINK they are, but most people can't handle such a large step, so you baby them into the concept. Once you get them to accept that the practice is wrong, you can then rephrase it to a more hostile term.