I read an article on USAToday this week, Am I Raising Atheist Children? The gist of the story is that parents that are atheist and teach their children no religion are not teaching them to be atheist, but merely allowing them to choose for themselves.
I never describe our family as “an atheist family” (I prefer to say, “We are nothing,” as in not part of any religion), and I reject the notion that my kids are automatically what I am. I think that keeping them open to all the possibilities is more important than telling them what to believe in.
What a bunch of hooey. Look, parents, it’s your job to teach your children. You are the adults. By the time your children are old enough to understand there is such a thing as truth and begin to seek it, they’ll be your age and frankly already messed up.
Give them a head start. Teach them Truth. Don’t hid under the guise of “I don’t want to force my beliefs on them.” Ask yourself first some tough questions, and don’t be such a coward when you answer yourself.
– Is there a God? If there is a God, you should live your life as though a large omnipotent being has the ability to crush you like a bug if you misbehave. If there is not a God, then you’ll have a lot more fun living as a heathen. Teach your children that they should have all the sex and drugs and alcohol as they can at an early age because that’s all there is in life.
– If there is a God, what does He want? Maybe He wants something from you. Seek Him.
– If there is a God, are you living the life He would want you to live? Why not?
Your children deserve better. Teach them what you believe.
I half suspect the article was written with the public school system in mind – just because the schools outlaw religion doesn’t mean they are raising your children as atheists. That, too, is a bunch of hooey. The public schools are raising left-wing socialist non-believers because the schools are run by left-wing socialist non-believers. Of course they’re trying to turn your children into atheists. If you don’t believe them, ask them what they learned today.
Chasing the Wind 
Amen brother.
Parents have fallen prey to the secular fallacy of raising children by absence. Delegating their sole right of raising children to the state, ie, public school education.
Ironically the public school system was created to teach children the Bible!
Anyhoo, that is the problem amongst cultural Christians that of letting your children decide.
That is the parents decision to be a parent and TEACH them the body of faith that Jesus imparted to the world?!
Ok, enough, Happy Easter.
In Jesus, Mary, & Joseph,
Tito of Custos Fidei
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And Happy Resurrection day to you, too, Tito.
I no longer think of the public school system in positive terms. There are a few select schools still doing good work, but most of them are just containment areas for the next batch of unsupervised hoodlums.
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Did you read the rest of the blog?
“I teach them about all the major religions, and when I am not sure, I call friends who are part of the religions in question for better answers. We look at the art made to honor deities, we read stories written to explain belief systems, and we talk about similarities and differences among religions, both extinct and still in existence today. I try to keep all the possibilities open to them, and I answer all their questions honestly. I admit that I do not believe in the many gods that are out there, but I respect people who choose to follow them.
I may be raising my kids outside organized religion, but I am not raising them to be ignorant of religion any more than I am raising them to be atheists. I am not telling them that they have to follow my way of thinking, because as a parent, it’s my job to encourage them to think for themselves.”
That sounds wonderful to me, and is what I will be doing with my future children.
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LK, I did read the article. Did you read my response? Parents have an obligation to seek the truth for themselves and to pass that truth to their children.
All religions cannot be true simultaneously. To leave the spiritual teaching of a child to the disembodied authority of public education is an abdication of parental responsibility.
That doesn’t sound so wonderful to me.
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Michael, love your frank post here!
“The public schools are raising left-wing socialist non-believers because the schools are run by left-wing socialist non-believers. Of course they’re trying to turn your children into atheists.”
Well, that’s a pretty harsh condemnation of our public education system – and unfortunately, TRUE. While there are many good, even Christian, teachers and administrators at the local level, the machine itself is so enormous and secularized – with the result that even good, Christian teachers are forbidden to impart any of their moral authority. So what’s left will be void of God, and naturally, either atheistic or agnostic.
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Jennifer, if you could only see what the schools, especially inner-city schools, are churning out, you’d be appalled.
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And just recently in Wisconsin, a high school boy gets a big fat 0 and kicked out of class for drawing a cross and John 3:16 on his landscape illustration, and refusing to erase it. Go ahead and draw demons and skulls, but the horror, a Christian symbol.
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I’m not surprised, Jennifer, but I am saddened. Gay, lesbianism, demonic activities, atheism in. God and love: out. I just read that link you sent and I am appalled that simple Christian artwork is against policy.
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