Should proselytizing to people under 18 be legal?

Question

I mean without parental consent of course.

Aaron: I would argue that by college, people are ready to evaluate propositions. If not, we should start college at 21.

Answer 1

I think we should know about each other before we're 18, because that's when we have to make an informed choice on who takes charge of our government.

I think most teenagers should have a broader world view than they have now, both religiously and politically. If we knew more about each other, we'd have more tolerance of each other.

Of course, there are different kinds of proselytizing, and perhaps parents should be able to withdraw consent the way they can to sex ed classes in school.

Answer 2

It shouldn't be legal with or without parental consent. Often it's the parents causing the problem in the first place.
Though 18 might be a bit high. I'd say 16. Though intellectual maturity is specific to the individual, so some people might need longer. Perhaps there should be a test in rational thinking that everyone takes, and until someone passes it would be illegal to proselytise to them.

Answer 3

Its hard to put a limitation on the age of someone to seek and find spiritual truth. I think most teenagers by the age of 15 can rightly deceide for themselves what they want to believe in or not.

Thats like saying if a kid is raised a Christian that he isn't allowed to not be a Christian until he is 18. If you reverse your statement I don't think you would agree with it.

Lets say I raise my child as a Christian. Then somone comes up to them and trys to tell them that Jesus was not the son of God and that God is not real and the Bible is just a book of human writings with no point. And then they say, I think you are right and reject Christianity. Do you think this person is doing something illegal? Isn't this also proselytizing?

Answer 4

The key word here is "legal" and the answer is yes. I think the idea is to expose minors to religious ideas so they understand and can discuss the differences between the different faiths. Ultimately a child's religious training (if any) is the responsibility of the parents, not a well-meaning neighbor, not the church, not the state. If the parents are not religious, then the child should be exposed to it from someone, if nothing else than to broaden their understanding of other people's views.

Answer 5

Great question - and the answer, an unequivocal no.

I consider the indoctrination of children a form of abuse. This is not because I dislike religion, but because I consider the soul sacred. No person has the right to control the soul of another - not even a parent. A child is not capable of making religious decisions. This is why I am against infant and child baptism, and all other rituals initiating a child into any faith before they are old enough to understand what is happening.

Answer 6

When you become old enough to understand right from wrong, then you have the right to choose what you would like to learn.
I remember when I was young; my mother told me that I could not study with Jehovah's Witnesses when I was 14.
If she would have allowed it, I would have made better and more informed choices and saved myself a great deal of heartache, pain and sorrow.
Now that I am one, I started to study when I was on my own and 18 years of age, I am grateful that this old System of things did not end and has continued for a time.
Because it has not only given me an opportunity to develop a relationship with Jehovah but it has given his organization a chance to grow from 2 million when I was baptized to almost 7 million today.

Answer 7

Proselyting is legal. However, I know that certain proselyting churches (e.g. the Mormons) actually don't allow anyone eighteen or under to join their church without parental consent (they can talk to missionaries, but not actually join their church until they're nineteen). So, even though I don't know the legalities of it, it really isn't much different because their church doesn't allow it.

Answer 8

It is already illegal. Consider all the means Christian parents have of keeping their kids from learning about paganism. (And mature pagans do not proselytize.) Not the least of which is the tort system (as in civil lawsuit).

Answer 9

No, I don't think it should be legal, unless there is parental supervision. I don't think the Bible should be in the hands of children, or anyone under the age of 18.

Answer 10

Then maybe we will have to close down the public schools. The are indoctrinating kids with beliefs that contradict the beliefs of the parents.