What's your opinion on teaching your kids about God but not giving them an organized religion?

Question

What's your opinion on teaching your kids to have faith in God but not giving them an organized religion? I never went to church when I was little, but was told to pray and believe in God. I think I turned out okay... it helped me get through rough times without all of that church stuff.

Just the fact that there are so many different religions make me feel uneasy about EVER picking an organized religion. It seems so fabricated. I read the bible when I was younger and that was it.. I believed in God and got through things okay.

Answer 1

I would highly recommend not getting them involved in an organized religion but the key word here is organized, not religion.

Here are the definitions of the word religion:

1.
a. Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe.

b. A personal or institutionalized system grounded in such belief and worship.

2. The life or condition of a person in a religious order.

3. A set of beliefs, values, and practices based on the teachings of a spiritual leader.

4. A cause, principle, or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion.

In definition 1b. the word "institutionalized" is used and definition 2 mentions a religious order. These are the parts of religion that seems to cause the most problems. I see nothing wrong with the other definitions. A belief in God is the definition 1a, following the teachings of Jesus (or Muhammad or whomever) is covered by number 3 and number 4 is completely acceptable as long as your cause, principle, or activity has a good set of morals and doesn't impinge on the rights of others. Also, there's nothing wrong with zeal as long as you don't become a zealot.

I can, and do, call myself a Christian because I'm a believer in Jesus as my saviour and I follow his teachings. I do not, however, belong to any church. I study, worship and pray by myself. I don't believe in giving my hard earned money to a church so the preacher can make the payments on his BMW and I've never found a church that actually knows or teaches the truth about what's in the scriptures.

Some people seem to need to attend a church for various reasons. Some need a person to look to for guidance and support, some need a teacher because they're unable or unwilling to study on their own and some go to church to fellowship with others with the same belief system. I believe a person should do whatever they feel they need to in order to be a better person, to feel closer to God and/or to be happy.

There's no biblical edict to attend any church, to give them your money (I won't go into tithing here, that's a subject of it's own) or to blindly follow the teachings of a priest or preacher. Actually the opposite is true as we see in Mat 6:6: "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."

The word pray in the above verse comes from the Greek word proseuchomai which means both prayer and worship.

To sum this up: as long as your heart and mind are in the right place, you follow the teachings of the Bible (the Bible itself has been badly corrupted by man but like tithing, that's another subject) and pray for guidance, wisdom and knowledge, then you're doing God's will.

So teach your children about God (and in my personal opinion, about Jesus), give them a good set of values and morals, study the Bible with them and teach them to pray. That's all you need to do. If they later decide that a specific set of beliefs or church is right for them, that will be their own personal choice.

And by the way, the fact that the organized religions and churches make you feel uneasy should automatically be a sign that there's something wrong.

I hope my answer helps you.

May God bless you.

Answer 2

I am Pagan which means we are very loosely formed with out a "church" type atmosphere. But I attend a Unitarian Church so that my kids have that sense of community. I also live in the South where the first question they ask is what Church you go to. I don't want my kids to be outsiders because they don't have an answer.
But we celebrate the Sabbaths, I have three covens at my disposal and an earth studies group at my church. I answer their questions to the best of my ability and I think I am doing an okay job.

Answer 3

Where do you go to find people that believe like you do? There are clubs and meet-up groups who do that, and nobody seems to complain about them. Churches are the exception. So many people are loath to go to church, even though they can find people there who have something in common with them. Strange. Having said that, Christ never advocated a religion. He advocated a relationship with God. And each other.

Answer 4

Jesus himself organized his religion so you cannot teach your children about God without organized religion. Organization is not the culprit. It is sin. The Catholic Church is Jesus' Church. Always has been no matter what people try to say and it always will be "The gates of Hell shall not prevail against her"

Answer 5

It's all good.... I am not religious and was not raised that way. I am a spiritual non believer. No organized religion for me, too many critical denizens there. My girl was sent to Sunday school and I gave her my views as well as exposing her other views. She was given the information she needed to make her own choice and is a content and compassionate young woman. It works!

Answer 6

I exposed my children to all different ideas . They have been in (attended regularly) every denomination of churches. They have hung out with Wiccans, Pagans, and Jews. The only reason they have not worshipped with Muslims is that there are not any in our VERY small town. They have learned religious tolerance. When they were old enough I gave them my blessing to practice whatever felt right to them.
I think they have turned out allright!

Answer 7

There are 3 languages that make up the writings in the Bible. Greek-Hebrew and Latin. the academic technique to looking the genuine love=God is permitted. Terrorism from interior a team of believers is opposite which skill of the affection of God. it truly is forbidden and egocentric to frighten or kill yet another man or woman searching for the affection of God the daddy..

Answer 8

And which god are you going to pick?


There are quite a few of them out there.


Did your prayers get answered more often than random events would have produced? Teaching them a good meditation technique will help them cope for themselves better.

Raise them to think for themselves. Teach them to cope with the universe for themselves. Let them make their own decisions about god and religion when they are mature enough to do so.

Answer 9

church can be a social club for some, along with a safety net, and of course it can be abused too. If you dont feel you need it, that is good for you.

Answer 10

read proverbs chapter 22 vr 6 train up a child in the way he/she should go and when he/she is old he/she will not depart from it