Parent's responsiblity to God?

Question

I have seen quite a few comments on these forums similar to "I am not raising my child in any religion because I want him or her to decide for himself when he gets older."

Are parents like this shirking their responsibility to God to raise their children when they do this?

Answer 1

Exposure to spiritual concepts and moral instruction for ethical decision making are important for maturing as someone who can make informed and conscientious decisions.

Until the child is 18 the parents are held legally responsible for the behavior of the child,so it behooves the parents to feed ,supervise and educate the child spiritually and morally as well as intellectually,emotionally and physically.

Knowledge of the religious heritages(and not just that of the family) and viewpoints of one's environment is important for an understanding of the culture,history and current events. I think that the Bible ,which is foundational to Western Culture, should be a real part of literary and cultural education,especially on the secondary school level.

Just as we would not leave it up to the child to be exposed to mathematics (exposure to which was far more traumatic to me as a child than immersion in a Catholic religious culture ever was) or other potentially needful disciplines,so exposure to religion,ethical/moral demands,the ways other people think,and the varied questions of purpose and meaning of life are too important to avoid even in early life.

Answer 2

The best one I saw was when I was on the board of Education at our church & school. A parent actually enrolled their child in the 4 year old preschool class and then had the nerve to tell the pastor that they didn't want the teachers teaching him about religion. So pastor informed them that the child would be going to chapel once a week, no option. One of the expectations was for the children to learn the Lord's Prayer by the end of the year. And that the teachers did Bible stories with the children in the classroom and the child would not be excused from story time.

Just really makes you wonder??!!??!!

Answer 3

Very Good question...

I was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, and left the faith at the age of 22.

I spent 18 years researching religion, because I was so badly fooled by my religion of origin......Thus....I was terrified to impose religion on my children.
When my oldest son turned 18, i realized that just raising him with morals, and a belief that there is a God was not enough....He was and still is in some ways morally bankrupt.....His conscience is very weak....My youngest child was 7 when God led me to church....Still none of my children are Christian..none of my children make good moral decisions, and this MISTAKE will be with me until God decides to bring them to him.....I pray for that to happen every day of my life.
As a person who suffered religious abuse, I did the best that I could, the rest is up to God.

Answer 4

Yes in a way, I use to think that too..I'll just let them decide, but then my oldest daughter passed away and I have to live with the guilt that I did not get her sacraments completed. She did get a baptism, but nothing else.

It was my responsibility to get this done and I thought it was right to be lenient...I was wrong. Now I'm trying to get my other kids their sacraments and if they choose to change religions later on, that's fine I'll respect their decision, but right now I have to respect the laws "“Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

I will do my best to get these done, You don't know the pain of this kind of failure to your child until you've gone through it.

Answer 5

They are only ensuring that the child honestly and wholeheartedly chooses God. As no child can actually practice a religion (they do not have the capacity to choose one and only "believe" because that is what they have been taught) it is just as well for the child to not even go through the motions. Otherwise, we are creating people who half-heartedly follow a belief system because that is what they grew up with. Do you think God wants that?

No, God wants a person to come to him of their own accord and honestly from the heart.

Answer 6

Your question presupposes a belief in a supreme being, for one thing. Anyway, the parent's responsibility is to their child. As long as they're raising that child to be a responsible, productive, compassionate person, is it right to force a belief system on them before they're able to make conscious decisions about what is best for them?

Answer 7

Yes.

Deuteronomy 6:4 (7-9). Repeat the Lord's commandments to your children, talk about them, remember them, put them on door frames...

This is simply one verse out of many, but it says it all. Also, are you going to trust people who "raise" their kids like cattle or corn isntead of "rear" them like humans???

Only a cultural Christian would not teach their children the Way of the Lord.

Answer 8

Absolutely. We are called to live the abundant life in Jesus. We are called to live by faith not by sight. Trying to raise your children by your own understanding will cause pain and frustration for you and them. But living by faith, disciplining in love, not anger and frustration will raise healthy well adjusted children. We should raise our children in truth AND grace. We should lead them, not force them to Jesus.

Answer 9

There is no legal requirement to be responsible to god, but there are laws for parents to be responsible and care for their children.

Answer 10

They are reserving their child's right to make their own choices and view the world objectively, not force-fed Church doctrine as soon as they take their first steps.