Religious parents: do you shield your children from ideas that contradict your religious viewpoint?

Question

I just received a multi-forwarded email, warning parents away from bringing their children to see the movie, "The Golden Compass", because the original book was written by an atheist & because the book series has anti-religious themes. The movie, itself, apparently does not have overt anti-religious themes, but they are afraid that the movie will trick parents into buying the books for their children and exposing them to information & ideas that question their parent's religious beliefs.

Email discussed here: http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/religion/a/golden_compass.htm & here: http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp

If you are raising your children in a particular religion, do you shield them from ideas that question that religion? Do you discuss them & teach your children why you are right? Do you discuss them & let your children decide what's right for themselves?

FWIW - we're agnostic humanists & are raising our kids to explore & make up their own minds about spiritual matters.

And, I would have no problem with their receiving religious tracts at Halloween (or any time). It's just information & ideas - what a great opportunity to have a philosophical discussion with them!

Answer 1

I don't have any kids.
I'm not going to see the Golden Compass because I do not support the author or his vision of a Christian-free world. That is my choice and my right as a consumer.
And I'm doing my part to see that Christian parents are educated about this film are prepared for what they will see should they decide to view it with their children.

Atheists parents block things just as much or more than Christian parents do.

Take this question for example.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AtGcZr.dAEcUkUYQgqtOWCkAAAAA;_ylv=3?qid=20071104095915AAA9Eqw

EDIT - Well then you're much more open-minded than a lot I've met on here, cheers.

Answer 2

I don't know what to "call" our family. I think we're more spiritual than religious, if that makes sense.

Our children have rosaries. We are not Catholic by any means, but we have family members who are. They also have a video that goes through the Rosary. It's beautiful.

Our children have dreidels. We are not Jewish by any means. We have several (10+) books on Hannakuh.

We also have books on Kwanzaa - including a colorful wall hanging.

We just attended a LDS (Mormon) church open house as well. We have Mormon friends and I wanted to support them.

They also know that religous DOES NOT EQUAL moral or ethical and sometimes, just the opposite.

My mother is a wonderful person and I adore her, but she thought that if you opened your mind to other religions/thoughts, you would water down your own. I did not buy into that, thankfully.

I got that same email from my Father-in-Law. It just kind of creeped me out.

I encourage questions and comments from my kids about what they think and believe. I had one child, at age 4, I believe, ask me during a road trip if there was one God or many Gods. We were in the middle of a discussion about ice cream, at the time.

We don't attend church. We did for a year or two a couple of years back. It was great. I really liked it and it DID hit a chord in my cynical self. We stopped going when I learned that a lesson/sermon/whatever had been done against something I feel very strongly about. I just couldn't attend after that.

I don't shield my children. Children are smarter than we give them credit for.

Take care!

Answer 3

I am a Christian with two sons, both very young and not in school yet. To be honest, we shield them even from most of Christianity's viewpoints. the old model of raising kids in a religion or culture and trying to keep them tribal and closed-off is completely obsolete in the postmodern world where my literal neighbors are atheist, Hindu, Buddhist, Catholic, Baptist, gay, straight, etc.

I've seen a lot of conservatives arguing that this sort of diversity is a bad thing and is turning us into the hodgepodge melting pot where everyone is the same and our differences are removed and all the value in them lost. So they advocate this sort of turning in to tribalism. I disagree.

Rather, we've decided the best way to deal with this is that when they are old enough we will share with them the way we see it and expose them on purpose to many other ways of seeing it and have them experience things and develop their own conclusions about religion and spirituality. I have found that I can live within Christianity and be different and still see the value in others without sacrificing that difference. If my boys end up not like me, I hope I'll be more concerned about how happy they are and how they treat other people.

Answer 4

From an early age, children should be encouraged to think about the reasons for holding a particular opinion or belief. This leads to the development of two crucial skills: critical thinking and active moral judgment.

If my child has developed the ability to think critically and to reason ethically, there is no reason whatsoever to limit her exposure to ideas. I will always be there to offer my own opinion, but if our goal is to raise autonomous adults -- and if that isn't the goal, what is? -- then we do them no favors by limiting their opportunities to engage the world.

Dale McGowan
Editor/author, Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion

Answer 5

I don't prevent my kids from reading ANYTHING. I even let them read Christian literature, and do so myself.

What I do though, is encourage an environment of discussion and seeking of truth.

I'll discuss a Chick Tract, and take it apart, showing the lies for what they are.

You must understand that you are talking about a culture of fear. People passing emails like this are the same sort who burn books when overthrowing "savage cultures". They offer classes for missionaries suggesting that they not read the literature that might lead them to have sympathy for Pagan faiths.

These are people who are afraid of other viewpoints to the point that it hinders them from understanding other culutres. Rather than understand others, it is their goal to make the rest of the world understand them and be like them.

A world with multiple cultures and multiple faiths is an evil world, to be feared and changed.

Answer 6

No, mom and dad have a authorized proper and an ethical duty to carry their kids up within the excellent means they see have compatibility. They had been my kids to train, they didn't belong to the state. The torch used to be handed directly to my kids to like God and to be ethical and first rate people. I started educating my kids approximately God as quickly as I introduced them house from the health facility. I could learn Bible reviews to them and taken them to church. They grew up realizing that it doesn't matter what, they'd a heavenly Father they would flip to. They all had a ordinary want to be trained approximately God.(They found out to learn earlier than they went to college so that they would learn their Bible reviews books.) It carried over into their grownup lifestyles. They became out to be individual individuals who love God. I have to have performed some thing proper. I am now not one bit sorry I taught them approximately a God Who loves them!

Answer 7

I read the first book in that series, and saw nothing in it that was overtly anti-Christian. There is no reason a well-balanced and open-minded Christian parent should be concerned about the messages in the movie or book. It's damn good fantasy, better than Harry Potter (and that's saying a lot coming from me) and well worth reading and seeing.

Lighten up and take your kids to the damn movie already! :-)

Answer 8

absolutely not. in fact, I do the opposite - I provide different view points for my kids to study so that they can more clearly define their own beliefs. As a result, my kids do not have a strong specific religious outlook, that is not built from experience of conflicting outlooks. I believe that opposition in things help to define a belief system.

They have studied buddhism, hinduism, islam, catholicism, protestantism, etc...........

Answer 9

My mother taught me there is one absolute. The Bible. No matter what anyone says (including herself) if it can't be backed up in scripture not to follow it. That being said my best frien growing up was Catholic. We were allowed to attend mass with them when we spent Sat night with them and we did have several discussions about the differences in our faith.

Answer 10

No. I encourage my kids to explore all possibilities.

"Do you discuss them & teach your children why you are right?" Absolutely not because I'm not always right about everything. To think otherwise is absurd.