Mother wants to know what religion to teach her kids
I am confronted with a question that I honestly do not want to be asked. In fact, my first impulse was to ignore it.
But I find myself haunted by the question of this young mother about how to raise her two babies “in terms of religion and spirituality.”
Here is her thought-provoking letter:
“I am a mother of two toddlers, a 2½-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy. How, do you think, should I bring up my kids in terms of religion and spirituality?
“I read a line from your articles that whenever you see one of your former students, you would apologize to them for teaching them things you don’t believe in anymore.
“I, myself, was brought up in a strict Catholic environment. I was very religious then, and very active in church activities. I was a member of different religious organizations and you can say I was the youngest manang then at 10-11 years old.
“I still go to church but I have a different point of view now.
“Since my kids are already in that stage where I can teach them the basics of life (which will form a big part of their growing up years), I am kind of unsure how to introduce religion to them, or if I should.
“And how to explain things to them that will not confuse them given the beliefs of the majority that they will surely encounter when they start going to school? ”
Personal
I really am at a loss how to answer this question because I believe religion is a very personal thing. Each of us has his/her own belief system and no one should ever impose his/her own religious beliefs on others.
I cannot pretend to know more than this mother or anybody else how best to introduce religion to her children or even if she has to.
But since my opinion is sought, here is what I can say about this very important subject, which I do not expect everybody to agree with.
I think it is good to grow up having a religion, no matter what that might be so that the child will have an anchor or foundation.
But whatever religion she chooses to introduce her children to, she should also teach them to be open to other belief systems that may, at first glance, be different from or contrary to their own.
I do not think it is wrong to belong to one religion (Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim or Taoist) provided one does not become fanatical or dogmatic about it.
Ideally, religion should unite all human beings but, instead, it has succeeded only in dividing them. How many millions of lives have been destroyed in the name of religion? Is the world better off today than before Jesus Christ was born over 2000 years ago?
Of course, you will get different answers to this depending on whom you ask. George Bernard Shaw once quipped: “We can’t say Christianity has failed, because it has never been tried.”
But is this not true of all religions? Followers of every organized religion do not even completely agree on what their founder really taught, nor how to interpret them. So every religion eventually splits into various sects and cults, each claiming to be the true one.
One thing more, no matter in what religion you bring up your child, s/he will eventually form his/her own belief system, just like you did, if your kids are intelligent enough.
They will soon see the logical inconsistencies in their adopted religion’s official teachings and will question them either openly or silently.
Respect for others
You have to encourage your children to respect the religious beliefs of other people while maintaining their own beliefs. There is absolutely no point in converting a person from one religion to another because each religion puts one’s mind in a box. And converting people is just like jumping from one box to another. You are still in a box, see?
Despite the fact that I have long ago graduated from my school boy mentality about the Christian religion, I still believe in what Jesus taught, as he originally taught them, not the interpretation of the official Church. As you begin to dig deeper into the origins of Christianity, you will begin to discover to your great horror how different the Church teachings are compared to what he originally taught.
With the historic findings of the Gnostic Gospels in 1945 at Nag Hammadi, Upper Egypt, for example, we now have reasonable proof how much of Christ’s original teachings were edited out by the Early Church Fathers.
By declaring such lost teachings as heresies, they have succeeded in making people believe theirs is the only true and authentic teachings. That is the situation we find ourselves now in terms of Christianity.
When the American psychic Edgar Cayce, while in a trance, was asked, “Which version of the Bible is the best?” he replied: “The one that you live.”
I shall answer this mother’s question about religion in the same way. “The best religion you can teach your children is the one that you live.”
http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/lifestyle/lifestyle/view_article.php?article_id=63347
But I find myself haunted by the question of this young mother about how to raise her two babies “in terms of religion and spirituality.”
Here is her thought-provoking letter:
“I am a mother of two toddlers, a 2½-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy. How, do you think, should I bring up my kids in terms of religion and spirituality?
“I read a line from your articles that whenever you see one of your former students, you would apologize to them for teaching them things you don’t believe in anymore.
“I, myself, was brought up in a strict Catholic environment. I was very religious then, and very active in church activities. I was a member of different religious organizations and you can say I was the youngest manang then at 10-11 years old.
“I still go to church but I have a different point of view now.
“Since my kids are already in that stage where I can teach them the basics of life (which will form a big part of their growing up years), I am kind of unsure how to introduce religion to them, or if I should.
“And how to explain things to them that will not confuse them given the beliefs of the majority that they will surely encounter when they start going to school? ”
Personal
I really am at a loss how to answer this question because I believe religion is a very personal thing. Each of us has his/her own belief system and no one should ever impose his/her own religious beliefs on others.
I cannot pretend to know more than this mother or anybody else how best to introduce religion to her children or even if she has to.
But since my opinion is sought, here is what I can say about this very important subject, which I do not expect everybody to agree with.
I think it is good to grow up having a religion, no matter what that might be so that the child will have an anchor or foundation.
But whatever religion she chooses to introduce her children to, she should also teach them to be open to other belief systems that may, at first glance, be different from or contrary to their own.
I do not think it is wrong to belong to one religion (Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim or Taoist) provided one does not become fanatical or dogmatic about it.
Ideally, religion should unite all human beings but, instead, it has succeeded only in dividing them. How many millions of lives have been destroyed in the name of religion? Is the world better off today than before Jesus Christ was born over 2000 years ago?
Of course, you will get different answers to this depending on whom you ask. George Bernard Shaw once quipped: “We can’t say Christianity has failed, because it has never been tried.”
But is this not true of all religions? Followers of every organized religion do not even completely agree on what their founder really taught, nor how to interpret them. So every religion eventually splits into various sects and cults, each claiming to be the true one.
One thing more, no matter in what religion you bring up your child, s/he will eventually form his/her own belief system, just like you did, if your kids are intelligent enough.
They will soon see the logical inconsistencies in their adopted religion’s official teachings and will question them either openly or silently.
Respect for others
You have to encourage your children to respect the religious beliefs of other people while maintaining their own beliefs. There is absolutely no point in converting a person from one religion to another because each religion puts one’s mind in a box. And converting people is just like jumping from one box to another. You are still in a box, see?
Despite the fact that I have long ago graduated from my school boy mentality about the Christian religion, I still believe in what Jesus taught, as he originally taught them, not the interpretation of the official Church. As you begin to dig deeper into the origins of Christianity, you will begin to discover to your great horror how different the Church teachings are compared to what he originally taught.
With the historic findings of the Gnostic Gospels in 1945 at Nag Hammadi, Upper Egypt, for example, we now have reasonable proof how much of Christ’s original teachings were edited out by the Early Church Fathers.
By declaring such lost teachings as heresies, they have succeeded in making people believe theirs is the only true and authentic teachings. That is the situation we find ourselves now in terms of Christianity.
When the American psychic Edgar Cayce, while in a trance, was asked, “Which version of the Bible is the best?” he replied: “The one that you live.”
I shall answer this mother’s question about religion in the same way. “The best religion you can teach your children is the one that you live.”
http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/lifestyle/lifestyle/view_article.php?article_id=63347
posted by Misteryo Philippines Network (MPN) at 1:02 AM
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