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On religious fanaticism in parenting

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Sir Sorbus:
So I was reading through this thread: http://modernchivalry.org/forum/index.php/topic,1934.0.html
and naturally, I was very pleased and impressed with the nobility of the child. However it reminded me of another incident that is similar, but at a far more extreme level.
When at a more extreme level, these kinda things make me wonder how much of the child's personality is actually good-hearted, and how much of their behaviour is simply copied, without their own true understanding.
As an example, at my church, we had a guest speaker come in to speak about raising your kids to be strong Christians. I felt that what she said was extremely biased, irresponsible, and gave the kids no choice in their own beliefs.
What she essentially told about was how her 2 year old spoke in tongues all the time, even as they were playing with toys, and that she encourages it. This is a topic beyond the comprehension of most teenagers, let alone a toddler who cannot yet speak or make the most basic decisions on their beliefs. Undoubtedly, she was simply encouraging baby-babble, which is not in itself a bad thing. The first problem is that she is making it into something it is obviously not - and it's that kind of behaviour that give Christians a reputation for fanaticism. Secondly, even WERE the child "accidentally" speaking in tongues, it is not really her place to encourage the child to continue to do so before they are of a proper age to make their own decisions. I am all for raising children in the basic morals and ethical system of Christianity, and for giving them a basic education OF the belief system, so that when they are of a proper age, they can make their own unbiased and fair decision on what they want to believe. From even the most objective, non-religious point of view, that kind of parenting simply nurtures the child into a mindless fanatic, which is actually the epitome of hypocrisy as far as New Testament biblical teachings are concerned.

Note: I am not a parent, and thus have no experience of my own; I simply observe and learn what to do and what not to do from others should I ever have children of my own.

What are your views on combining your beliefs and your parenting?

Sir William:
I was always taught that the speaking in tongues had to do with the presence of the Holy Ghost...who is to say that children do not have a monopoly on the attentions of the Maker?  What I take issue with are those who seem to be filled with the Holy Ghost at or around the same time on any given Sunday- to me some of these people are hypocritical at the least, heretical otherwise.

It is natural and considered normal for a child to be reared in his or her parents' belief system; after all, if the parents are believers, they will want their children to do so as well.  Who is right and who is wrong really is the purview of God and no other...that organized religion purports to know the will of God, each religion, seems to be the highest form of delusion to me.  Each one believes that they and they alone have it right- be it some flavor of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Shintoism, Hinduism, etc ad infinitum...who is to say?  People tend to gravitate to one or the other based on what they learned as they grew up and/or what they feel is 'right' at the moment...others are raised and indoctrinated into the religions of their parents.

What you believe doesn't seem to coincide with what this woman believes so you would raise your child differently, but many will be raised as this one is.  Who is right?  Who is wrong?  Hard to tell if you're approaching the subject from as unbiased a POV as is possible to have.

Sir Sorbus:
I agree with you on all points made, however I think what I mean to suggest is that for one to accept that wisdom and truth can come from any system of faith, as I do (which is what tends to make my Christian views so unique), that the upbringing of a child should be thorough, tolerant, and not TOO biased towards the religion of the parent, which is where I found the fault in this woman's teachings. She automatically assumed that not only was she right, but that she had the undisputed right to decide exactly what her child would believe for the rest of their life. Perhaps babies do have the monopoly on the presence of the holy spirit, as you say. But that doesn't change the fact that she has ascertained herself to the fact that she is 100% right.
People who do overbias the moral upbringing of a child force the mean of the generation's tolerance and acceptance away from that point we discussed as being ideal - the point at which the child grows up to be open-minded and free-willed simultaneously. Obviously no parent or parenting style is perfect, but on the extreme end of things, as with this woman, I consider it a form of ethical irresponsibility in bringing their child up to be overly biased and close-minded.

Thorsteinn:
I'm an atheist and sometimes, when the coffee-level is low, an anti-theist as well.

To me I cannot help but think that anytime a person tries to raise their child in a 'Faith' they are committing child abuse on some deep profound level. I was raised, very lightly, in the Reform sect of Judaism but I stopped going to temple when I was 16 because I had no friggin clue who the hell all the nutballs around me were talking to.

The truth is that religious institutions, and the people that inhabit them, make my skin crawl in the same way that mental hospitals and their patients do.

If an adult wants to become religious then more power to them, but one should not raise a kid to follow a religion the same way that one should not raise a kid to be a particular political party or to hate a particular skin color, sex, ethnicity, religion, etc.

Anyway, thats my pre-caffiene opinion.

Sir Edward:

Just a reminder that "politics" and "religion" are considered out-of-bounds for the forum in general, but as long as this is a discussion of ethics, I'll let it slide.

I just wanted to get this note in here early before it meanders much.

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