Can you bring up a child as a Christian without indoctrinating him/her?

[RDKirk]

Came up in high school English for my daughter. She frequently had to respond to, "Well, what does our Christian have to say about that topic?"

 

[Go Braves]

Came up in high school English for my daughter. She frequently had to respond to, "Well, what does our Christian have to say about that topic?"

Well that's odd. Why did it come up so much in a HS English class? From how that's phrased it makes it out like she was the only one in the class who is Christian which also strikes me as peculiar.

 

[RDKirk]

Well that's odd. Why did it come up so much in a HS English class? From how that's phrased it makes it out like she was the only one in the class who is Christian which also strikes me as peculiar.

An instructor can make anything come up whenever that instructor wants it to come up.

 

[stevevw]

I am nowhere near having children, but I just find this to be an interesting question. I've heard many atheists claim that Christians who raise their children to do things such as memorize and recite Bible verses, go to church, etc. are indoctrinating or "brainwashing" those children into thinking a certain way, which they claim to be wrong. I agree that brainwashing is wrong, of course.

So my question: Can you raise a child to be a Christian without "indoctrinating" them? Are these two things synonymous? Is indoctrination inevitable (for any worldview) no matter what sort of environment a child grows up in?

As someone who grew up going to a private Christian school, I can say that ideas were drilled into my head that I no longer agree with. For instance, in the fifth grade, the school started teaching us that the Theory of Evolution was unquestionably wrong. We barely learned about the Theory of Evolution before we were told that it is a bunch of garbage. I used to reject the theory with a fiery passion as a result, but now I accept the possibility of its truth, still as a Christian.

People can be influenced by all sorts of things besides Christian beliefs. You may have been influenced to not believe in evolution but Catholicism which have the most private schools support evolution. There are aspects of evolution that may be wrong that are taught and many people believe in evolution or other scientific ideas like multiverses without understanding them. They just believe because a scientist said so.

We as a society have been told about certain ideologies that are proving wrong but everybody has bought into them. Ideas like capitalism and material wealth is the key to happiness. Economic ideas like Neo-liberalism have been proclaimed as bringing prosperity for all and everyone has bought into this but instead we are seeing a growing poor class and a small rich class. There is a push by many young people today with socialism yet many don't really understand it and realize its consequences. Yet they will passionately defend the idea.

In fact overall (Scientism- the belief that only science can provide knowledge worth having) can brain wash people just as much as religion. Certain ideas in science paint our reality and influence how we see the world, how we educate children and dominate our universities when they are only theories that can often be shown to be wrong. But it is more about people believing that this is the only answer and excluding all else. Whereas who knows what reality is. In some ways even scientists are beginning to support ideas that go beyond the scientific paradigm into other realities like with quantum physics.

The fact is belief comes naturally to humans and and it is not forced. We are born believers and children have been shown to understand divine concepts like there is a creative agent behind things and there is some sort of existence after death before they have had a chance to be indoctrinated. It is the other way around where it is the atheistic world view that is indoctrinated into people that extinguishes this belief.

 

[Go Braves]

An instructor can make anything come up whenever that instructor wants it to come up.

Well, maybe that was the case back in the days when your daughter was in HS. Still strikes me as odd, especially with her being singled out as you say she was. Unless like I said y'all live someplace ultra liberal. Even then, that's odd. It really is a lot more rare nowadays on account of how many kids have got phones that can easily record whatever the teacher says, broadcast that to the world in a second. Parents are real quick to make complaints. Post that to social media. Especially since you're saying this happened not in college but in HS when parents are more involved. Did you talk with the school about it back then?

 

[RDKirk]

Well, maybe that was the case back in the days when your daughter was in HS. Still strikes me as odd, especially with her being singled out as you say she was. Unless like I said y'all live someplace ultra liberal. Even then, that's odd. It really is a lot more rare nowadays on account of how many kids have got phones that can easily record whatever the teacher says, broadcast that to the world in a second. Parents are real quick to make complaints. Post that to social media. Especially since you're saying this happened not in college but in HS when parents are more involved. Did you talk with the school about it back then?

This was the best high school in town, the state university laboratory school. Students had to submit applications as though applying for a private university, and only a few were approved.

One of the unfortunate things we learned later is that because the student body was so bright and "capable" that they were left undisciplined and to a great extent was rather "Lord of the Flies"-ish, with the faculty just observing.

 

[Go Braves]

This was the best high school in town, the state university laboratory school. Students had to submit applications as though applying for a private university, and only a few were approved.

One of the unfortunate things we learned later is that because the student body was so bright and "capable" that they were left undisciplined and to a great extent was rather "Lord of the Flies"-ish, with the faculty just observing.

Know just what kind of school you're talking about, my sister went to one. She had a good experience. Strikes me as even stranger that that happened at such a school. Was it students making those comments to your daughter or the English teacher?

 

[RDKirk]

Know just what kind of school you're talking about, my sister went to one. She had a good experience. Strikes me as even stranger that that happened at such a school. Was it students making those comments to your daughter or the English teacher?

It was the teacher. The problem was that her responses were too logical for him to be able to dismiss her easily.

 

[Go Braves]

It was the teacher. The problem was that her responses were too logical for him to be able to dismiss her easily.

Was she upset by it or fine with it?

 

[RDKirk]

Was she upset by it or fine with it?

She actually liked the teacher.

May have been a relationship like the one I had with an eighth grade English teacher. Mrs Swindle was challenged to create a sentence I could not diagram.

 

[Go Braves]

She actually liked the teacher.

May have been a relationship like the one I had with an eighth grade English teacher. Mrs Swindle was challenged to create a sentence I could not diagram.

Well good! I couldn't tell by things if he was saying that on account of wanting to antagonize her or wanting to engage with her, or what. Glad she liked him. English has always been one of my least favorite subjects but I had some really terrific English teachers in HS, turned it around for me. Had a great English professor too.

 

[mama2one]

following

 

[RDKirk]

I know two parents who were raised as Christians, met at a Christian camp, and married but did not raise their kids as Christians nor take them to church

they sent their kids to a Catholic High school because it was better quality than the local public HS

their daughter was my friend in high school and told me not to talk about Jesus to her
she was an atheist in high school and there was no changing her mind
she was a super smart person who qualified for Mensa

she was also my one of my college roommates, loved college philosophy, and was a very logical person
the person she married is now into Buddism

don't know why parents raised as Christians did not raise their kids as Christians but it seems because of that, my friend from high school & college is beyond reach
I also failed her as I was unable to teach her God loves her

4 years of Catholic high school didn't influence her, either

so are kids not raised Christian beyond hope?

Bill O'Hair was the young boy who was the "person of standing" in the Supreme Court case that got prayer removed from schools in the US. His mother, Madalyn Murray O'Hair, founded American Atheists and served as its president to 1986 She created the first issues of American Atheist Magazine. It was she who filed suit to prevent Bill from having to hear or recite the Lord's Prayer, and she won the Supreme Court decision that affected all the schools in the nation.

After all that, Bill O'Hair became a Christian anyway.

The Holy Spirit isn't worried about the shenanigans of these people.