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Is Religious Upbringing like Child-Abuse?We have been blessed with five children. All five we have brought up with the Christian faith as our guiding principle. They don’t know any better or daddy preaches Gospel to everybody and everyone else. Three of them have been baptised. Entirely on their own initiative, by the way.
But yes, if some people are to be believed, the upbringing my wife and I give our children is tantamount to child abuse. Despite this being said about all kinds of religions, in this video I mainly assume a Christian upbringing.
Ideology
One would think they would extend this idea to any kind of ideology. Indeed, it is often said that a child should be brought up completely blank. Yet, they do not really live by this rule themselves. Let me briefly explain what I mean by that.
The groups most in revolt against religious education are usually fairly easy to identify. They are typically atheistic, agnostic or secular humanistic. The joke is that by now they also organise their own youth and children’s camps—absolutely free of religion, and therefore, according to them, free of ideology.
In the United States of America, such a camp is advertised as followsi
Camp Quest is the first resident summer camp for the children of freethinkers, humanists, agnostics & atheists. A traditional summer camp combined with science & critical thinking. Now in MI & 4 other states. It’s beyond belief.
Besides horseback riding, eating hamburgers, water balloon fights and survival lessons, they also want to instil in children a healthy respect for science and rational enquiry.
Of course, it just sounds awesome, and I’m sure it will be. But the simple fact that the organisers claim their education is free of any ideology is in itself a red flag. As a Christian, I readily admit that I am biased when it comes to how I view this world. That self-reflection does not seem to be found among many atheists. They call themselves freethinkers, and they believe that one can you see how the world really works through their lens.
The efforts of these die-hard atheists are most similar to those of the early Soviet regime. The Soviet regime wanted to create a state free of religion or any form of ideology. To this end, the League of the Militant Godless was founded in 1925.ii This ideological group organised as many activities as possible, including youth and children’s camps, in which, for example, themes such as the existence of God and biblical miracles were discussed.
Clearly, we are also simply dealing with an ideology here. I mention the Soviet Union to indicate that the ideas are not new. Of course, as you might understand, most atheists will not praise their Soviet predecessors for those efforts. I think many atheists are also unaware of the consequences of an atheist society. Mostly they detest the attempts of the early Soviet regime, and rightly so. So I am not saying that we can, or should, lump atheists together with the leaders of the Soviet Union. I just want to show that a naturalistic or atheistic view of the world inherently carries an ideology.
Selective Indignation
Objectively, then, there is no difference between teaching a secularist ideology—that is, an ideology that does not take religion into account—and teaching a religious ideology.
The outrage we usually hear is very selective. There are so many strawmen arguments being put down that you often can’t see the forest for the trees.
Most Christians, for example, will just let a doctor see their child if they are very sick. When one of our children had a severe bacterial infection, we simply used antibiotics. When my daughter got Malaria we gave her medicine. The vast majority of Christians will do this. Of course, there are some who do not, but we cannot draw a general conclusion from that.
Neither should we discuss the concept of sin or being a sinner, so they say! Because it is terrible for a child to learn that it is not perfect and that deep down something is very wrong. But again, this is a very one-sided way of explanation. Again, most, if not all, Christians I know will actually teach their children that they are very specially created, in the image of God. That they have been bought and paid for like a precious pearl thanks to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. Also, that when they do something wrong, there is always forgiveness and love. I just don’t understand how one can honestly say that human beings are inherently good. You wonder under which rock they have been hiding all this time!
When all is said and done, we see that the real resistance is simply literally that the Christian does not go along with the secular narrative. Christians are teaching their children something, which the atheist believes is unscientific and unproven. All these other arguments are thrown in to make the narrative sound as serious as possible while the whole time it is about the fact that the ideology just doesn’t match what the secular world dictates.
Minority
Atheists, agnostics and secular humanists feel they are a persecuted minority. They complain, for instance, that they are worse off in the job market because of their atheism. Well, this is not entirely unjustified as a survey has shown that people trust atheists less than Christians.iii
But they also feel they are not taken seriously when it comes to education, for example. Why should their child have to participate in the weekly opening in which prayers are said? They see religiosity as a threat to their own ideology.
The crazy thing, of course, is that much of our society and hence our educational establishment is already more focused on materialism and relativism. The society we see around us no longer bears much resemblance to a purely Christian form. Today we see the result of letting go of Christian values. Yet, that is not enough for many people. Any form of religiosity in school or any other association is abhorred. It gets in the way of their progress. So they push on.
World-view
One way or the other, it is impossible to raise a child without any world-view. Children are simply being trained to look at the world through a given lens, and that lens will, over the years, take on a certain colour. This determines how they view certain things, it determines how they stand in the world.
Many atheists seem to be colour-blind. Whichever way you will ask the question, they insist that their lenses are completely transparent and clear.
Of course, it is interesting to ask ourselves whether these atheists are really concerned about a child’s mental health. Like Christians, they—at least I hope they do—will teach their children to be responsible for their actions. But the question then arises to what end they do so. Very strictly speaking, atheism teaches that life is of little meaning. Life is basically purposeless. Actually, that is the core of their belief. You are not special, at least no more special than any other animal. In principle, then, you cannot hold the child responsible for any misbehaviour. After all, the child is only driven by its chemical impulses.
Well, if that doesn’t bring on depression, I don’t know what does. How different you may view life when you have learned that you are a precious creation of God. That you were created in His image and are privileged to tell others on His behalf that they too are precious. That we can rise above our so-called chemical impulses and become more and more like His Son the Lord Jesus. That, while we do have to take care of His creation, we don’t have to sit in sackcloth and ashes when things don’t seem to be going the way we would like to see.
Naive?
It is also often said that Christian education corrupts or limits children’s ability to think. The children are then said to be naive people in society. That, of course, is very sad for those children.
But I ask myself why then that society is so dangerous. Where is the ultimate cause of that dangerous society? Is it bad that children are brought up with strong values? Is it bad that my daughter was heavily indignant about the things she saw and heard during an open day at an university in the Netherlands? She is not naive, she knew very well beforehand that many Dutch universities are just bastions of today’s relativism and wokeism. But I believe that thanks to her religious upbringing, she is much more capable of keeping her back straight and her head high—if only out of sheer indignation.
So on the other hand, you see more and more children being raised in a so-called ‘neutral’ environment. The identity they carry with them is one of relativism. What is right for one person is not necessarily right for another. These children have the greatest difficulty in taking a moral stand, and thus they perpetuate decay. They simply go along in whatever direction the stream flows,
It is fair to say, but all major changes in society have always been brought about by lone rangers, outsiders who were outraged by what they saw happening. On the other hand, they almost always encountered resistance from the big mob. The mob that proved little capable of taking a moral stand.
If it comes down to naivety, I think children who are being raised and taught in a strong Christian family generally have more idea as to the alternatives in the world than their so-called ‘neutral’ counterparts. In many cases of public education, materialism is taught almost by law. It often seems that a mere reference to a Creator is punishable by ridicule. Well, that way you obviously create little openness.
Our society is so enormously steeped in materialistic thinking that it is difficult to completely isolate a child from atheistic thinking anyway. Conversely, at least, it seems much easier to raise a child completely naive about the supernatural.
Strong Individuals
This does show how important a good Christian upbringing actually is. It is not nice to say, but the average secular upbringing does not produce steadfast and decisive people. We see it all around us, a big one-size-fits-all. The Soviets weren’t that crazy! They had this outcome figured out too. If you can make all people believe that everything is relative and that there are no absolute morals; that there is no higher power than the government, and that every human being is inherently equal to an animal. Yes, then you can govern the mob just fine. It was not for nothing that the real Soviet communists hated Christians! Those nasty Christians don’t seem afraid and feel like they matter. What’s more! Christians seem to think that they received inherent rights from the Creator. No, they couldn’t do anything with that.
This gives us an even greater responsibility. If we really want to make a difference in the world, we should do our utmost to teach our children in the ways of the Lord.
That education does not stop at secondary school. After all, it is not the case that if a child has learnt some maths that by 13 he knows as much as a high school maths teacher, is it? Yet many parents think that children know enough of the Bible at the age of 13 to last them the rest of their lives. They then prefer to leave the rest to the youth club.
The education we, as parents, give to our children must evolve with their age. The older they get, the deeper we need to go. We see that when Christian education is weak, shallow, and condescending, it gives children or young adults the idea that belief in Jesus is too simple or even stupid. Many people who receive weak Christian education in their early years tend to be blown over later by the seemingly strong views of atheists. Because their education stopped at an early age they seem to think they know everything about faitht, and they accept little or no arguments delivered from the Christian world. Faith has become irrelevant to them.
It is sad to say, but I have come across quite a few Christians who believe that their knowledge of God’s word is phenomenal, when in reality it is the level of a toddler just learning to read and write. Yet it seems that it is these very people who in turn go on to teach young children in church. Or teach religion in schools. Students who happen to know more than these teachers are distrusted or dismissed as pedantic.
Again, as parents, we have the first and primary task of teaching our children in the words and ways of our Lord Jesus. We cannot leave this to others and then expect things to work out fine!
In conclusion
Again, many great changes in the world have been brought about by people with great Christian conviction. We Christians should not sit back! Jesus was not silent; He trained and taught His disciples in everything. We should follow His example! Only then will we get people who are able to keep their backs straight in as ever more errant society.
I am very curious about what you think of this topic. Remember! I am mostly active on my Odysee channel. You’ll find a link to that channel in the description of this video or on this page. If you like or find what I’m doing interesting, you can subscribe to my channel and don’t forget to press the notification bell-if you want to be notified of new videos!
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Anyway, thanks very much for watching or reading.
I wish you God’s rich blessings!
Endnotes
i Kidscamps.com, Camp Quest Classic, [Internet] <https://www.kidscamps.com/Camps/Camp_Quest_Classic_Hamilton_Ohio-203732.html>, accessed 05-07-2024.
ii Encyclopedia.com, LEAGUE OF THE MILITANT GODLESS, [Internet] <https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/league-militant-godless>, accessed 05-07-2024.
iii Scientific American, In Atheists We Distrust, [Internet] <https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/in-atheists-we-distrust/>, 17-02-2012 by Daisy Grewal, accessed 06-07-2024.
