There is a recent study floating around the internet, which states that religious children are “less kind and more punitive” than non-religious children. I don't have the capabilities to rigorously critique how the study was done (I question if we can lump all religions together or all nonreligious people together), and I do think that the study has been so popular on Facebook because it is something our secular culture wants to believe. But I also think it opens a very interesting discussion.
The study has brought me to consider how we teach kids to live out the Gospel/Law when so many of our sacred teachings are taught metaphorically, but interpreted literally. Metaphorical understanding is something we develop as we age (well some of us…) I do think it is important that kids know the stories, but I also think that if we aren’t intentional things end up oversimplified, even if by accident: Noah was good and everyone else was bad; Israelites Good, Babylonians Bad, sheep good goats bad and of course the classic Jesus saves everyone else … Do we inadvertently teach kids “It is me and God vs. them”?
I am heartened though by the many opportunities we have today to live inter-faithfully. Purely by accident and coincidence, by the time my daughter was three months old she had prayed with Muslims, Jews, Wiccans, and participated in a smudging at a friendship circle. Maybe this kind of living in diversity of faith, provides an opportunity to counter the "I am more special than you" message that religious kids might be espousing. Perhaps, a child who grows up with some understanding that other paths are holy too won’t think that way. I am hoping so anyways. Ask me in 10 years :-)
The study has brought me to consider how we teach kids to live out the Gospel/Law when so many of our sacred teachings are taught metaphorically, but interpreted literally. Metaphorical understanding is something we develop as we age (well some of us…) I do think it is important that kids know the stories, but I also think that if we aren’t intentional things end up oversimplified, even if by accident: Noah was good and everyone else was bad; Israelites Good, Babylonians Bad, sheep good goats bad and of course the classic Jesus saves everyone else … Do we inadvertently teach kids “It is me and God vs. them”?
I am heartened though by the many opportunities we have today to live inter-faithfully. Purely by accident and coincidence, by the time my daughter was three months old she had prayed with Muslims, Jews, Wiccans, and participated in a smudging at a friendship circle. Maybe this kind of living in diversity of faith, provides an opportunity to counter the "I am more special than you" message that religious kids might be espousing. Perhaps, a child who grows up with some understanding that other paths are holy too won’t think that way. I am hoping so anyways. Ask me in 10 years :-)
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