What do u tell ur children about god n ur religion??

[Bumperstump Cummerbund]

I know what you mean PX, I just didn't know how to say it The one thing my parents really drilled into us was that even though we believe we are the only true religion, doesn't give us the right to be rude or nasty or arrogant. 'love the sinner, hate the sin'. The story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman comes to mind, she was so surprised that a Jew would speak to a Samaritan, a female one at that!

[Maruschke]

I know what you mean PX, I just didn't know how to say it The one thing my parents really drilled into us was that even though we believe we are the only true religion, doesn't give us the right to be rude or nasty or arrogant. 'love the sinner, hate the sin'. The story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman comes to mind, she was so surprised that a Jew would speak to a Samaritan, a female one at that!

Phew! I'm glad you knew what I meant .

It's harder to teach a child tolerance when you believe you are right and others are wrong, than teach a child tolerance when everyone is right.

[Indadhanu]

It's harder to teach a child tolerance when you believe you are right and others are wrong, than teach a child tolerance when everyone is right.

I do like what I wrote in my first post... I just hope that with whatever religon she follows, she practices compassion and respect and understanding to every other being. I think that's a pretty good set of values. Teaching from the story Keike has shared, that Jesus respected, felt compassion for, and even healed those who didn't believe or agree with him... a child could understand that? My parents had a really nice set of Christian bedtime story books full of stories about Jesus and other Christian themes, which taught really nice messages, and if I was a Christian finding it hard to about teach respect and compassion to those different from myself, I'd probably look towards books like that.

[meow]

It's a tricky one because I don't believe in what I believe without believing I'm right IYKWIM.

My H and I are atheists and in the same way that we're vegetarian I'd be sad if my children didn't grow up to understand the logic behind our choices and choose to follow them themselves. Sure, I tolerate other people's choices and I would tolerate my child's choices and expect them to tolerate others too, as with most areas of diversity.

As for teaching about diversity in religion I guess we teach that other people have a variety of ideas about the world but we debate and question and discuss in our house so they would see that we pick things apart. We have already sat at the dining table in the evening with our two year for example, with the bible out and discussing the nitty-gritty of what is written in genesis vs what people practice. We question how faiths interpret their holy texts, who wrote them etc etc. We never say "this is wrong", but rather "I wonder why some people believe this?"

[Arcadia]

I was raised Catholic and I have baptised DD, but mainly so she can turn to a religion if she feels she wants to.

DH was brought up without any religious instruction and feels very out of depth in churches etc. I think it is important to expose children to some understanding of various religions so they can make up their own mind.

Personally I am wary of a religious way of life that is exclusive as I think all religions should be mindful of each other- but that is because I am not into literal interpretations of faith, but rather I see all religions as a continuum and basically trying to acheive the same thing.

[Arcadia]

I was raised Catholic and I have baptised DD, but mainly so she can turn to a religion if she feels she wants to.

DH was brought up without any religious instruction and feels very out of depth in churches etc. I think it is important to expose children to some understanding of various religions so they can make up their own mind.

Personally I am wary of a religious way of life that is exclusive as I think all religions should be mindful of each other- but that is because I am not into literal interpretations of faith, but rather I see all religions as a continuum and basically trying to acheive the same thing.