Teaching vs Indoctrination

   There is this idea out there that teaching your religious beliefs to your children is abusive and manipulative.  The idea goes that if you were to lock up an adult and indoctrinate them against their will, it would be unacceptable torture.  Since children are not able to leave home, parents who force their religious beliefs on their children are indoctrinating them against their will, and thus abusing their children.  It makes for a great internet slogan, but unfortunately, there are several flaws with this line of thinking.

   First, as much as it sounds like a bad thing, good parenting is about indoctrination.  Imagine for a second you are a 3 year old child who is completely innocent to the world.  Now, you see a bright blue light in the kitchen.  It is so pretty, you want to grab it and keep it, but it just happens to be a burner on a stove that will cause 3rd degree burns.  In this situation, the proper role of a parent is twofold.  Protect the curious three year old from the consequences of their actions until they have been indoctrinated into the dangers of hot stoves.  Think about how many of the safety lessons you have learned in life.  You always teach the safety part first, “Don’t touch”.  The why part, “Because it will burn you.”, always comes later.  Which that in mind, which is more abusive, using coercive force to indoctrinate a child into the idea that touching fire is bad, or letting the child touch the fire and learn the hard lesson for themselves?

   Second, let us assume for argument’s sake that the premise is correct, and forcefully indoctrinating children with religious ideas is wrong.  What exactly would you teach children?  What would a list of approved non-religious things that you can teach your kids look like?  If you have to avoid religion or religiously influenced ideas, then that list would be very short, because, right and wrong are inherently religious concepts.  We all know that murder is wrong, but take a moment to think about why murder is wrong.  As a Christian, I immediately think of the ten commandments. Not teaching religious ideas to kids could arguable prevent parents from teaching their kids that murder is wrong, but more importantly, parents would no longer be able to give your kids a coherent explanation of why murder is wrong.  Even explaining that you should not murder because it is against the law falls afoul of religion.  As a Christian, following the just laws of the nation we reside in is one of the moral duties we are given.

   So, as Christians, I feel we can safely ignore the kind of shallow minded thinking that drives this idea.  What we have here is really an attempt to shame Christian parents into following more worldly ways of parenting.  We are called as Christians and parents to follow a higher standard, and that means ignoring foolishness like this, and focusing on our task of raising Godly children who love Jesus with their hearts, minds, and bodies.

“Fathers(or parents), do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” - Ephesians 6:4