Should family or establishment pick a child's religion?

Following on from a religious discussion in the other forum, should a child's family be allowed to pick their religion for them, or should it be up to the establishment?

In London the establishment will tear your family apart simply for not belonging to the strict denomination of Islam and take your kid into care over it. The establishment ceased to be impartial about religion at the time of this precedent setting case:

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/british-agency-ignores-familys-wishes-pushes-5-year-old-christian-into-two

Neither really. I think kids should be introduced to all of the major religious viewpoints and pick the ones that make most sense to them. But, tbh, most families would be biased towards their own religion and force that down the kid's throat anyways, so...

I got a lot out of how my family raised me and will be doing the same when I have kids. I'll stick to the family on this one.

I didn't force my Mormon-ness on my step-kids.

Nor do I think it's appropriate.

When kids ask, you explain your beliefs.

Bring them to Mosque, Synagogue, Temple, Church, whatever.

Be wary of people trying to indoctrinate your children.

And watch out for Catholic Priests that want alone time with your children.

neither, lol.

Originally posted by Emperordmb
I got a lot out of how my family raised me and will be doing the same when I have kids. I'll stick to the family on this one.

Originally posted by MythLord
[B]Neither really. I think kids should be introduced to all of the major religious viewpoints

Depends on what you mean by 'child'. I wouldn't waste my time presenting the cases for each religion in the world to a 3 year old.

A family obviously should. It's their job to teach them right from wrong till they get older and then decide for themselves.

An establishment definitely shouldn't. I don't think a family should either, but I can't see how it could be prevented with a family.

Originally posted by Surtur
An establishment definitely shouldn't. I don't think a family should either, but I can't see how it could be prevented with a family.

Agreed.

It only takes one generation in a family to reject the religion they were taught to be part of then subsequent generations would be less likely to be religious. Not that it's unheard of for a child to have religious beliefs after growing up in a secular family but it's more common for a child to chose secularism/atheism after growing up in a religious family than the other way round.

Originally posted by Surtur
An establishment definitely shouldn't. I don't think a family should either, but I can't see how it could be prevented with a family.

Whats wrong with the familty picking their religion? I'm not even saying that I neccesarily agree with the religion.

Originally posted by jaden_2.0
Agreed.

It only takes one generation in a family to reject the religion they were taught to be part of then subsequent generations would be less likely to be religious. Not that it's unheard of for a child to have religious beliefs after growing up in a secular family but it's more common for a child to chose secularism/atheism after growing up in a religious family than the other way round.

Yeah, my family is weird. They paid for me and my brother to go to catholic school all the way up until we graduated from high school. Yet they are not super religious, they are the type who go to church once a year on Christmas Eve.

We were specifically taught by the school not to question anything about the religion though. Which seems like brainwashing. You'd like to think with every kid what happens is there comes a point in their life where they decide whether or not they truly believe in whatever religion they were raised on(if they were raised on one), but I don't think that point comes for everyone.

I'm fine with the answers of anyone here as long as they aren't asking for state involvement.

That means either the state picking a child's religion, or the state telling parents they aren't allowed to raise their children religiously. If you are one of those people **** you. We have a separation of church and state for a reason.

Originally posted by Deadline
Whats wrong with the familty picking their religion? I'm not even saying that I neccesarily agree with the religion.

I won't say this is always bad. I think it depends on the people and kid. It depends on how hard they are on the kid, it depends on how the kids teachers are with him, it depends on the kids own personality too.

I think sometimes choice is taken away whether they realize it or not.

Originally posted by Emperordmb
I'm fine with the answers of anyone here as long as they aren't asking for state involvement.

That means either the state picking a child's religion, or the state telling parents they aren't allowed to raise their children religiously. If you are one of those people **** you. We have a separation of church and state for a reason.

Yeah state involvement would be wrong and it wouldn't solve anything anyways.

Originally posted by Surtur
I won't say this is always bad. I think it depends on the people and kid. It depends on how hard they are on the kid, it depends on how the kids teachers are with him, it depends on the kids own personality too.

I think sometimes choice is taken away whether they realize it or not.

Yea I think we agree. I guess the point I'm trying to make is ultimately it's family who should teach children right from wrong not the state, you just hope that the parents aren't maniacs.

We choose everything else for our kids, why not religion?

I am not saying is the right course, but it’s better to teach your children right/wrong, good/evil then to let them be indoctrinated by others.

👆

Originally posted by Surtur
Yeah, my family is weird. They paid for me and my brother to go to catholic school all the way up until we graduated from high school. Yet they are not super religious, they are the type who go to church once a year on Christmas Eve.

We were specifically taught by the school not to question anything about the religion though. Which seems like brainwashing. You'd like to think with every kid what happens is there comes a point in their life where they decide whether or not they truly believe in whatever religion they were raised on(if they were raised on one), but I don't think that point comes for everyone.

That is quite unusual circumstances. Denominational schools are still quite big here but I'm not really sure how impactful they are as I have a lot of friends who went to Catholic schools but we've never really spoke at any length to determine how different our experiences and education were. It's more an issue in Northern Ireland where sectarianism is still a massive problem that I think schools separated by denomination feed into.

If it's either/or of the two, I'd take family over establishment (I'm assuming this means government?).

Religion is a lot like sport teams. It's thrust on you as a child before you really know anything; usually by a family member(s) and you either go along, reject it or reject it in time.

For me personally, we don't push religion on our kids and we don't really force them away from it either. My issue is that a child really isn't ready to understand what they're being told on something that can be so influential on life, I'd prefer they start dabbling into religion in their late teen, preferably 20's.

We're not religious ourselves though. A few years back when my daughter was 12 or so she showed interest in Christianity, bought a cross, was watching YT vids and that sort of annoyed me because I think she was doing it due to one of her friends, to fit in. I told her to stay away from the YT talking heads due to the high level of nonsense being pushed and said there's nothing inherently wrong with being a Christian, just don't do it for the wrong reasons and to have some understanding first. I then explained to her the basic tenets of Christianity myself and pointed her to Stephen Prothero's "Religious Literacy" as a start. She didn't want to read it though and the Christianity phase seems to be over.