i saw this movie recently and it scared me. religious indoctrination of children is a harsh and frightening phenomenon no matter what religion. whether its muslim extremists teaching their children that suicide bombing is part of allah's will or christian parents teaching their children that american secularists are their enemies, both have harmful reprecutions. teaching your child at the age of 5 to scream in tongues at a statue of george bush so he will outlaw abortion should raise the hair on the back of any onlookers neck.
this got me thinking about how i want to raise my daughter. i remember someone over the winter holidays said to me that one of the greatest things about having kids is we can make more christian disciples. something about this felt wrong to me. there is no such thing as a christian child or a muslim child or a buddhist child. there are children whose parents might be affiliated with these religions, but no child can be that particular religion until it grows enough intellectually to make a decision. i decided that its not as important to teach my child what to think as it is to teach her how to think. i want her to have the freedom to decide for herself. that is the best gift a parent can give to a child: freedom to be who they want and know that unconditional love will be there no matter what.
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