HOW TO EXPOSE KIDS TO DIFFERENT RELIGIONS

KRISTEN MEI CHASE: EVEN FOR NONBELIEVERS, LEARNING ABOUT THE FAITHS OF THE WORLD IS IMPORTANT

Growing up in a household where Christianity and abuse coexisted has led to a negative knee-jerk reaction to religion on my part. It’s also why I’ve raised my children without any sort of religious affiliation. So when my teenage son innocently asked me about God the other day and told me that he believed there must be some higher power, I sort of lost my cool, then instantly regretted my behavior. But biffing that conversation with my son wasn’t my only parenting failure. No matter what I believe — or don’t — living in the United States means being part of a pluralistic society, founded on religious freedom, where religion, in some form or another, is hard to ignore. Yet I’ve completely avoided talking about it with all my children. So I decided that I needed to put on my big parenting pants and tackle this topic with the help of expert advice. What I learned was that whether or not your family engages in a specific religious practice, it’s important for children to understand the history and cultural implications of all religions, which are, of course, complicated. I spoke with my friend Kathryn Blanchard, who is a parent and a Charles A. Dana endowed professor of religious studies, emerita, at Alma College in Michigan. She said that many of her Generation Z students have grown up with no religion. “Our parents, aka the ‘Silent Generation,’ found purpose and meaning in religion. It was the center of their social world,” Blanchard told me. “But Generation X-ers and millennials got burned out on religion and rebelled against those beliefs.” This trend is reflected in polling that shows that millennials, followed by Gen Z, have the highest percentage of those who do not believe in God. That’s not the only reason Gen Z — roughly age 24 and younger — is growing up without any religious knowledge or understanding. According to Blanchard, young people with friends who identify as LGBTQ, which in this generation number 1 in 6, feel as though organized religion has been exclusive and mean to their peers. So while they might like God and the idea of spirituality, they don’t want anything to do with the act of being religious. And though some families have had positive experiences with religion, and have passed on those feelings and principles to their children, there’s a lack of education about other religions — not necessarily the theology, but from a cultural, historical and sociological point of view. “Exposing students to a bird’seye view of what religion is and how it functions in our society helps them learn respect for other people’s behaviors and choices,” Blanchard says. Such respect is important if we want to continue to live in a society that supports religious freedom, she adds. Religion is intimately attached to cultural identity for the majority of people in the world, so by not teaching children about multiple religions, we’re not fully educating them about cultures, many of which they may encounter while living in such a diverse society as the United States. Blanchard adds: “There are 2 billion Muslims in the world, which is a quarter of the world’s population. If we’re raising kids to believe that a quarter of the world are terrorists, or we think all of China has no morals because they’re not religious, then that’s a problem.” The path to raising more empathetic, understanding and worldly citizens requires exposing children to religious and cultural differences. Public schools are limited in what they can do in this area, so parents, regardless of religious affiliation, should take on this responsibility. Thankfully, it’s not as complicated or as intense as it might sound.

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