Mercy thrives in kids skipping Sunday school
IS religion making our children selfish?
South African religious leaders were pondering the question this week after an international study found that children brought up in religious homes were less altruistic and harsher in their punitive tendencies.
Such behaviour worsened the longer they were exposed to religion, the study, led by the University of Chicago, found.
Reverend Canon Mpho Tutu, daughter of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, said religious instruction for children lacked nuance. “Youngsters are more apt to see reality in black and white and to be blind to shades of grey.”
Religious education for children simply taught “right from wrong”, she said.
The study, conducted in South Africa and five other countries, found that:
Generosity scores for Muslims and Christians were essentially the same, and for nonreligious children 23% to 28% higher;
The more religious the family, the less altruistic the child. This pattern held for all religions in the study; and
In one experiment of pushing and bumping, Muslim children judged the offenders most harshly, followed by Christian children and then secular children. Children from Muslim families endorsed harsher punishments than those in the other groups.
Cape Town Islamic teacher Moulana Igsaan Hendricks said it was important not to use religion as “the bogeyman”.
“Many teachers use it to scare children but that means it is being used to indoctrinate them and teach them extremism rather than giving them a balanced approach to life.
“Religion should never be used as a point of exclusivity. It can be very detrimental to children who will not know how to interact in society if they see themselves as being separate or better or different because of their religion.”
Johannesburg-based Jewish leader Rabbi Gideon Pogrund said: “History is replete with terrible things done in the name of religion . . . so we obviously can’t expect a necessary correlation between religious beliefs and positive behaviours.
“But looking around, it’s clear religious commitment can inspire an extraordinary capacity for altruism and forgiveness.”
Stay-at-home mom Justine Manning said raising her children in an atheistic household meant “we don’t rely on the ‘God is watching’ threat to keep them in line”. “They learn to treat others well because it makes things more pleasant, rather than because they will be punished if they don’t.”