How much choice in religion should my child have?

[JuniperBerry]

I think that story of the priest is awesome. I understand how meaningful it is for you to have some connection to your deity. And congratulations on finding a deity that works for you!

[JacobPeter]

Well- I think St. Padre Pio likes his name to be known, so- I've expressed it here.

[Armina]

Like anyone I respect their beliefs, that is what makes us all special and unique. That is a plus and it makes the world a much more interesting place to live in. People will believe what they want to believe regardless of what other people say, discuss, preach, chastise, convert etc.

With that said I will not force my opinion onto someone else through fear or misunderstand. My children have their own beliefs or not at the moment and in time they will decide themselves which if any path they chose, I will always be around for them to talk to them about anything they wish. I will not lie but talk to them according to their understand and explain in the best possible way. I will stand beside them 10000000%, that is the right thing to do in my opinion as their Mother.

[Moon Gazer]

I'm quite lucky that my sons school teach things from various religions. Although they recently did a Nativity play they also teach things from other faiths. And they dont really tell children what is right or wrong with regards to faith.

I also try to teach my children about my faith, we do things to celebrate the Pagan festivals but also talk about other important days in other religions.

[Starwitch Stone]

I don't think anyone is saying that Christians are brainwashed

Actually, I said that, in this very thread (and the other thread JacobPeter posted on, but that was just a minute ago.)

Jacob, I don't know which photo you're referring to when you say "that picture of StarWitch". The woman in my forum avatar over there is not me. If you want to know who I am, you'll need to visit my actual website (this is just the forum).

Here is my About Me page:
http://www.everythingunderthemoon.net/about_me.htm

By the way, you're brainwashed. You just don't realize it because, well... because you're brainwashed. People who are brainwashed don't know they are brainwashed. If they knew it, they wouldn't be brainwashed anymore.

Please consider that the Catholic Church has managed to maintain control over the masses for many hundreds of years (if not over a thousand years). They don't want to lose that control. Part of the way they made money to stay so rich and fat is that they sold the supposed body parts of "saints", claiming that they had special power to create miracles and good luck (pretty much exactly like witchcraft, only most witches no longer use body parts.) To sell lots of body parts, they needed plenty of saints, so they just kept naming people as saints and creating fantastic stories about them so you'd want to purchase their fingers and toes and whatnot. This is all historical truth (unlike the story of Jesus, which isn't historical at all.)

I think a big difference between pagans and Christians is that pagans have usually endured some kind of abuse in their life. They came to the realization that God wasn't there to protect them, so they began looking elsewhere for spiritual fulfillment. Also, pagans and witches have often had paranormal experiences that they can't find explanations for. The Bible tells them only that it's "evil" and "Satanic" but they want a real explanation, not a fairy-tale explanation. So they begin researching the occult to find answers and they soon realize that witchcraft isn't actually evil like the church said. It's simply another form of religion. The reason the church didn't want you to practice witchcraft is because they knew you would stop attending church when you realized they only wanted to control you and take your money.

During the Witch Trials ("Never again!"), the Catholic Church was under attack from the common people, who were having trouble growing their crops and wanted someone to blame. The church, in their attempt to deflect the blame for the failed crops and resulting starvation, pointed the finger at "witches", who they claimed would fly over the crops at night on their brooms, cursing the crops so they wouldn't grow. Obviously, that's a lie. Witches don't really fly unless they are having an out-of-body experience, which can happen to anyone. But the common people were stupid and they wanted somewhere to place the blame, plus anyone who disagreed with the church would be burned alive, so the people began pointing fingers at each other, accusing their neighbors (often beautiful young women of whom others were jealous) of being witches. It was all a scam, and millions of people, mostly women, were brutally tortured and killed by the church because of their evil actions.

If you really knew the history of the Catholic Church (not the fake history they tell you, but the actual historical evidence of the horrors they perpetrated on the human population) you wouldn't continue to believe that they are right about everything. You've been given a distorted view of events, and the Church merely omits anything they don't want you to know. You can be sure that if the Church survives these pedophilia accusations, they won't be telling kids in Sunday School about what happened 50 years from now. They rewrite history to suit their purposes.

Hitler was the most famous Catholic ever. And there's no reason to say that he wasn't a "real Christian" or "real Catholic" since he was doing the Catholic church's work for them (killing the Jews). The Church went out of their way (when they put the Bible together) to turn Christians against Jews. They even went so far as to name the most evil character "Judas" ("Jew-das") and also to claim that it was the Jews who murdered Christ (when Christ never existed in the first place.) Without the Jews, Christianity would not exist, period. So there's no real reason to hate them, but for whatever reason, many Christians do despise Jews and have wanted to kill them throughout history. I don't see how they have survived this long. Islam is another religion that hates Jews. Why? Because Islam is merely a branch of Christianity/Judaism. All three of these religions have been killing each other for centuries. Currently, the Muslims are killing Christians in Egypt. And Christians (U.S. Soldiers) are killing Muslims in Afghanistan. This will never stop until all three religions realize how idiotic they are and decide to move into the New Age of spirituality and leave all the insane dogma in the past.

You might be interested in these three videos that explain the origins of Christianity:
Click here to watch

Bright Blessings,
StarWitch

[Mazu Sakura]

I went to Mormon camp when I was younger and got banned because I liked nature too much So much for Bible-thumping camp.

You Go!

[Nerys]

I have not read the complete thread as I can not read long text with blurry vision from my Rx meds. I did read a few bits of a few posts.
This is my story, my opinion. I am a lifetime pagan knew early. My s.o. is atheist same as DD. She was free to choose. At public school they had lessons all religions. At home I explain tell if she ask something. I was open of my paganism and age 8 suddenly she got interested told her some things and as a project together we made a big poster. It still hangs on wall in between my two bookcases. The poster was made for goddess Venus/Aphrodite pictures pasted of all her correspondences we did it in one day. After 2 weeks she lost interest moved on to astronomy. Her dad very enthusiastic they share stars hobby 2 years.

In her teens some of her classmates got the Wicca bug some it lasted months some got to a year then all stopped. Most went atheist some still forced go to church whilst home and still in HS. DD is now at a liberal arts college in USA:)
.Pagan galore, she told me they are everywhere! (The college kids when they go home still forced to go church).......She must have pay attention, they ask her question about it...she knows many answers.........Her profs want her to do theology as a 3rd mayor. She has views on religion.
I just left her free to choose her own....life path.

[Black Cloud]