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THE QUESTION
Talking to Children About God
Millions of people are in mixed faith marriages or are unsure about their conception of God. How would you advise them to describe God to their children over the holiday season?
Posted by
Sally Quinn and Jon Meacham on December 6, 2006 11:30 AM
FROM THE PANEL
Give the Gift of the Divine Feminine This Holiday
I hope I am an example to my students—a “parent” of sorts—who has gone from believer to atheist and back again
Posted by Donna Freitas, on December 12, 2006 3:46 PM
The Gift of Perspective
A religion that thrives in an atmosphere of shared knowledge deserves to thrive; a religion that depends on enforced ignorance deserves to go extinct.
Posted by Daniel C. Dennett, on December 8, 2006 12:38 PM
Parents Need to Get A Life, I Mean A Spiritual Life
Be honest if you don’t know much about God. Don’t yield to the pressure of the season and say or do things you don’t mean. You might even read a book together
Posted by William Tully, on December 8, 2006 11:50 AM
Different Religions Like Different Paths Through the Forest
"Can you think of a place that you love, a special, beautiful place, where you feel wild and free, loved and loving, and safe and happy all at once? Being in that place is being connected to the Goddess, the living being that we are all a part of."
Posted by Starhawk, on December 7, 2006 3:45 PM
Doubt: The Perfect Gift
My mom, who was a practicing Catholic, simply replied "I don't know" when I asked why God would put a child in an iron lung. She was honest--and more power to her.
Posted by Susan Jacoby, on December 7, 2006 11:25 AM
A Parent's Gift To A Child: Speaking of God
n my Latter-day Saint faith, the responsibility upon parents to teach their children principles of the gospel is scripturally mandated
Posted by Michael Otterson, on December 7, 2006 11:15 AM
Don't Tell Them Anything They'll Need to Unlearn
The Bible and other sacred scriptures are not fairy tales – but we make a mistake when we think that stories must be factually true in order to be true and truthful
Posted by Marcus Borg, on December 6, 2006 5:40 PM
Say Something!
If you don’t talk with your children about religion, they will assume it doesn’t mean anything to you
Posted by Stephen Prothero, on December 6, 2006 5:15 PM
Parents Should Share Doubts As Well as Beliefs
It would help if they were prepared to talk to their children about their doubts as well as their faith, about the fact that we all worship the same God
Posted by Julia Neuberger, on December 6, 2006 4:30 PM
God Is Within, the Sufi Poet Wrote
My advice to people who are seeking God is to look within their own hearts
Posted by Salman Ahmad, on December 6, 2006 2:43 PM
You Can't Go Wrong with 'God is Love'.
This holiday season, give this gift to your children and to yourself: You are loved, unconditionally. Believe me when I tell you that everything else in religion is commentary.
Posted by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, on December 6, 2006 11:43 AM
Are We Hard-Wired for God?
We are hard-wired to name the transcendental meaning by which we commit ourselves to live human lives in the certainty of human death
Posted by John Dominic Crossan, on December 6, 2006 11:41 AM
Trust The Child
The point of it all in the child's world is to let the love which the faiths profess be experienced by the way in which parents and siblings relate to each other when they talk about God
Posted by Martin Marty, on December 6, 2006 11:40 AM
FEATURED COMMENTS
Corey: Describing God in an interfaith marriage is not the problem. The teaching about God in most major faiths are too similar to have any discor...
RosaSion: Ann is right when she says we should listen to how our children describe God.
Recently an extremely racist man was admitted to the hospital...
