introducing faith/religion to kids

"Banty" wrote in message
...
In article , Ericka Kammerer
says...

Banty wrote:
In article , Ericka
Kammerer
says...
Banty wrote:
In article , Ericka
Kammerer
says...


OK - my son is four years old and runs up to me saying Jesus is the one
person
in the whole wide world that rose from the dead. Indeed that's often
invoked in
everyday parlance in some parts of the country (when *I* was four years
old, I
lived and went to school in Abilene, Texas). What would you have me say
concerning that.

Well, first of all, Jesus isn't even the only person in the New Testament to
rise from the dead-Lazarus comes to mind, as does Jairus's daughter-so I'd
be tempted to say "Obviously you didn't pay attention in Sunday School!" But
that's the snarky adult talking.

Even at 3 1/2, my daughter has encountered several myths and legends about
people rising from the dead (there's a really old, really nice set of easy
reading versions of the myths which are on about a 1st-2nd grade reading
level, and luckily, our public library never gets rid of anything), and I've
explained that while we see the Chinese, Greek, Roman, Native American, and
similar things as stories, other people believe them or believed them in the
past. I've also reassured her that, no, Mammy (her great grandmother, who
died earlier this year) and Peaches (our cat who died last winter) aren't
going to come back to life, nor are the dinosaurs she so loves going to
suddenly wake up and start stomping around and eating people, because except
in stories, dead things stay dead.

I hope that her awareness of world religions which she's unlikely to run
into anyone who practices will help support her when she deals with children
who are from more evangelical Christian backgrounds who have been raised to
believe that the bible is infalliable, unerring truth even when it's
internally inconsistent.


This is fine.

Ericka - do you have any quibble with how Donna presents it?

Banty

Banty wrote:
"Banty" wrote in message
...

hmm... I think attributions are screwed up here somewhere...

Even at 3 1/2, my daughter has encountered several myths and legends about
people rising from the dead (there's a really old, really nice set of easy
reading versions of the myths which are on about a 1st-2nd grade reading
level, and luckily, our public library never gets rid of anything), and I've
explained that while we see the Chinese, Greek, Roman, Native American, and
similar things as stories, other people believe them or believed them in the
past. I've also reassured her that, no, Mammy (her great grandmother, who
died earlier this year) and Peaches (our cat who died last winter) aren't
going to come back to life, nor are the dinosaurs she so loves going to
suddenly wake up and start stomping around and eating people, because except
in stories, dead things stay dead.

I hope that her awareness of world religions which she's unlikely to run
into anyone who practices will help support her when she deals with children
who are from more evangelical Christian backgrounds who have been raised to
believe that the bible is infalliable, unerring truth even when it's
internally inconsistent.


This is fine.

Ericka - do you have any quibble with how Donna presents it?

I don't quibble with any of the things she's doing, and
I think it is very age-appropriate. I don't think it really
speaks to the idea of how do we know what we know, how do we
validate what we know, how to ascertain our level of confidence
in what we think we know, etc. On the other hand, 3 1/2 is
rather young for that, and exposure to a variety of different
perspectives may well be a great proxy for those issues at this
age.

Best wishes,
Ericka