Theos-Talk Archives (November 1995 Message tl00433)

>Lewis: Good point Ann. We have several schools run by "Christians"
>who are busily indoctrinating all the children they can get their
>hands on. But doesn't that bother you?

It particularly bothers me considering I spent four years of my teen years
stuck in a dark medieval high school. When I graduated and went to the
University of Illinois I thought I'd died and went to "heaven". But these
places do soothe the minds of parents who believe their children are "on the
right track" by going there.

>Lewis: I have watched my sister-in-law's children change over the
>past several years seeing them only at holidays. Their father did
>just as you suggest and moved his family to Texas so he could send
>his kids to his christain sects school. It seems like a crime the way
>those kids have been ruined. They were kind affectionate kids only a
>few years ago. Now they appear quite sullen and supicious of
>everyone. They have been isolated from others who might question the
>ideas they are being taught including their grandparents. I don't
>know if encouraging the parochalism of our schools is such a good
>idea.

Not from the angle we are looking at it but to your brother's view it is the
solution. Just like the Catholic church there is a notion that if you raise
and indoctrinate children with the rules and philosophy of a particular
religious sect then they will continue on that path till the day they die also
teaching their offspring to believe the same ideas. In my experience this is
not the case. Many people who are raised as Catholics drop out from the church
in their twenties. If the philosophy never made sense to them in the first
place they are never going to continue with it.

Nothing is ever so neat and simple as people think. In their blindness many
may try to sqeeze their offspring down a certain religious path not realizing
these people have past life memories that are stronger than any conditioning
they are receiving in this life. They also have their own personalities that
may not be suited to their parents' religion.

As you can imagine I can talk about this because I lived through it. I came
from a Eastern European Roman Catholic family. I felt like I slept through my
catechism classes just waiting to grab that first Edgar Cayce book. I'd
finally found something that I could really believe in. Where did that strong
@catechism classes just waiting to grab that first Edgar Cayce book. I'd
feeling come from? Certainly not from my genetic background or rigorous
religious training. Where DOES it come from?

- ann