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Effect of Church on my kids
10/22/06
During church this Sunday, I began to not notice something. Why couldn't I hear my children, I asked? Where were the complaints of "he touched me" or "he called me short?" Wondering, I looked down and focused on something amazing: My nine year old son was hugging his younger sister! This sure to be temporary truce held all the way home as well, causing me to ponder the effect that Church can have on children and, for that matter, on adults.
To me the argument isn't whether religious people can be bad or secular people good, for only the most extreme would argue against such an obvious conclusion; the issue is whether people are made better or worse by Church. Is a normal person who begins to attend Church more likely to give charity, love their neighbor, or risk harm to help others? Would the people who killed Matthew Sheppard been less likely to commit the murder had they attended Church regularly? Would Aldrich Ames have been less likely to sell spy secrets had he not been a member of Opus Dei? I think the Sheppard murderers would have been far less likely to kill had they just left Church while I don't see how being secular would have prevented Ames from spying.
I've heard arguments by atheists that the opposite is true. One attempt is based on the fact that most people in prison believe in God while few are secular concluding, therefore, that religious people commit more crime. Now, the question shouldn't be whether they believe in God, for belief in God is a default position; people believe in God unless they make a conscious decision not to. The question should be whether they ever thought about religion. In other words, did the criminals regularly attend Church, read the bible, or ponder their own actions in relation to God's Law before they committed crime? Did the people in the criminal's community who went to Church commit as much crime as those who did? It's only appropriate to compare people who actively practice their faith with people who consciously don't. Another day, I will try to reconcile the declining murder rate in Europe over 500 years with the decline in faith as expressed in the book Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Anyways, I hope whatever effected my children spreads.
Let me know about your experience with people who have converted. Did they become better or worse?
8 comments
Generally speaking --*very* general -- I think that it is not so much whether or not people attend church as it is whether God is a topic of discussion around the dinner table. Or common prayer is a daily part of family
life. Or whether children are given spiritual or religious books to read. They can be simple saints' stories or inspirational literature on what various virtues mean --e.g., patience, charity, goodness, etc. And especially how they see the adults treat one another.
I love talking to kids about religion. They have such a fresh approach. One day on the way home from church my then ten year old said, "hey Mom -- explain the Trinity, would you? But not right now." And when he first read the Beatitudes and came to "Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth," he nudged me and whispered excitedly, "look! It says I'm going to get some property."
I did some brief catechesis training with
Christianne Brusselmans and she warned that one should never teach the "Our Father" until one knew what kind of father the child had at home.
Another child of mine, when she was eight, asked the parish priest if he believed in Purgatory. When he said he did, she replied, "So do I. I think it's right here." My heart dropped at the thought of her sadness but the moment passed and she didn't mention it again.
We really should try to speak like we love GOD and all HIS Creation, especially HIS Children.
In Strong's Hebrew and Greek Concordances: His Children <01121>
On your website on Internet we see the words Kid/Kids , if we looked at the language of the Bible we see Goats.
In Strong's Concordance the Old Testament Hebrew word Kid is Strong's number <08163> ryes sa’iyr of res sa’ir, bn, zn from <08175> TWOT-2274c, 2274e KJV - Kid 28, Goat 24, Devil 2, Satyr 2, Hairy 2, Rough 1.
In the New Testament Greek we see Kid used once. In Luke 15:29 it is also defined in Strong's Concordance number <2056> as Goat.
We read in Matthew 25:31-32: When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep [His Children] from the goats <2056>: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Mark 16:17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues [the language of God’s word, the Bible].
Acts 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues*, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
* not the language of the world.
Let God be Magnified!
In Christian love,
Sincerely,
This book is freely available through Family Radio:
www.familyradio.com
Overview
The book examines these serious questions:
• Is it true that we are now in the time of the Great Tribulation?
• Is it true that the age of the institutional church has come to an end?
• Is it true that God commands the true believers in Christ as their Saviour to immediately depart from their churches?
• Is it true that God is no longer using churches to evangelize the world?
• Is it true that the task of world evangelization has now been assigned by God to individuals working alone or collectively together in such ministries is Family Radio?
• Is it true that without exception presently all local churches througout the world are under the judgment of God?
• Is it true that God no longer is saving by means of the local church?
• Is it true that Satan is ruling in every local church throughout the world?
• Is it true that the judgment that is now on every local church will transition into the final judgment at the end of the world?
• Is it true that all the way to Christ’s return God will be adding to the eternal church those who truly become saved?
Proverbs 8:6-9 Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things. For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them. They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge.
Praise GOD for HIS WORD!!!
Thanks for sharing that. I hear that word “kid” used so much, I find myself sometimes saying it. But I remembered Brother Tom making an issue of that on one of the trips and I try to catch myself when I say "kid". Now, I really understand why we shouldn't use that for children.
Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. (1 John 2:18)
I must confess that I myself have been guilty of this error in my life. I thank our Lord that you shared this with me and that I too, by His mercy, will be able to make this correction.
Our Lord is doing a mighty work in these last days*. I marvel that He tells us in Matthew 24:21 that there is a great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world. But at the same time He also tells us in Matthew 24:37-38 that the world will not perceive of this great overturning (Ezekiel 21:27, I Corinthians 1:27-31). I pray that He will give us wisdom to keep us humble in these last days*. We must glory in Him and know that it is all of His work and we are but unprofitable servants doing that which is our duty (Luke 17:10).
* Time Has an End: A Biblical History of the World 11,013 B.C. – 2011 A.D.
A book by Harold Camping.
This book is freely available through Family Radio: www.familyradio.com
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