A question:

[Kay Morgan-Gurr]

Children of other faiths tend to have a strong identity and a sense of belonging in their faith. On introducing themselves, they seem happy to say what their faith is, assuming it is part of who they are. They are happy to discuss their faith - often with knowledge and understanding.
Why is this not always the case with many kids from the Christian faith?

[Ruth Thomas]

I don't know how it is with all world faiths, but I have a lot of neighbours who are Muslims so I've learnt a little about their attitudes. It seems to me that they assume that their faith is something they are born into and, for practical purposes at least, can't change -- maybe they could in theory but it simply doesn't happen in reality. So their Muslim faith is as much part of them as their sex or skin colour. Also many children go to a mosque school for a couple of hours every day after school -- an enormous investment of time into learning their religion, the Arabic language and often a lot of cultural learning too.

I'm not sure I'd want to try to transplant all of that into Christianity. It seems to me that the element of choice is essential to Christianity -- you may be born into a Christian family, but sooner or later you have to choose to make that faith your own, or not. (Of course you can choose gradually, but the choices will be there.) In that respect it has to feel slightly less "part of who I am" for me than for my Muslim neighbours. And whilst learning New Testament Greek has its value, I believe it's OK to read the Bible in English translations so I don't propose to send my children to a 'Bible school' for many hours each week -- I would rather they learnt about their faith in more informal, relational ways. This may mean they learn slower but I don't think that can be helped.

Having said that, possibly if more adult Christians were willing to discuss issues of faith with children (their own or others in their churches), we'd have more children who developed a greater depth of knowledge and understanding, and possibly of personal faith too...

[Catherine]

Muslim children are born into that faith... and a lot of the families that they mix with will be of the same faith. If they mix with Western families the majority of these families won't be Christian in the biblical sense of the word. Children born into Christian families are not born christians but they are brought up to be christians. However they are in the minority amongst other children who share the same ethnicity. So to proclaim Christ not only puts you against those of other faiths, it puts you against those who would say they were Christian and yet live a different life and disagree with your life. As a kid it will often put you against those in authority over you on a day to day basis - your teacher. A Christian kid may find that their teacher is more ammeniable to a child from a muslim faith than to a child who comes from a biblically based Christian family. A genuine Christian family as part of a school community these days can be quite rare. A christian child who not only believes personally in Jesus Christ but who has been equipped by family and church to express their beliefs verbally is even rarer. If you are not drawing up a battle plan for your child in order to send them out into the world protected then you are just throwing your kid to the lions. You need to prepare and equip them against the lies and the attacks they will face. I stay on the fence as far as home schooling christian kids is concerned - but what I can't understand is when Christian parents choose to send their kids to school but send them without spiritual and biblical backup. If you send your kids into our secular world for most of their day - you need to be prepared to give them the weapons they need to defend their faith... even if you're not sure they have made that final decision for themselves. They may be born again already - that seed may be there slowly germinating. You as parent or teacher need to help them towards growing them in the faith so that they can be assured of their salvation and come to a stage of genuine conversion. They may not yet be born again - but you still have to equip them to be a Christian and trust God in faith that he will keep his word and fulfill his promises in the life of your child.