Letters to the Editor
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They need to be innoculated!
We supposedly "enlightened" members of the progressive wing of America (whatever that even means) all too often dismiss any sort of organized religion and then wonder why our children become raging fundamentalists (sometimes).
In all fairness, progressive churches tend to offer such a milquetoast melange of pseudo-spiritual pablum (I say this as a Unitarian Universalist - we are terribly guilty of this) that many humanists tend to avoid church altogether, since church might as well not be.
But how humanity craves that sense of being part of something bigger, something not completely explained! If you leave out some sort of faith community in a child's life, you can rest assured they'll find one later.
So for a start, take an eight-year old to a Pentecostal tent revival, complete with writhing and speaking in tongues. Keep them there until they are crying and want to go home. my father did this with me - called it "inoculation." It worked beautifully.
And then find a progressive church with some semblance of religion beyond regurgitating all other churches' "faith traditions" (read: shamelessly aping other faiths) and make it work for your family. That's worked pretty well for me.