For many religious people, raising their children in their faith is an important part of their religious practice. They might see getting their kids into heaven as one of the most important things they can do as parent. And certainly, adults should have the right to practice their religion freely, but children are impressionable and unlikely to realize that they are being indoctrinated into one religion out of the thousands that humans practice.
And many faith traditions have beliefs that are at odds with science or support bigoted worldviews. For example, a queer person being raised in the Catholic Church would be taught that they are inherently disordered and would likely be discouraged from being involved in LGBTQ support groups.
Where do you think the line is between practicing your own religion faithfully and unethically forcing your beliefs on someone else?
No it’s not ethical. I say this as a queer man indoctrinated in Christianity. I was lucky to make it through childhood without killing myself. I tried several times. Religion is a cancer that should be exterminated.
I am a trans woman who was raised Catholic, so I feel similarly. I’ve had to do so much work in therapy just to get to a place where I can accept myself for who I am. A lot of those old beliefs were baked in deeper than I realized.
I carry a lot of resentment towards my (very devout) parents for raising me in the church, but I also recognize my experience is not emblematic of every person’s experience being raised in a religious household.
I think we have a responsibility to teach our children to be ethical to the best of our ability.
I was raised in Reform Jewish household. I keep kosher (mostly heheh), I light candles and drink wine on Friday night, I observe most of the holidays.
We were taught to be accepting of LGBTQ people, two of my aunts are lesbians, two of my cousins are gay men, I’m bisexual and in a long term relationship with a Catholic-raised transgender man. We were taught to abhor bigotry against others. I doubt we’ll have children (for a myriad of personal reasons) but I’ve thought a lot about if we did and decided I would absolutely teach them about their Jewish ancestry. I think it would be important for them to know about the history and culture of the people that came before them that resulted in them being here. I would not teach them my grandmother’s Zionist beliefs, and my parents decided they wouldn’t teach them to me, but rather teach me about them and why they exist and why they are abhorrent. But that’s because I feel those would be important things for them to know and I think I could do it in a way that sets them up to be ethical people.
I’m not sure if you plan on having children, but if you do, it’s really up to you to figure out what you you want to pass on and what you want to leave in the past. That could be atheism, it could be a very light form of Christianity that only includes “love thy neighbor” and Christmas. But, ultimately, I don’t think it is black and white whether or not it is ethical to teach children religion, rather there’s a moral imperative to teach our children ethically.