[AnnieK]

My son goes to a C of E Primary School where they go to church etc but he is not Christened or a member of any faith. I had to appeal to get him into the school, its Ofsted report was the best in the area. I didn't want to determine his faith until he was of an age to choose. At the moment he has asked if he can be christened, but I think he just wants a party. I would rather he choose if and when he wants to follow a particular faith,for the right reasons. My Dad was not impressed, he thinks he should have been christened as a baby

[user104658]

Ehhhh it's a tough one. I personally don't believe that children should be raised with strong religious leanings, though the conversation should always be open and accepting.

On the other hand, I would never advocating removing the rights of parents to make that decision for themselves because the idea of strict governmental control over guardianship is terrifying. The government, of course, has to make sure that children are safe from abuse and neglect, but beyond that I don't believe in "government mandated parenting" at all.

Originally Posted by Livia

I was raised in my faith. I could have walked away at any time, I still could... and my parents would still love me like they do now. The people on here people with no faith are not particularly best placed to advise people whether or not they should raise their child with faith.

No better or worse placed than those with religion; both present the same level of bias.

[Kazanne]

I was brought up C of E, loved Sunday school and never lost my faith, it has helped me through life and made me think twice about certain decisions , my children come to church sometimes if they want to and more often than not at least one of them wants to come,they are never forced, if they ask me questions about my faith I try and explain as best I can, they can go either way,it's entirely up to them,but for me it was a good and comforting upbringing.

[user104658]

Originally Posted by AnnieK

My son goes to a C of E Primary School where they go to church etc but he is not Christened or a member of any faith. I had to appeal to get him into the school, its Ofsted report was the best in the area. I didn't want to determine his faith until he was of an age to choose. At the moment he has asked if he can be christened, but I think he just wants a party. I would rather he choose if and when he wants to follow a particular faith,for the right reasons. My Dad was not impressed, he thinks he should have been christened as a baby

I was raised Church of Scotland and my wife was raised Catholic (though interestingly... Her dad was raised CofE and MY dad was raised Catholic (both non-religious as adults) ).

We raise our children as non-religious BUT we are strongly considering sending our eldest to a Catholic High school in the nearest city purely because its an excellent school, and while our village is lovely and her primary school is great, her catchment non-denominational high school is a bus ride away to a... Less nice town... And the school itself is... not great. Like "if all else fails we'll move to a different catchment area at the end of primary school" sort of not great.

But yeah I personally think religion comes from the home anyway so the schools leanings don't matter that much. My wife went to Catholic school all the way through and neither her nor any of her old school friends are religious, and my dad (pushing 65) went through PROPER Catholic school, with actual nuns and stuff, and is if anything heavily CRITICAL of Catholicism

[Ant.]

As someone whose not religious, I actually have no objections to a child being raised as religious. At least with Christianity/me being raised Catholic, we had a chance to "confirm" our faith at 11 or reject it and leave the Church. I actually confirmed my faith despite not being religious, though

[James]

I liked going to to Church and Sunday School when I was young.

[Oliver_W]

CofE schools are nearly always the best tbh