Teenagers: seriously questioning their faith?

[Anonymous]

^^ Allow me to adjust my earlier post RE: Catholic Priests. It should have read: The Priests and any other religious leaders who have been convicted of mistreating those who trust them in any way. ONLY THOSE ONES.

[Anonymous]

OP~ I don't see a problem. Your kids will likely be good people with or without religion in their lives. Make sure you don't wreck your relationship with them over this. That wouldn't make you a very good person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
LOL.. ok. Nothing I say will satisfy you. I don't believe responding to rude people on here accomplishes anything besides feeding a troll. Although maybe calling them doucebags helps.. I don't know. One rude name for another I guess?

Meh. Lots of us are fed up with hypocrisy and double standards from the atheists on this board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. The people who are going in about how nonbelievers have brains are terribly condescending. I'll pray for them.

hahahaha

[Anonymous]

I'm not the "I'll pray for you" PP, or the "atheists should STFU PP or the "why do atheists insert their two cents PP." But I am a 3rd? 4th? 5th poster who thinks the atheists should show a little respect and courtesy.

That is, if you actually care about all that stuff about "be good for goodness sake" and "Good without God." Otherwise, sorry to say, the rest of us look at your behavior here and think those slogans are just a big, huge load of BS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take comfort in the evidence that you've raised people with brains. Congrats.

OP Here, thank you. My DH and I try to cultivate an enviroment of critical thinkers, however I am scared that they may have veered off too far without putting in the work to investigate the things that have issues with. I will love them unconditionally, but I do think that later in life they may find Jesus again.

You've done your best to launch them. Now it is time for them to begin their own spiritual journey. They may return to the church, they may not. There's not a lot you can do.

[Anonymous]

All 3 of mine went through a period of questioning their faith during high school. A lot of it seemed to be based around how the church is portrayed by the media: filled with bigots and ignorant people who are anti everything. We encouraged them to question their beliefs because if the belief system you hold can't stand up to some questioning then it isn't very strong to begin with. We also tried to help them realize that how the media portrays faith isn't necessarily an accurate depiction and that all faiths teach positive lessons about how to live your life, how to love yourself and others, how to forgive yourself and others, and how to help those in need. Our pastor was wonderfully open and welcoming of these discussions and encouraged them to find answers both in the Bible and in their everyday lives. All 3 are now in college and are once again active in the church and I believe that period of questioning their faith helped them become stronger in it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone gone through something like this?-- My two teenagers, a son and daughter both attend a Catholic Private High Schools. However, a they are both not interested in learning about God, and they have many issues with the church and its teachings. My DH and I trying very hard to bring them back to the faith. We live in a religious household- Mass every sunday, prayer, gospel reading, rosary. Has anyone gone through this before? How did it turn out? I would love to hear some feedback--just curious if this is a common attitude amongst teenagers now. TIA!
Rachel

That was your mistake, unfortunately. In my experience Catholic school has a way of turning kids against religion.

[Anonymous]

That's why I'm not sending my kids to a Catholic school, even though I am a practicing Catholic. I'm not dropping $15,000/year on religious schoolong just to see my kids become atheists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That's why I'm not sending my kids to a Catholic school, even though I am a practicing Catholic. I'm not dropping $15,000/year on religious schoolong just to see my kids become atheists.

Clever move! Perhaps you should share your strategy with school administrators.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not the "I'll pray for you" PP, or the "atheists should STFU PP or the "why do atheists insert their two cents PP." But I am a 3rd? 4th? 5th poster who thinks the atheists should show a little respect and courtesy.

That is, if you actually care about all that stuff about "be good for goodness sake" and "Good without God." Otherwise, sorry to say, the rest of us look at your behavior here and think those slogans are just a big, huge load of BS.

You're not providing a very good example of treating people with different beliefs with respect and courtesy: big, huge load of BS? really, WDJS?

[Anonymous]

OP, what do you fear will happen if your kids do back away from their faith whether short term or not?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not the "I'll pray for you" PP, or the "atheists should STFU PP or the "why do atheists insert their two cents PP." But I am a 3rd? 4th? 5th poster who thinks the atheists should show a little respect and courtesy.

That is, if you actually care about all that stuff about "be good for goodness sake" and "Good without God." Otherwise, sorry to say, the rest of us look at your behavior here and think those slogans are just a big, huge load of BS.

You're not providing a very good example of treating people with different beliefs with respect and courtesy: big, huge load of BS? really, WDJS?

Very true!

Personally, I'm one who did back away from my faith. Twice, actually. I do honestly believe people can be good without believing in God. I didn't suddenly become an awful person when I came to the conclusion that the Church was not for me.

OP I really don't know what to tell you. I hope you can accept their decisions, whatever they may be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's why I'm not sending my kids to a Catholic school, even though I am a practicing Catholic. I'm not dropping $15,000/year on religious schoolong just to see my kids become atheists.

Clever move! Perhaps you should share your strategy with school administrators.

Thanks! I definitely will share it with school administrators! They need to know that their schools aren't delivering what people are paying for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's why I'm not sending my kids to a Catholic school, even though I am a practicing Catholic. I'm not dropping $15,000/year on religious schoolong just to see my kids become atheists.

Clever move! Perhaps you should share your strategy with school administrators.

Thanks! I definitely will share it with school administrators! They need to know that their schools aren't delivering what people are paying for.

Are people sending their kid to Catholic school for education or indoctrination?