Op here - we cancelled our trip and DH had a long discussion with his parents about how angry we are. They go to a huge Bible church in Virginia, not that it matters much, but I get the sense that this is just the latest attempt to push Christianity on us. We have had the same conversation for many years, DH and I agreed 12 years ago that we would be a Jewish family and we haven't wavered. He's not religious and I am, both spiritually and culturally. Our last major blowup with them was years ago when they tried to arrange to baptize our kids and we had a very frank conversation about why we were not at all ok with this.

We've had this trip planned for months, they offered to take the kids and we had arranged for afternoon swim dates with a babysitter to give them breaks, and have had several conversations about activities and things we could do to make it a great trip. To spring Bible camp as a done deal on us a few hours before we left is inexcusable. I am furious. After a 12 year relationship with them I cannot believe they have such little respect for the choices we've made for our kids. I agree my kids can learn about other religions but not at surprise Bible camp.

Anonymous wrote:
I grew up going to church , sunday school , and vbs. Never once were we told we were going to hell.

Yeah, that's because you were already going to church, Sunday School, and VBS!

We're atheist and I would be super pissed if my evangelical parents signed my kids up for jesus camp too!!

It's totally disrespectful and seems like she only did it because she has a problem with your kids being raised jewish. This is totally uncool of her. If she needed a break and wanted the kids to be in a half day camp, I'm sure there are PLENTY of other activities she could have signed them up for. I would be livid.

OP, you really have three choices here;
(1) agree to send them to the Bible camp
(2) get your MIL to agree to send them to another camp (which you are going to have to find, select, and pay for) instead
(3) cancel the vacation.

To me, (2) sounds like the best option, but it is really up to you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I was little I got taken to Sunday school for the first time. Around 6. The teacher talked about how people who did not believe in Jesus were going to hell and I started crying because I was going to hell. She then took me out and made me pray to accept Jesus and then told me I was no longer going to hell. It was very traumatizing for a little kid.

All the posters here criticizing you do not understand this is a deliberate attempt to undermine you and your husband's decisions to raise your child Jewish and could potentially expose them to a very denigrating and traumatizing environment for someone who is not ready and very young. Also incredibly insensitive to the history of Judaism. Sorry OP, you have to scrap your plans and not send your children to their grandparents. I would be enraged if my MIL did that.

I had a similar experience being creeped out at vacation bible school at my grandparents' church. Thankfully, I thought, "Eh, we have our own church and didn't partake of accepting Jesus into my heart. :/

I grew up going to church , sunday school , and vbs. Never once were we told we were going to hell.

It really depends on the flavor of the particular church and the mental health of its members. OP's DH probably knows something about his Mom's church and give guidance.

Anonymous wrote:Honestly MIL should have consulted with you first.

I have to say it's pretty small minded of you to insist the kids be raised one way. Dual religion households are possible.

Out of line. You are assuming a lot. Theirs was a family decision. You sound like the MIL .

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I was little I got taken to Sunday school for the first time. Around 6. The teacher talked about how people who did not believe in Jesus were going to hell and I started crying because I was going to hell. She then took me out and made me pray to accept Jesus and then told me I was no longer going to hell. It was very traumatizing for a little kid.

All the posters here criticizing you do not understand this is a deliberate attempt to undermine you and your husband's decisions to raise your child Jewish and could potentially expose them to a very denigrating and traumatizing environment for someone who is not ready and very young. Also incredibly insensitive to the history of Judaism. Sorry OP, you have to scrap your plans and not send your children to their grandparents. I would be enraged if my MIL did that.

I had a similar experience being creeped out at vacation bible school at my grandparents' church. Thankfully, I thought, "Eh, we have our own church and didn't partake of accepting Jesus into my heart. :/

I grew up going to church , sunday school , and vbs. Never once were we told we were going to hell.

Immediate PP here--I wasn't at my home church, but that was sure the message at my grandparents' church!

Anonymous wrote:Honestly MIL should have consulted with you first.

I have to say it's pretty small minded of you to insist the kids be raised one way. Dual religion households are possible.

Why are you assuming that OP and her DH didn't make the decision together? I was raised Christian, DH raised Jewish. We are raising our kids Jewish. We came to this decision together.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I was little I got taken to Sunday school for the first time. Around 6. The teacher talked about how people who did not believe in Jesus were going to hell and I started crying because I was going to hell. She then took me out and made me pray to accept Jesus and then told me I was no longer going to hell. It was very traumatizing for a little kid.

All the posters here criticizing you do not understand this is a deliberate attempt to undermine you and your husband's decisions to raise your child Jewish and could potentially expose them to a very denigrating and traumatizing environment for someone who is not ready and very young. Also incredibly insensitive to the history of Judaism. Sorry OP, you have to scrap your plans and not send your children to their grandparents. I would be enraged if my MIL did that.

I had a similar experience being creeped out at vacation bible school at my grandparents' church. Thankfully, I thought, "Eh, we have our own church and didn't partake of accepting Jesus into my heart. :/

I grew up going to church , sunday school , and vbs. Never once were we told we were going to hell.

Honestly MIL should have consulted with you first.

I have to say it's pretty small minded of you to insist the kids be raised one way. Dual religion households are possible.

It's going to be good times in the house when one of the kids decides to convert to Christianity.

Anonymous wrote:When I was little I got taken to Sunday school for the first time. Around 6. The teacher talked about how people who did not believe in Jesus were going to hell and I started crying because I was going to hell. She then took me out and made me pray to accept Jesus and then told me I was no longer going to hell. It was very traumatizing for a little kid.

All the posters here criticizing you do not understand this is a deliberate attempt to undermine you and your husband's decisions to raise your child Jewish and could potentially expose them to a very denigrating and traumatizing environment for someone who is not ready and very young. Also incredibly insensitive to the history of Judaism. Sorry OP, you have to scrap your plans and not send your children to their grandparents. I would be enraged if my MIL did that.

I had a similar experience being creeped out at vacation bible school at my grandparents' church. Thankfully, I thought, "Eh, we have our own church and didn't partake of accepting Jesus into my heart. :/

Anonymous wrote:The problem is that there is a good chance the children will be told they are going to hell because they don't believe in Jesus. That is not cultural education, that is coercion.

Yep. I have witnessed Christian children tell other children that Jews are going to hell because they don't believe in Jesus.

Anonymous wrote:The problem is that there is a good chance the children will be told they are going to hell because they don't believe in Jesus. That is not cultural education, that is coercion.

I just wrote about context and people jumping on OP. But I also think this is slippery slope thinking, and I'm a pretty staunch atheist. My kid goes to a pretty school with faith based lessons, Methodists, and there are probably 30% Hindi kids there that are distinctly not Christian. You have to really ask the u comfy questions with these organizations but even I was comfy with three answers. this is not in response to OP though. that's a family problem more than a faith based one

Why are people playing devil's advocate with OP aND INTENTIONALLY ignoring the context? This didn't happen in a bubble. If OP's in laws had not made her family being Jewish some kind of issue in the past and we're totally cool with it, I doubt highly OP would have a problem because the in laws would presumably not be trying to get one over on OP.

Context matters. why are people on here so eager to dismiss that OP knows the context and, well, they don't.