Once again we have a failed premise. The idea behind raising your children with a moral compass and teaching them to behave fairly to others is not necessarily rooted in religion at all. Further, the author states the purpose as not letting your kids grow up to be liberals, but that kind of misses the point. I don't care how my son will eventually vote. He's 12. He may end up being gay. What do we do then, assume we have failed?
The article aludes to a specific difference between the opposing sides of the political spectrum. I'm not talking about party affiliation here, I'm talking about liberalism vs conservativism. Liberalism tends to teach that personal responsibility is not necessary. In fact, it teaches that whatever you want to do is acceptable. I'm trying to be brief here, so let's not concentrate on every letter of what I am saying but rather the concept as a whole. Regardless, liberalism assumes that the individual is the center of their own universe, and the rest of the universe should bend to the whims of the individual or else it is infringing on individuality. Conservatism teaches that that the individual is responsible to others and is responsibile for their own actions rather than being a victim of environment. This is where religion comes in. It is not the particular doctrine, it is the overall belief in a power higher than yourself. It is not necessary to be religious to understand this. However, if a person prefers to have the freedom to act in any way they like regardless of the affects on others, it is necessary to make the individual the higher authority, and this is the reason for the liberal abandonment of God. Conceptually, the precense of God means the individual can not do whatever they like without consequence.
On the first page of this thread I saw a couple of responses that express the standard liberal perspective. Point, laugh, impune and otherwise minimalize the concept of personal responsibility. BTW for those of you who do this (and you know who you are) keep in mind that as soon as that tactic is employed you are dismissed as irrelevent in the eys of those you denigrate. When I see this my impression of the person employing it is of an individual who has little or no responsibility to anyone else (a wife, kids, etc.) and is instead out to have a good time regardless of what they leave in their wake. Experience usually changes this eventually. if it does not, you end up with adults with deplorable behavior. Think of pro athelets who see themselves as better than others. Think of Kanye West. Think of the broken homes in ghettos. Think of the frequent fliers at abortion clinics. These are people who on the surface seem to be pursuing their own pleasures with relative freedom, but are in fact selfish individuals who are seeking something they can not find. They have no purpose or direction. Kind of takes us back to that "compass", doesn't it?
I've been there before. I was selfish. I had no interest in family. I lived entirely for myself. I drank, I did drugs, I intentionally hurt other people. Coincidentally or not I was an atheist at the time. I was also in my early 20s and didn't much care what anybody else thought about me, or anything else for that matter. I was not really concerned with working hard, because my needs were few and getting what I needed was easy. I went from job to job. I put my recreation ahead of responsibility.
BTW it was not religion that changed any of that. In fact by the time I discovered faith it was more because I had learned responsibilty rather than the other way around. By then, when I was able to listen to opinions different than mine, a lot of things started to make more sense. For me faith was not the reason for my conservatism at all. My conservatism naturally led to faith.
But back to the subject at hand. If your intention is to raise a child to be a conservative, no amount of church is going to do that. In fact, forcing religion will often lead to the opposite. That's how I ended up being an atheist to begin with. And once I decided there was no God, I acted in such a way as if to prove it. I was essentially a young, selfish guy who spent too much time in the gym and looking at mirrors and used to get my kicks beating people up, typically people bigger than I was, the bigger the better. But I was FREE dammit, and I could prove it. Just look at how much fun I was having! For those of you who have "known" me for a while, you'll understand that I am a pretty conservative guy. My father, however, makes me look like John McCain. Sure, I ended up conservative (eventually), my younger brother is pretty much ambivalent and middle of the road, but my older sister went completely the other way. She is extremely liberal to the point of prefering to live in socialist countries. She is a career student, a vegan, currently living in Ecuador teaching English at the University in the capital city. She has been married and divorced a number of times, no kids, and prefers to be "liquid", so that she may pack up and leave whenever she likes. Some call it freedom, others may call it fear of commitment. Regardless, she is unwilling and unable to actually take care of herself. For all of her intelligence she would prefer others make her decisions for her.
There may be more to this later if I feel like revisiting it. For now I have to get back to work.
