'My daughter is a Christian and I'm not.' Atheist mom shares her story.
A
'committed atheist' mother has shared about her positive experience of sending
her child to a Christian school, where her daughter could challenge the 'atheist
indoctrination' from her mother.
Siobhan
O'Neil, who describes herself and husband Ian as 'happy atheists', wrote her
story for The
Independent. She describes their disposition towards religion: 'some strong
negative feelings regarding organised religions, coupled with a cheery tolerance
of people with faith'.
Now
though, her twelve-year-old daughter has 'increasingly embraced religion'
through attending a Church of England primary and secondary schools.
When
deciding where to first send her daughter for education, O'Neil, baptised as a
Catholic, said she had 'seen enough Catholicism to know I didn't want that for
her'. Though they both feared the 'religious indoctrination of our
four-year-old', they knew had also both grown up at CofE schools and 'survived
the experience sans faith'.
Since
joining a CofE primary school, and then getting into a CofE secondary school,
O'Neil writes that her daughter Una 'loves it. She gets a lot out of her faith
and the community she's joined'.
She
adds: 'we've been clear that the choice is hers to find her own way, and that we
will support her in that...We've felt our role is to open them up to
opportunities and experiences so they can learn for themselves what they like,
what they're good at and where they fit'.
Now
Una is soon to be baptised. The increased 'progressively weird' immersion into
the Christian world is unexpected for the parents, and they haven't changed
their views, but O'Neil says she simply has 'Una's best interests at heart'.
She
quotes a Muslim friend of hers who said: 'If a child wanted to explore a
religion other than their own I don't know too many families who would support
that.'
O'Neil
concludes: 'Since childhood indoctrination is one of the things I like least
about religion, I'm proud of Una for challenging my own atheist indoctrination
of her.' Christian
Post.