How to talk to kids about religion: Spiritual multiculturalism is absolutely essential

[cbayer]

http://www.salon.com/2015/05/23/how_to_talk_to_kids_about_religion_spiritual_multiculturalism_is_absolutely_essential/

SATURDAY, MAY 23, 2015 03:30 PM EDT

Before kindergarten, kids are curious about spiritual expression and hungry to learn. Here's how to teach them

LISA MILLER PH.D


(Credit: MidoSemsem via Shutter stock

Excerpted from "The Spiritual Child: The New Science on Parenting for Health and Lifelong Thriving"

If a spiritual compass, commitment to family, and spiritual community as a sustaining source of love are must haves for children’s life journey, then spiritual multilingualism is their passport. Having our own spirituality and sense of community, whatever that may be, is important to a child. But you want your child to be able to see the sacred in others. Spiritual multilingualism enables us to cross familiar borders and embrace the essence of spirituality in its many cultural narratives.

Children come to understand that diverse spiritual traditions share common themes and often have parallel ideas and observances: the rhythm of the seasons, the birth of a baby, ceremonies of commitment, or rituals around death and mourning. Having your own spiritual or religious orientation but being able to hear and understand others doesn’t only make it easier to engage with other people; it also enhances your own access to sacred experience by making these universal inner connections available to you wherever we go. A child who is conversant in the “many names, many faces” of spiritual practice can find the sacred in others— engage more meaningfully with other people in our diverse global culture.

“The biggest mistake people make when first beginning to look at unfamiliar perspectives is immediately to make comparisons between the familiar and the unfamiliar,” writes Buddhist feminist theologian and author Rita Gross. “The power of the comparative lens comes not from making positive and negative comparisons; rather, it comes from seeing each perspective clearly, in its own right. In other words, one gets a deeper understanding of one’s own perspective by understanding how others understand their own perspective.”

In childhood, natural spirituality of the heart very quickly attaches to the names, stories, and rules to which our children gain daily exposure. Starting as early as age four and certainly by age seven, children absorb the language and customs of thought used to express spirituality in their family or spiritual community. Research shows that for children these names are prioritized as spiritually “more real.” A team of Harvard psychologists led by professor Mahzarin Banaji, investigated whether very young children, ages four to six, already had in- group versus outgroup—my God is better than your God— perceptions around the names of the higher power. The team found in controlled experiments, a child as young as age six will rate “God” as named by her faith as more omniscient than “God” as named by another geographically remote unfamiliar faith. No matter what we may think about religion, we want to be sure children are open to other possibilities. You want your kid to be as open minded as possible. As parents, we want to act early, deliberately, and swiftly. We do not want a child to build tribal superiority, which has nothing to do with a clear and open pipeline for natural spirituality. Theology competition is a misguided form of implicit socialization that ultimately distorts access to transcendent love in all three forms of self, other, and higher power.

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[clydefrand]

1. In the beginning, man needed a way to

explain how they were created. Not having ever heard of 'evolution', so they invented 'god' as the ultimate giver of life. Since no one could actually see 'god',
then he must exist far far away.
More people are going to evolution now than they going to 'god'.
That is why more and more people are leaving all kind of religions.

[cbayer]

3. I think religion has served more purposes that just an explanation for where we came from.

Thankfully more and more people are embracing evolution, and while many are leaving religion, there is not a direct correlation.

But as we see an increase in diversity as people explore and adopt different kinds of spiritual paths, I think the author's thoughts on how we educate children to understand and respect these differences is important.