My sister is 30. Her name is Brandy. She used to be a believer. She was even a moderator of a very famous Christian website. Now I find out all of the sudden that she doesn't believe God exists and she falls for the "humans came from monkeys" and "the amoeba just appeared out of nowhere, exploded, and formed the world" mess. And that's what it is. Mess. She is also in support of removing "In God we trust" out of everything. We talked about all that last year. The way she puts it, "If someone is going to teach my children about one religion, they have to teach about every other religion out there as well. I don't want my kids brainwashed."
She has a precious two-year old daughter and in less than two weeks will have a newborn son. Her hubby of 12 years doesn't want anything to do with church, but confusingly, Brandy is willing to go to services when I visit.
So I see a conflict coming. Her children are likely to not hear much about Jesus. Any of you experienced such conflict with family? How do I handle this gracefully?
Hi Rissa, sorry to hear you are having a few family issues. A few things pop to mind immediately from what you have written and following is my advice, from experience:
First up, I feel there is a misconception in that evolution opposes God's divine authorship of the universe and everything in it. I'm not sure why your sister feels that if evolution can account for our development from a cluster of cells to a human being, that this puts God out of the picture. It really does not, unless you adhere to a completely literal reading of Genesis and accept a sort of young earth creationism viewpoint. I would like to forward you to William Lane Craig's website, Reasonable Faith here:
Reasonable Faith: Video and Audio of Debates, Talks, Interviews with Dr. William Lane Craig
I recommend the debates and presentations on evidence for God and God's existence as Dr Craig specifically deals with the creation of the universe and God's hand in it.
Secondly, the idea that someone should learn about all religions, is a good and positive one Rissa. Really, what this comes down to is faith - and I use that word in the Biblical sense which is 'trust'. Throughout the course of a human's lifetime they will hear a million and one ideas, theories and hypotheses. You cannot, realistically shield them from all of them, and I question if that would only do more harm, if it were possible.
The reasoning behind this is that the new things, hold an excitement to them, the forbidden things, hold even more mystery and allure in them. Imagine, a child who has grown up, hearing nothing about any worldview except one. Having lived in that small enclosed space for so many years and then hits college, and is suddenly bombarded with all these differing worldviews. Several things could happen, in that they feel resentment to their teachers - be they their parents, friends or peers. They feel intrigued by these new ideas and often these new ideas will look vastly more exciting than the old and stagnating worldview they hold. This is when more often than not a paradigm shift will occur, as the old worldview is weakened and the new is strengthened.
To put all this in English, the more you tell someone not to touch the cookies on the table, the more they will want to have one.
So I feel the conclusion is two fold, first up, there is no harm in testing and exploring everything presented to us. The Bible puts it like so:
"Test Everything, Hold on to the Good." (1 Thessalonions 5:21)
Now, if God has this much faith (trust) in us, in His creations to reason what is fact from fiction, then I think we can have equal trust in His divine foresight in this matter.
Just because the child may learn about many things, of which only one can be true, it does not mean that he will not find that true one, and hold on to it. All in God's timeframe.
If your sister is open, you can share this with her, and ask her in fact, if you could be her child's Christian teacher, and affirm you feel it's good to make sure her children are best equipped with all the information possible.
All the best!
