Monday, March 01, 2010

What's love got to do with it?

I read of this interesting ethical dilemma in Slate today it's a complex tale of a man and a woman. In summary, she is Jewish he is Catholic, they married and had a child, they fell out and got divorced, the mother got custody of the child intent on raising him Jewish, and the man reverted to Catholicism intent on raising the child a Catholic, he secretly got the child baptised she got upset, she sues him to get a restraining order and... the court looks like it's running a mile.


What these religious adversaries have failed to grasp is that there is no such thing as a "Jewish child" or a "Catholic child", any more than there is a "Communist child" or a "Republican child"; only a child of parents who believe those things. A child who has it's own conciousness and developing mind, a canvas that is not the property of either parent upon which to scrawl their hate filled graffiti.

The question in this case is whether religion is a zero-sum proposition or a cultural buffet table. Is it harmful to raise a child in two different faiths? Does exposing a child to two religions differ from exposing her to two languages or teaching her to play two instruments? 

My advice to these people is split the difference, educate the child in comparative religion, when it is capable of understanding the choices it can decide for itself.

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