A co-worker of mine had neighbors take her child 'to the beach'...Failed to mention they were having a sea-side baptism. Her daughter came home 'washed'.

That is so terrible! I can't believe it!

Holy crap.

When my eldest boy was 11 he was friends with the son of a Jehovah's witness couple who live down the road.

One day he came home and told that they'd been showing him things from the bible and their books. They told him that he and his family could live through Armageddon and live forever as perfect humans on earth and never die.

They asked him if he wanted to learn more and his reply was, "I'm okay thanks, I prefer Harry Potter"

I was pretty pissed off a first for them telling him crap and trying to get him hooked. Sounds dramatic but I know how they work

your son rules.

You shouldn't try to raise others' kids without their permission. Everyone has the right to raise their children as they see fit. That's all I have to say about that. Though, the conversation that took place was very civil.

Also, points for the otter on the page. :p

I expect to see a similar thing happening with my daughter soon, coming from her grandmother. She already had a very hard time with the fact that we didn't have her christened or baptised, and did the whole "well, I could do it if you want, and you wouldn't even have to bring her to the church" thing. So I'm definitely expecting this conversation to come up again. The answer will be the same. Our beliefs, or nonbeliefs as they may be, are personal. How we handle them with our kid is even more personal.

My mother-in-law, our children's grandmother, was a Jehova's Witness.

*Shudder*

I am an atheist but I do allow my kids to go with their friends to church if they want. My daughter (11 yo now) has gone with her friends a time or two over the years. I don't see any harm in that; ultimately she will have to make her own decision about what to believe.

If my kids choose to visit a church I wouldn't object. I would however object to a neighbour wanting to take my 6yo to church with the obvious intention of planting a seed in the kids head.

I work hard to keep my kids open-minded and free from propaganda and bulls**t, therefore I wouldn't want my impressionable 6yo sitting in a church being preached to.

i squeee'd when i saw it.

my own experience:
my dad is an atheist, my mom was a lutheran. when my brother and i were about 5 and 6 years old a friend of theirs and his wife (joe and jackie) asked them if they could bring us to church with them sometime. mom told them we were already enrolled in the sunday school at the lutheran church. they pushed the subject and suggested that it would be good for us to learn about different faiths. so mom said if we wanted to go we could. then they all looked at us. the guy gets down to our level and asks us if we want to go to church with him and his wife like he's asking us if we want to go to the circus. i remember i felt very uncomfortable but i said ok because i felt like saying no would be rude. so it was settled and the coming sunday we would go to church with joe and jackie instead of our usual sunday school.
they were pentecostal and it was as far from what we were used to as you can get. in fact, it scared the crap out of us. they were hollering and rolling their eyes and babbling gibberish i couldn't understand. some lady was being baptized into the church that day and came out from the back wearing a white robe. she and the minister went over to this big horse trough full of water and a few church members came and held up big bed sheets to block the view. from behind the curtains we heard the minister hollering at the lady and the lady wailing in response, accompanied by the sound of a lot of water splashing. when it was over the church members wrapped her in the sheets and helped her back to the dressing room. she looked like she was too weak to walk on her own. my brother and i were both completely scared to death by that point - we were afraid that for some reason they were going to do this to us too.
after church they took us for pancakes and asked if we wanted to go again sometime. my brother shook his head 'no' immediately, i just said i didn't know. when they brought us home i remember them telling my mom and dad that we had a good time and seemed to like it. after they left we told mom 'no. they were scary and they almost drowned a lady and we didn't want them to drown us too.' that settled it for mom, she said we didn't have to go again if we didn't want to.
when they called again she said no, but they came by the next sunday anyway and asked. we again said no and they left.
while i applaud my mom for being open minded and willing to let us experience things outside our comfort zone, i am still to this day (35 years later) aghast that joe and jackie even asked. we were already enrolled in a church, but i think it was the knowledge of my dads atheist status that made them think we needed saving anyway.
we both went to the lutheran parochial school as well, and the whole thing left me very angry. i could tell stories - believe me. i stopped going to church by the time i was 15 because i couldn't stand the rhetoric. the only way i go now is for weddings or funerals, and i avoid both if i can.
is there a higher power? i guess i'll find out when i die. until then i try to live by the rule of do unto others - what comes around goes around. i try to live a good life, i can only hope it'll be enough.

NM.

Changed my mind.

atheist or not , i think it's the parents' right to bring their child up as they see fit. whether a child is brought up in their parents' religious beliefs or not, i think they should not forced to be a part of it and encouraged to be open to others' beliefs and allowed to develop their own.

from the article ''The religious practice of 'get 'em while they're young' seems unsavory to me because it takes the minds of people just as willing to accept the existence of Santa Clause or Optimus Prime on faith as anything else, and produces for them a creator god who they are to take on faith is real as well. Then, they take away Santa and Optimus as fanciful, childish things, yet they maintain that god is the real deal? How can you willingly do that to a kid and not consider than you might be messing them up?''

Although as a Christian I think it's great to invite others to church, I think it's actually pretty creepy for adults to invite the neighbours kids. I would never invite any of your kids to church, because I admit that would come across as weird.
Now if my kid invites your kid that's different. Of course they would need your permission to go (same as if your kid invited my kid to go with you guys to the circus).

I actually am not surprised, right when you said "Pentecostal". No offense meant to any here, but Pentecostals are very finnicky about stuff like that in general (from what I've seen of them), even if you are a Christian going to another church. It could partly be because your father is atheist, too, but even still. Oftentimes they can be very judgmental of even other Christians.

The neighbour asked if she could take her 6 year old son to church, but immediately blurts "Well of course not!" when she got asked if the writer could take her daughter to an atheist gathering.

I don't think the neighbour really got what was wrong with her position, judging from the way she still tried to push on.

Or you can just trust your ability to raise your kids to think critically and not worry about it. My kids used to go to Sunday School every weekend while my wife played piano at a church. It never rubbed off on them, and it gave them a good opportunity to see what the fuss was about and realize it's not for them. I think if you deny your kids access to "the other side" and make a big deal out of it, it just becomes more intriguing.

I think if anyone tried to trick my kids into attending a church event, they would just think it was pathetic.

May I take them to a Scientology seminar?

My best friend's family used to take me to church with them on Sundays when I slept over on Saturday nights. Was all fine and good with me until the formerly friendly priest told me that if I didn't start coming back more regularly, that I might end up in hell. I was 8!! No more Saturday sleepovers for me.

Heh...he should say yes just so you have to go. ;)

My feelings exactly. And while I fully agree parents have the right to raise their kids as they see fit, isn't teaching and reinforcing atheism indoctrination too? /rhetorical

Edit: Anyway, I wouldn't have allowed my child to go either. For sure, not without me there to see what went on so I could be in a position to explain..and for the very reasons Indisguise described.