Faith Based Community

"What should I do?", is the question many parents are asking when wondering if they should raise their kids in a faith-based community. Yes, you would think that it's a simple yes or no answer. The truth is that there is much more reasoning behind the yes or no that parents ultimately decide. There are many reasons for either decision, all of which make sense in their own way. If you decide that yes you should raise them in a faith-based community, it does have its benefits. Faith-based communities teach important values in life such as caring, self dependence, and many life morals. It helps to teach the kids to help the community and even reach out and help others. Raising your child in a faith-based community should not be done because the negative effects far out weigh the positives.

I believe that raising your sons or daughters in a community based on faith is not something that should be done. Yes religion and what you believe in is an important part of life. I don't think that it is something that your child should be brought into at such a young age. For one thing, at a young age no children really knows why they are there nor do they really want to be there. They would rather have free time hanging out with friends, instead of being in a church or whatever place of worship you attend, two to three times a week. Second, in some cases, not all, it causes "the fear of God" which is very scary to a kid of young age. Third, at a young age kids hate to feel pressured and if you raise them in a faith-based community they are going to feel pressured by the situation. Finally, to raise them in a community of faith, of your choosing, is almost forcing a religion upon them. I believe that religion is something that should be practiced based on an individual's beliefs, not something they had been forced into at a very young age.

Stephen D. Dubner says in his essay, Choosing My Religion, "There are more spiritual searches now than ever before, mainly because people are now freer than ever before to search." I think that is a great quote that demonstrates the importance of choosing your own religion. Being able to choose your own religion is one of the most important freedoms we as Americans are granted. But if you raise your child in a community of a certain faith, it's almost as if you're taking that freedom away.

I have asked several of my friends that I have grown with that I knew grew up in a faith-based community. The questions I asked were all the same, "Are you happy you happy you were raised in a faith-based community?" and "How much do you feel it benefited you?" Of the three friends that I asked, their response were much the same. They said that they didn't know any different at a young age being raised in a faith-based community. They said growing up in this