It's really just enlightened self-defense, Annamill. I knew a kid who was raised in a very religious home, went to Christian schools K-12, and then when he got to college and discovered that there were people in the world who didn't believe the way his family/church/school did, it totally freaked him out. Last I knew he was a rabid nihilist/existentialist atheist, and, alas, not very happy.

I think being more open about the whole thing makes the kids not only more open minded about others (whatever they ultimately decide to believe for themselves), but also less likely to reject their birth-religion (so to speak) for stupid reasons. (Stupid reasons might be, to shock the parents, boredom, etc. The only good reason to change religions, IMHO, is because you think the new one is TRUER than the one you're leaving. Of course this is open to disagreement too; others might have a different set of "good" and "bad" reasons for changing one's religion!)

I knew a man who was a Moslem, and moved to the USA, and his son (perhaps to shock dad, perhaps not) told him he had decided to become a Christian. The dad was (to my mind) a smart man. He said, "you may do so, but if you are going to become a Christian, you are going to become a REAL Christian, not somebody who pays his religion lip-service and only goes to church on Easter and Christmas."

So maybe, by being a little more open and honest about the existence of other religions and worldviews, we're opening the door for the kids to bolt as soon as they get the chance. I don't know. But it seems better than the "brainwashing" method, at least in the areas of honesty and respect.

Which is my bugaboo with Santa, of course, that honesty thing.

"What a shabby state we're in."
---Randy Stonehill (NOT from Florida!)

Alex