Preying On The Young

QUESTION: Today's comes from JH...
"Our daughter came home from college at Christmas and told us she'd become a Christian there. We're not religious, however, and recently she's turned very negative toward us for not believing as she does. Is this the way Christians are supposed to act?".

IRRELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVE:
The greatest gift any parent can give their offspring is an unencumbered mind, and you have obviously given that to your daughter by not indoctrinating her when she was young and impressionable. However, people at her age are very idealistic and someone has recruited her by appealing to her idealism. They have told her that to be a decent person she needs to convert to Christianity which they tell us is the superior religion. The corollary of this stance is that she now thinks that you are inferior idealistically and spiritually, which is an attitude typical of religious people. No wonder religions are so often in conflict. There are hundreds of gods and all of their followers think they are worshipping the one and only. It is important at this stage to let her realise that you and the rest of the family are decent people with a firm set of morals and principles, and that you didn't need a deity to arrive at them. However, don't try to directly talk her out of her new-found faith as this will just make her defensive. It's an awkward situation for you, as it's hard to sit down and have a rational discussion about something so irrational. Having different members of the family with different belief systems is another way that religions divide people up.

BILLY GRAHAM'S ANSWER:
http://www.billygraham.org/articlepage.asp?articleid=6055