I’ve finally introduced my kids to Jesus!!

It’s true that kids are born atheists. In my experience so far, there’s no point when religion naturally comes up (in a child’s development) unless the parents or the community force the issue.

There’s a certain bliss in allowing my kids to remain ignorant of the existence of religion, but they’re going to hear about it from their friends eventually. And I’ve read lots of personal accounts of people whose parents just never really taught them anything about religion either way. Some of these folks — when they finally encounter religion — are astonished to discover that people can really believe such stories are true and real. Others are enchanted by religion (or other woo ) when they first encounter it as teen or adult. So, ultimately, I feel like it’s something I should talk to my kids about in the home.

So far I haven’t fared so well. We taught them a little about their Catholic heritage while visiting their great aunt, a nun, in Lourdes, but (as you’ll see if you read that story ), I balked when faced with trying to explain Jesus to them. More recently, I expected the subject would come up while visiting my own Mormon and Christian family this past summer, but it didn’t. On some level, our situation seems more ideal than Laurie T.’s (where religion comes up in school ), but, on the other hand, it sounds nice to have some natural context (like in Laurie T and LSG’s case ) for the child to bring the subject up.

Anyway, all of that is just background to explain how the subject of Jesus finally came up in our house!

I was watching this hilarious video when my little 5-y.o. Léo came in to see what it was:

After watching, he wanted me to point out who “cheetah” is. At first I thought he was talking about the guy in the tiger-print shirt, until Léo explained, “Someone called him ‘cheetah.’”

“Ah, you mean Jesus,” I said.

Rainbow folks: And our love is not a sin!
Religious Right: Well the Bible says it’s so.
Jesus: [appears miraculously] Well, the Bible says a lot of things, y’know.
All: Jesus Christ!
Jesus: Hey, how’s it going?

We watched it a few times, and Leo loved the part where Jesus appeared magically to do a musical number, and pointed out that He came back for the finale after He’d left.

Well, it’s not exactly Schoolhouse Rock, but that little musical is actually a pretty good (and fun!) introduction to Christianity and to the role religion plays in our society…