One of the problems that denying God creates (besides a meaningless life) is you can’t honestly tell your children they are ‘amazing.’ When your kids are upset because someone called them a name, the only words of comfort you can offer are lies. ‘Non-religious’ people are terrible parents because without truth, it’s impossible to raise anything other than fools.
It’s quite popular to flatter children with empty praise and a good rule of thumb for parents is to be suspicious of things that are popular. Notice that I didn’t say, “Popular things are always wrong.” Neither did I say, “Never do things that are popular.” I said be suspicious of popular teaching.
“Why are you such a cynical jerk, John? That doesn’t reflect God’s love!”
It’s quite popular to accuse truth tellers of being hateful. Since I’m immune to feckless name calling, I understand your outburst is actually confirmation that I was right to be suspicious of you. In a matter of seconds you went from assuring your child that sin doesn’t exist to insisting that I am a source of great evil. That double-mindedness will only work on your children when they’re young. Eventually, your kids will catch on to your hypocrisy.
The inescapable truth that you hope your children never discover is this: “If there’s no such thing as a sinner, there is no such thing as a saint.” A child cannot be ‘amazing’ unless it’s possible for that child to be ‘not-amazing.’ Telling your daughter that she’s wonderful is crazy-talk unless she could have been despicable.
“Nothing you say makes any sense, John! Can’t you just be kind?!!!”
Suppose I say, “No. I won’t be kind. I’m gonna intentionally treat people like dirt!” Would you tell me I’m an amazing person and not to let anyone tell me otherwise?
The moment your kids figure out that you lied about their sinfulness, they won’t trust anything else you say. As their parents, that’s your choice to make! The relationship is yours to ruin! Don’t let this unkind, cynical jerk tell you how to live your life.
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
(1 John 1:8)
