Aj Pennywell
Professor Neagle
English 111
30 October 2015
A Parents Impact on Their Child’s Religious Beliefs
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Prov.22.6). This is just one of the many verses of the bible that people have fought over its meaning and its application. The big fuss comes about because many people you take away a child's choice and ability to decide for themselves. Oftentimes parents teach their children their religion from an early age so they stick with them for the rest of their lives. Nowadays a lot of children who grew up in the church are falling away from it and going about life on their own. But what exactly do parents do to keep them in the church? The religious beliefs of a parent not only affect their life, but can also change the way they think and what they believe both religiously and not. They call this kind of upbringing brainwashing, because you are raising them to thinking what and sometimes how you think.
As a parent you are to train a child in the way they should go through life in regards to their spiritual walk. They are teaching them about their religion at earlier and earlier. According to Wendy Thomas Russell in her PBS article “How young is too young to talk to your kids about religion?” kids between the ages of 4 and 6, are prepared to start exploring spiritual ideas and concepts. Although this is true at the ages of 12 and 13, it may be too late says Ms. Russell. They do this so the child grows up with a rooted foundation of their religion. Despite this foundation a lot of children are falling away from the church and entire religions themselves.

There are many reasons as to why someone, mostly teens who just started college would decide to abandon their childhood faith. These reasons include Shallow belief system. Kenda Creasy Dean explains in her book “Almost