religion

religion

Chapter 11

I) After careful reading Chapter11 on “Children” by Sarah Whedon

For this assignment you will need to write in-depth minimum 200-word reaction to the reading, this is a summary of what you read. It will need to be written double space and include your name, date, and chapter number (this is not included in the 200-word minimum). It will also need to include 3 provocative questions triggered by your reading at the end of the summary. Each section is worth 10 points, so make sure to include all three sections.

II) For this assignment make sure to answer each question thoroughly.  I am looking for well thought out answers so you can get full credit.  Please do not just copy and paste the answers from the book I want to see it in your own words.  There are 3 questions, and each is

1. Explain what is a “Rite of Passage” and give two examples of cultural “rites of passage for children”.

2. According the textbook explain what is meant by the term “Socialization” when it comes to children.

3. According to the textbook, explain the views that the Christian church has about the role children play in church life. Worth 10 points.

III) Are you an avid movie goer or watcher? Is there a movie that has impacted you? If so which one? if not, why? What is your all-time favorite movie and why? Your answer must have a minimum of 50 substantive words

11

CHILDREN

Sarah W. Whedon

INTRODUCTION
Can we say that, in this moment, Alexandri

a

is a wicked child who has stolen the host and

transgressed the holy rite? Or is she an angelic
child who can deliver salvation to a desperate

The 2008 film The Fall explores the vivid
L imagination of a five-year-old girl named

Alexandria who is living out an extended hospi-
tal stay for a broken arm. In one troubling scene, church? Perhaps she is an innocent child who

she has just stolen a Communion wafer from

the

Catholic Church and carried it with her as she

adult, even outside the bounds of the formal

is entirely ignorant of the meanings layered
onto this action? The US film-watching audi-

ence might slot her into any of these childhoodclimbed onto the hospital bed of her adult friend

Roy, a man much in need of healing, both of the tropes

.

body and the heart. Alexandria takes a bite of
the Communion wafer and feeds the rest to Roy,

who asks if she is trying to save his soul. But she

dOesnt seem to understand the question. What

are we to make of this scene?
At minimum, we can say that by sharing

and partaking of the host, Alexandria is partici-
pating in the ritual of Communion. Or can we?
ls it really Communion if it is performed outside
the boundaries of the church’s authority, with a
uve-year-old girl acting in the role of the eucha
Tistic minister? We don’t even know whether

Studying childhood religion is often as trou-

bling as interpreting this brief scene. We can try
to pick apart externally observable ritual actions

adult imaginings of the state of children’s souls,

and children’s own interpretations of their reli-

gious experiences. These layers
often contradict

each other and contound explanation. Dif
ferences between adult and child perception,

language, and culture c

an

make translation of

experience and understanding
dithicult. This is

the challenge of child religious studies.
This article takes up that challenge of per

Alexandria understands that the stolen object spective and interpretation by looking
at chil-

has spiritual significance. dren’s participation in religious communities

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Part 2 Religion and Culture in the Space of Ethics

RELIGION AND CHILDREN AT THE MOVIES

The Fall is just one of many films that deals with theme of childhood religion
film, the story of Alexandria’s stay at the hospital is interwoven with colorfully imadinstories told to her by Roy. Tideland is another film in which a little girl’s imaginationi vividly displayed on the big screen.

The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys depicts Catholic sch00l children and their own reli giously informed imaginations. Meanwhile, horror films such as The Exorcist link child. hood and Catholic religion in terrifying ways.
Little Buddha is a story about the quest to find the child who is the reincarnation of a recently deceased Buddhist lama (teacher). The road movie Indigo centers on the New Age notion of Indigo children, young people with indigo-colored auras and extrasensoryperceptions. The documentary Jesus Camp depicts the religious education of conserva- tive Protestant children.

on is

Watching films, both fictional and documentary, can reveal a great deal about chil- dren’s religious experiences, although probably more often they directly reveal the adult
writer’s, producer’s, and director’s imaginations of children’s religious experiences.

and rites from several perspectives and by exam-
ining the different directions in which power
and authority flow in relationship to children.
It considers religious circumstances when chil-
dren are expected to follow adult scripts, when

them as different sort of people from adults
His work opened a subfield of historians dem-
onstrating that expectations on children, and
even understandings of when childhood ends,

have changed over time. Following this insight
a lively production of children’s histories has

emerged, although religion remains largely
ignored by this subfield.

Meanwhile, sociologists such as Allison
James, Chris Jenks, and Alan Prout have notice
that childhood changes not only across time

but

also across cultures.3 They argue that schoas

should focus on childhood as a significant phase
ot lite in and of itself, not simply as a stage

development toward the “real life of adulthood.
And they suggest that we think aboutchildreu
as a minority group, thus allowing us to co

sider children’s social position and relationsh

they resist those scripts, and when they write

their own scripts. It begins with a brief co

n-

sideration of who or what should be includ

ed

in the category of analysis that is “religion and
children.

THE HISTORY OF CHILDHOOD

Historians and anthropologists in the last several
decades have contributed to a new understand-
ing of childhood as socially and historically con-
structed. Historian Phillipe Ariés is notable for
drawing attention to childhood as a historical1
category, with a study of the European shift from

treating children as little adults to understanding

n-

rec

to power. This subfield, too, has largelyigno

religion.
216

Whedon, Children

Bevond the halls of academia, in the politi-

cal realm, the
General Assembly of the United

Some Christians see children as basically sinful and in need of redemption, whereas oth-
ers see them as pure and in need of protection. Central to this conversation about the condition

cal
Nations ratified the Convention on the Rights

.

of the Child
on November 20, 1989. The docu- of

ment is notable for treating children as persons

deserving of human rights and capable of par-

ticipating in decisions aftecting them. However,

it is remarkable that it took until 1989 for the

United Nations to formalize such a document

and that the United States has refused to sign
it-given that children are always and every-

where significant members of society, although
rarely given credit for this.

Among the rights granted children by this
document is “the right of the child to freedom
of thought, conscience and religion” The Con-
vention on the Rights of the Child defines chil-
dren as those persons under the age of eighteen,
unless majority is conferred by a government at his positive view of children as abandoning the an earlier age. However, this is only one possible
way of determining who is a child and who is an
adult. This neat division between childhood and

of children’s souls is Saint Augustine’s idea of original sin, that is, infants sinfulness as a direct
result of Adam’s transgression in the Garden of
Eden, redeemable by baptism, which should be
performed as early in life as possible. Pessimism
about infant sinfulness reached a low point in
Protestant Reformer John Calvin’s vision of
childhood. Meanwhile, Anabaptists like Menno
Simons rejected infant baptism, choosing to wait
to baptize until children reached an age when
they could choose consciously. Nineteenth-
century theologian Horace Bushnell saw faith
development as a gradual process rather than a
sudden change through baptism. Many decried

notion of childhood sin, although ultimately his
ideas proved popular. Throughout the history of the theology of childhood, Christian theologians adulthood neglects the historically relatively new have struggled with reconciling Augustine’s doc- life phase of adolescence. In the United States,

tt eighteen years of age is old enough to drive a car
or be drafted into the military, but it is still not
old enough to consume alcohol or run for cer-
tain political offices, and age of consent to marry differs across state lines. So it is not immediately obvious whether childhood includes infancy and the teen years or only the ages in between. A great deal of the religious treatment of clean or essentially sinful and in need of correc- children is rooted in a religion’s definition of tion. There is much evidence of children imag- or conception of the child and childhood. This includes ideas about the time when childhood example, the narrative of the bad boys of Bethel

0p

trine of original sin with a belief in a just and
th

merciful God.
If we primarily wanted to know what reli-

gions have to say about adults imagining chil-
dren, we would have abundant data. We could

***

look more closely at theological debates over
original sin. We could look at questions of
whether children are born essentially pure and

ined as little devils, or else as little angels. For
gins and when it ends. It also includes ideas about what children are made of, capable of, and tinuing power over the centuries. The notion in need 1 of. Buddhists, for example, see the child of childhood innocence and special spirituality

in the biblical story of 2 Kings 2 has had con-

as Containing the Buddha nature, a kind of tun- damental goodness, at the same time as they are uSO Unique individuals because of karnia (the law of cause and effect through action).

occurs trequently in major religious mythol-
ogy. “This childhood specialness is epitomized
by prankster stories of the young Hindu deity
Krishna, or by well- known Christmas carols

that

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Part 2 Religion and Culture in the Space of Ethics

children are expected to play their
prescr roles. Finally, children may ritualize

mythod

extol the infant Christ child’s serenity and divin-

ity. These images of extraordinary or especially

spiritual children may or may not correlate with
understandings and treatment of actual ordi-
nary children within a religious culture.

It can be difficult to stretch our imaginations Births
past these polarized narratives, past seeing the

ogize their lives in ways that are indep from adults’ control.

little filmic Alexandria as an unwitting saint (or During pregnancy and birth, both fetuses, what a willful little devil). After all, it can be delightful
to pass on stories about the amusingly innocent

utterances of small children, those funny things
that children say about adults or about God. Out

of the mouths of babes may come great wisdom,
but we may not, in fact, be well equipped to hear without the children. This is a critical point it. James Kincaid has observed a pattern of cul-
tural imagination in which children are seen as

innocent and vacant, as empty vessels ready to
be filled with adults desires and expectations,
a pattern that challenges our ability to see real

children trulys Can we move beyond what

we

hope or fear to see when we turn our gazes upon

children? How do children actually behave in
religious communities? How does their presence such as a ribbon blessed by a rabbi, or eating
affect the shape of a religious community? How

do religions influence them, and how do they
infuence religions? These are the kinds of ques-
tions that the study of children and religion must

address. Although the research on these topics is
sparse, this article provides the contours of the
ways in which scholars can provide answers to

these questions.

might be considered future children, and actu ally birthed children can be ritualized. Manv a
these rituals are more about the experiences and
transitions of the parents, especially the mother
but none of them have purpose or meaning

children’s presence can make a significant difer
ence for adult religious practice, experience, and
identity.

Jewish women, both religious and secular,
who gave birth in an Israeli hospital reported
that most of their childbirth rituals were aimed
at averting the threat of disaster for mother and
baby. These rituals include wearing a charm,

particular foods, such as radishes. These women
reported that birthing and getting to care for a

new, individual child felt to them like a miracde
In the United States, birth is ritualized even

in secular hospitals. Anthropologist Robbie E.

Davis-Floyd has argued that US hospital births
are organized around rituals that represent and

transmit core cultural valuing of science, tech

nology, and medical institutions. She sees
thee

birth systems as rites of passage for the
women

who give birth.
CHILDREN IN RITUALS

Children participate in rituals in many different
ways. In several cultures, childhood is ritualized often ritually welcomed into religious comnu
beginning during pregnancy or at birth. Many nities. Often, names for children are caretully

Very shortly following birth, children
are

ious
rites of passage take place during the course of
childs life. Children also participate in the significance. Muhammad, the name or

adult-centered rituals of a religious community.
Both of these types of rituals are circumstances
in which adults control the ritual script and

chosen and have familial or formal relig

inal prophet of Islanm, is one of the most pop

lar names in the world for
day after birth, Jewish boys are circune

boys. On
the eighth

218

Whedon, Children

spring festival of Shavuot, someone would carry
the boy from his house to his teacher. There the
teacher would show him Hebrew letters, read

sign of
the covenant between God and the

a siß
lewish community,

in a ceremony called a bris.

Christians of
certain denominations are bap-

tized, a ritual that
uses immersion or washing in

water to bring a person
into membership in the

church. Wiccan
babies are blessed, welcomed

into the community,
and sometimes formally

given their names
in a ritual calleda Wiccaning.

And when secular or interreligious parents have

to make often-difficult decisions about nam-

ing or ceremonies for a new infant, they make
choices that have power to shape the child’s reli

gious experience.

them out loud, and require the child to repeat
the letters in various patterns. The teacher would
then smear honey on the alphabet and ask the

boy to lick it off. Specially prepared foods with
biblical verses written on them would be eaten,
and the teacher would also teach the child an
incantation to ward off forgetfulness and show
the boy how to sway and chant when studying

his lessons. Thus the Jewish boy was initiated
into his religious studies. By the late Middle

Ages, this ritual was replaced by the bar mitzvah
ritual, which is performed for boys at the age of
thirteen, thus pushing initiation into reli

gious

adulthood later and lengthening the time of

Rites of Passage

Rites of passage are ceremonies that mark tran-

sitions from one stage of life to another. Once
a child is born, he or she may be given certain
rites of passage that are chosen and performed

by adults, reflecting adult desires and expecta-
tions for children. In many cultures, feeding a

child the first solid food is ritualized. In certain

childhood.”

In the Roman Catholic Church, children of

age seven or eight participate in the first Com-
munion rite, in which, for the first time, they

partake of the sacrament of the Eucharist, which
they continue to do throughout their lives in the

Christian churches, baptism, first Communion, church. Susan Ridgley Bales has done innovative
and confirmation all mark passages through
childhood. Even the secular US celebration or
Dirthday parties represents ritualized celebra-
ons of children’s development. Candles and

work with childhood anthropology to under-

stand children’s experiences and interpreta-
tions of this rite. She discovered that children’s

cake, up gift giving, and the birthday song make interpretations are rooted much more in their

of their own birth but on their “name day,” that

interpretations differ from those of adults. Their

h
the ritual objects and actions of the child’s bodily experiences, meaning from what they

rhday party. In some cultures, such as Catho-
Poland, children do not celebrate on the date

take in with all five of their senses, rather
than

from formal teaching that they receive about the

rite. It is probable that future research will reveal

that children in many religions have this sensory
orientation, marking their experiences as difter

ent from adult narratives of the
same rituals.”

B, the birthday of the saint after which they were named.

ormal movement into religious childhood, or

Jewish boys marked their readiness to take on
as

age five or six. Early on the morning of the

Many rites of passage for children mark their

medieval Europe, a rite of passage for Ashkenazi
the important task of formal education as young

medieval
beyond into eligious majority. For example, in Participation in Adult Community Rites

Many rituals that are
adult-oriented or are

intended for an entire community include

children. Sometimes children are expected to

219

Part 2 Religion and Culture in the Space
of Ethics

were etaught that their guardian ang participate exactly as adults
do, and sometimes

there are special roles for the children.
Rob-

ert A. Orsi’s examination of Catholic children
prayedalongside them.10

1ards
The Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwar toward hildren observes a persistent concern over children’s

bodies, which were disciplined through behav-

ior at Mass, memorization of prayer, and the cult

of the guardian angel. He writes about a preoc-

cupation with children’s bodily control at Mass
and a persistent problem of the behavior of altar

boys. Orsi argues that this role of the altar boy

reflected the ambivalence toward children in th

gave sermons directed

mixed logical biblical content with appeals to emotion. Children responded to these sermo in a variety of ways. According to Edwards’s ow
reports, some children were convinced by him
to give up play in favor of prayer meetings, and
a few even used the emphasis on religious affect
to justify public speaking themselves. Some
children apparently found his jeremiads cathar.
tic. Others struggled with a mixture of anxiety
and despair at his Calvinist message of sinful.
ness. Contemporary scholar Philip Greven sees
Edwards’s treatment of children as nothing short
of psychological and physical abuse.

that

own

history of Western Christianity, seeing in them
both innocence and evil. The altar boys in the

churches were seen by parishioners both as min-

iature saints and as constant misbehavers. Chil-
dren were encouraged to memorize prayers but
also to speak those prayers with passion. They

na and P

iens to

SUDerst

A young boy participales in his bar mitzvah ceremony at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.

220

Whedon, Children

altar grew
as a

le-class Protestant hom

ly
activity.

erformed in the

a hymn or
adult-l meditation. In these

iuals, children as well as adults had active roles most articulate children, who are the ones who

ould be as
much a burden as a source of com-

tn the late nineteenth century, the family stories feature God fleeing from demons, angels

feeding on neon light, or the Blue Lady, who
incduded children in whole fam- can keep children safe from bullets if they know stitution that inclu

instiu morning and the her secret name. In these stories, folklorists can
evening,

family
altar included Bible reading and find traces of older stories from Santeríae or

Mexican traditions. The ritual leaders are the
often

tell the stories to new shelter arrivals. Some
to play. Still,

tor some children, family altar

children even report having had visions of one
of these supernatural beings. But, by about age
twelve, children lose their sense of belief in

Coul

fort or positivefeeling Whether at church or at
home, community

rituals with roles for children

have the capacity to
stifle children, as well as to

empower them, sometimes.

and inspiration from these stories-or perhaps
they decide they are too old to admit to believ-
ing. These are stories of violence and salvation
meant to be told by children to children, away
from adult ears.4

Just for Childrenn

Very different from adult rituals that make space

for children, some rituals are developed by
children and meant only for child participants.

Some of this folklore is less obviously religious,

such as the playground song “Ring around the that, after prayers and formal conversation over

Rosey, which some have thought memorialized
plague, an interpretation that is not historically

substantiated. lona and Peter Opie’s enormous
collection of children’s folklore from England, cloth, she imagined herself to have gone away on
Scotand, and Wales includes a chapter on what
might be called “superstition” and what they
prefer to cal”half-belief” These are beliefs often expectations of the family. She writes, “I was in
associated with small rituals engaged in pri-
marily by children. For example, according to challenges, or decisions”5 This kind of autobio
children’s lore, upon spotting an ambulance, a graphical reflection on childhood activityn may
child should perform self-protection by follow- be a profitable source of rich material for future

ng regionally variant but specific instructions
SUaly involving touching his or her collar and

As individuals, children may also carve out
their own secret spaces away from adult obser-
vations. They may create mythology, lore, or
rituals only for themselves. One woman recalls

the parsonage dinner table, when nobody was
paying attention to her, she would slip her small
body under the table. There, under the table-

what she called a “Moonie,’ a time apart in her
own private space, away from the prayers and

a private and magical spot. No eyes. No prayers

research on children’s religious lives.

Another set of experiences that belongs
wating to see a four-footed animal. These “half- entirely to the world of children is that of inmagi-

beiefs are passed among children rather than
Deing taught by adults.”

nary friends. In the secular Western context,
children often speak of experiences with com-

Cities across the United States, white, black, and imaginary friends. Experience of or beliet in such
in the homeless shelters of Miami and other panions seen only by then, often reterred to as

o1 sharing folktales-“secret stories” that they developing religious beliels in the unseen. When never reveal to parents or older siblings. These

Latino children have developed their own ritual unseen beings may relate directly to children’s

asked if they have imaginary friends, children

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Part 2 Religion and Culture in the Space of Ethics

raised in Christian families sometimes answer boundaries or with limit support from adults These religious lives are contained in the realm
that they have Jesus. This kind of slippage in

understanding the meanings of beings unseen is
one reason why fundamentalist Christians tend

to dislike imaginary friends as much as they dis-
like teaching their children to believe in Santa
Claus, which they see as deceitful on the part of Material culture is the physical stuff of culture children and possibly representing the dangers A great deal of it can be found in children’s reli. of Satan. Mennonites see play as a waste of time, gious worlds. Illustrated childrenis Bibles, toVs and Mennonite teachers are not positive about teaching manuals, videos, jewelry, clothes, holi what they see as pretenses, such as Santa Claus,
yet they do approve of private fantasy, such as

imaginary companions. These kinds of compan-
ions can be compared to experiences that Hindu
children report that are related to remembering ber of special items for their protection, espe-
past lives, something that parents take seriously
up until about age seven, at which time they

expect children to focus on this current life
So there are many ways in which children can animal ears, or in clothes with special protective
develop religious lives outside of adult

religious

of childhood.

MATERIAL CULTURE

day gifts, and so on make up children’s experi
ence of religion and are often crafted specifically
for children’s use.

Chinese children traditionally wore a num-

cially to ward off illness. Amulets of jade or
coins were believed to ward off evil. Children
were also dressed in bright colors, in hats with

symbols, all for supernatural protection.”

CHILDREN AND PLAY

Many observers see play as one of the major defining characteristics of childhood.
Some even consider play to be the work of childhood. Protectors of childhood inno
cence hope to preserve time and space in which children may play. Although Jonathan

Edwards urged sinning children to set aside their play to attend to their religious lives,

play is not necessarily distinct from religiousness. It can be intimately linked to morality
and spiritual experience.

Dr. Stuart Brown of the National Institute for Play believes that playing can help
humans develop moral virtues such as compassion and trust. He describes chidre

ummersion in play as a spiritual experience, saying, “And I think seeing a young chld ust
immersed in play and watching them closely is a spiritual experience. And there a
emerging in play. Something nonmaterial that’s a part of it that at least it’s hard for

nu

to define in this as just ions zipping around in a nervous system. Dr. Brown’s research builds on research on wild animal play, in a quest t
stand hovw play benefits humans at all stages of life. Learn more about Dr. D ino of
spective on play from the radio program “Play, Spirit, and Character” on 9peuav
Farth, July 24, 2008, accessible at http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programsip

pirit

under

222

Whedon, Children

ownership, and sexuality, are often accused of
abusing children. For example, the federal raid
on the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, was
in part justified by accusations of child abuse in
the religious community. More recently, the raid
on the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints in El Derado, Texas, was precipitated by a
phone call indicating that an adolescent girl had
been abused by a much older man to whom she
had been married against her will. These kinds

day United
States, Veggie

le of religious
media produ

ldren. It began
as animated

ed

Tiales
is

an

example
o

cifically for childre

featuring anthropomorphic vegetables

In the present-day

teach
morality

based on
Christian religion

books
and

other children’s products.
These are

Am

hlms,

that

and
Bible

stories,
and then expanded

to include

children
and with a

sense of children’s playful-

Children may also experience the religious of accusations often seem to be as much about

ure.
religious

teaching
tools designed. specifically for

ness
and imagination

in mind.

pen
material culture

of a community quite differ-

ently from the
adults in their community, who

also interact
with it. The built environment is

generally organized
around the needs of adult

bodies. Doors, pews, books, and dishes designed

for adults may be enormous, awe-inspiring,

unwieldy, or frustrating to children. The best aligns with this practice. James Dobson’s Focus

explanation for the Bible from a child’s perspec-
tive could be “It’s a big book and it’s got small
print or “It’s what the Vicar reads from, rather
than an adult perspective that it is the word of
God or sacred Scripture.8 More research is matter of debate.” Nevertheless, it is clear that
needed to better understand children’s interac-

anxiety over religious and sexual difference as
about real harm, but they do give cause for care-

hcaly
ful consideration.

In less hysterical tones, conservative Protes-
tants have been identified as supporters of corpo-
ral punishment and believers in a theology that ildren

ts with
lectne on the Family is famously visible for preaching

this perspective on childrearing to conservative

Christians in the United States. Whether this
amounts to or even can lead to child abuse is a

religion, for some children, is neither comfort-
ing nor even simply boring, but rather stifling or

even violent.

tion with religious material culture.
od.
nno

HARM TO CHILDREN Children, of course, live where adults live,
than

and one thing adults do is wage war, often tor

religious reasons or, at least, in religious terms.

So children’s daily religious lives can be lives of

holy war and jihad as much as lives of peace and
growth, and children are sometimes made sol-
diers in these wars. The widely read diary of Anne

Frank records a Jewish girl’s experience ot hid-

ing from Nazi soldiers during World War II. For
some children, daily religious lite niay be more a

matter of survival than of innocence or grace

ives Although most religions that we can discoverhave something to say about children’s rightand good roles and treatment within religion, t would be foolish to ignore the ways in whichmany children’s daily religious lives are painuland dangerous. Religion sometimes becomesCOntext or provides justification for abuse of nildren. Public hysteria
an make it difficult to determine when abuse

Tal

hel

rens

djiust

or e

around child abuse

actually occurring. Catholic priests have een accused of widespread abuse of childrenin their parishes and church schools. New reli

Under

bee
ous

movements which often experiment

sper

king e
AUTHORITY

Splay

with uncommon Questions ot authority are hugely signiticant
in the study of religion and children. Adults

in structures for family, operty
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Part 2 Religion and Culture in the Space of Ethics

religious communities have often been deeply
engaged in questions about how to develop

right authority over children, teaching them
how to be humans, how to be religious peo-
ple, and, eventually, how to be adults. At the
same time, children often have creative ways of
claiming authority within their communities.
Often, they resist adult’s expectations for them.
Their reinterpretations of adults’ stories, ritu-
als, and material culture allow them to subvert

more specific formal structures for
religous

instruction.
In the United States, Sunday schooles marily created by philanthropists with pri the intention of providing basic education for work ing children, began opening their doors in 1790s. However, by 1830, a new sort of Sundae

the
nday school was flourishing in the United States
one in which volunteer teachers provided an evan

nil.
gelical Protestant religious education for chi dren. These schools grew on a foundation of

authority. Children rarely are afforded a choice
of whether to be a part of a religious community
or event, whereas, in many contexts, adults have
a choice, but the presence of children is almost
certain to have an impact on the adults in the
community.

growing belief that children were easier to resc with a religious message than adults were. It was hoped both that teaching Protestant doctrine to children would enable them to grow up religious and that they would educate their parents. The
development of Sunday schools is intertwinedwith the history of public schools in the UnitedTeaching Children to Be Religious
States.22

African Americans have a history of empha-
sizing education for the betterment of their

young people. A contemporary African Ameri
can Baptist church in Utah is a site where chil.

Adults socialize children into religion in both
formal and informal contexts, teaching them
about beliefs, practices, and ethical conduct. For
example, in general it is considered to be the

responsibility of every Muslim adult to help in the dren are taught beliefs that aid them in resisting raising ofa new generation of Muslims who will oppression, and the church is a haven from rac
uphold religious responsibilities and values. The
Quran and Islamic religious law emphasize par-
ents’ responsibility to protect children, although through various narrative techniques in the
they also create a reciprocal relationship in which classroom. This explicitly religious training, as
children have responsibilities to parents.a”

Nineteenth-century theologian Horace training. helps black Baptist children to be more
Bushnell, who wrote Christian Nurture, a book

ism for children. Sunday school teaches children
the content and application of biblical stories

well as other practical skills such as computer

resilient.23

Similarly, in Detroit, the Pan African Orthe-
ing about childhood, wrote, “We can never dox Christian Churchs community for childre
come into the true mode of living that God has called Mtoto House, focuses on bettering youg

black children through faith and education. l
Ine

daily schedule there support school
attendance

and after-school studying, with prayer and
reli

gious observance throughout. Each day no

three main eligious observan
for the

chil

that profoundly influenced US Protestant think-

appointed for us until we regard each genera-
tion as hovering over the next, acting itself into
the next, and casting thus a type of character in
the next, before it comes to act for itself”2i Here
Bushnell argues for a complete religious shaping
of the young by the previous generation. Many
religious communities have also established

dren, made up of atirmations and prayets

bining Christian taith with racial empowernue
224

Whedon, Children

ing of the
first affirmation of

the children. This concern is apparent in the case
of “Hansel and Gretel’ a well-known fairy tale
in which children who come from a family that

cannot provide sufficient food are abandoned
in the woods, where they encounter a wicked

witch and, when they triumph over her, gain the
resources that the family needs. Over the course

of multiple revisions of “Hansel and Gretel”

changes included the addition of the children
calling on God three times for help. This change

in
the

opening
of th

Israel. Jesus
was taught The* Cov-

BlackNation

enant, the. the Law,
and the Prophets.*

Thus adults
morning:Z

every
child growing up in

the

religious history,
and theol

gy
for the

benefit of the
children.

Many Old

xplicitly link race,

Order Amish
communities run

their
own

schools for
their children because they

prefer
to protect

the children
from what they see

as the malevolent
forces of the modern world.

These
schools’ goals are

to teach religious val-

eS, as well as reading,
writing, and arithmetic,

leaving
aside much of the

curriculum of public

schools, which
aims to teach information and

skills that are only
useful ifthe children live in the

mainstream world.
Amish children are taught

humility, obedience
to God, and harmony with

their community, lessons
that are well integrated

between school and home. One study has
shown whether or in what religion to raise and teach

that Amish children who attend public schools

are more likely to identify with the outside cul-

ture than those who are educated by the Amish

transforms them into moral and faithful Chris-

tian children, and it is these qualities that enable

them to overcome the evil witch and return

to the morally appropriate authority of their

father’s house. Through oral, literary, and filmic

narration, the latter largely through Disney, chil-
dren continue to be socialized by fairy tales.27

In many childrens lives, the question of

a child is significant. Mixed-religion fami-
lies must choose either explicitly or implicitly

whether to raise children in one or the other of

community.25

In many communities, storytelling is a

major vehicle for children’s religious education.
This has been true in Hindu families, where, in

the home, parents and grandparents told sto-

ries of the Hindu gods to children starting as

young as two years old. These stories instruct

youngsters in Hindu beliefs, and simply hear-
ing the stories is thought to convey merit to the

children. In more recent years, this mythology
has been conveyed to children via the modern
media of comic books and television series.2

Fairy tales are another sort of storytelling or children. In the mid-nineteenth century,

the family’s religions, both, or neither. This is

particularly a concern for Jewish communities

following the Holocaust, because of the dra-

matically reduced Jewish population, the Jewish
law asserting that, formally, only children of a

Jewish mother are Jewish themselves (a Jewish
father does not make a child Jewish), and a high

incidence of Jewish intermarriage. Thus, many

Jewish communities are concerned with encour

aging the Jewish rearing of any Jewish
children.

In a related domain, parents and policymakers

alike have been concerned with the question of

whether orphans should be religiously matched

for adoption and what this means for
individuals

me observers were concerned that fairy tales’
ack of Christian content was problematic for audiences of children. The Brothers Grimm and
Otner writers of fairy tales modified their narra-

and communities.2

Whether to raise children with a particular

religion is a concern, for ditterent
reasons, for

members of new religious movements, who may

have chosen a religious tradition tor
themselves

and value that opportunity for free
choice in

tives to assuage these concerns for child protec-tion and necessar instructive noral content for
225

Part 2 Religion and Culture in the Space of Ethics

matters of belief. Contemporary Pagans, prac a nostalgic lens, projecting innocence into both.titioners of a contemporary nature-based reli- However, popular celebration of Easter is realy a more child-centered holiday than Christm gious
movement that draws on resources from

ancient pagan traditions, debate whether to raise is. Rather than crying when forced to sit on th
their children with the stories and practices of lap of a shopping mall Santa Claus to fulfll adule
their tradition or to separate these religious

components of their lives from their children

fantasies of children, children run to visit and
pet an Easter bunny at the mall. Also, mother

unless or until the children ask for them. Some often report that they would prefer not to engage
Pagans even argue that the magical and esoteric
rites of their own lives are meant only for adults,

and they refuse to teach or include their children

as long as they remain children.

in the seasonal craft of dyeing Easter eggs but
that they do it because their children demand it
of them.

Attention to children’s understandings of
God or the divine also reveals children’s ability
be active meaning-makers. A study of Catho-

lic, Jewish, Baptist, and Hindu children’s concep
tions of God revealed that children are hungry
for direct interactions with deity, although often
seeing formal ritual as dry obligation. These

children frequently used maternal and pater.

Children as Active Meaning-Makers

Although adults may wish to have complete

power over the religious development of the
children in their charge, children are not nec-

essarily passively socialized by parents, teach-
ers, or religious leaders. Rather, they have many nal imagery for God, reflecting their daily lived

ways to subvert authority and reinterpret beliefs
and rituals passed to them by older generations.

Drawing on interviews, observations, and for intimacy

mother’s field diaries, Cindy Dell Clark demon-
strates that US children are active participants in experiences present in their religious imagina-

shaping the meanings for the childhood experi

ences of celebrating Christmas, Easter, and vis-

its form the tooth fairy. Clark finds that, even

though mothers talk about rituals around child-
hood visits from the tooth fairy as demonstra-
tions of children’s innocent capacity for belief found that notions of God were highly adapt

thus maintaining their childishness, children see able to children’s particular psychological needs,
this time as an important step in growing up-
when their bodies change and they are rewarded observed not in the formal religious

institutions3

through the adult medium of money.
Christmas is a holiday that Clark sees as

largely about how adults situate themselves in
relationship to children. Power is given to chil-
dren in the celebration, because adults plan such
activities as gift giving according to expected Children’s perception and thinking nor tradi
child responses. At Christmas, adults consider

both the developmental and historical past with

.

experiences, but they also had a sense of Gods
more-than-human power, ubiquity, and capacity

Similarly, Robert Coles saw children’s daily

tion, arguing that children’s representations
of God matched their own features, although
privileged children think less about the anthro

Pomorphic particularities
of God than those

who struggle with their own appearance.
Coles

especially in times of crisis,
something Coles

of churches or temples but working
as a pedhai

cian at a Boston hospital.3

When Children Change Adult
Communities

only
tradi-

shifts the meanings of existing
religious

gious

tions, but also children’s presence
in a relg

226

Whedon, Children

Inn

new

religious

move

hange
the community itself. When Children Change Adults

a

communi
previously

made up entirely of

vements,
the birth of a new

d thus
the entry of

children into

munity can cha.

Just as the presence of children can change the
shape or activity of a religious community, they
can also have an impact on the identities, behav-
iors, and attitudes of adults. In other words,adult

converts-ca change
the structure of the

resents
a

umber of problems to
the commu-

community ano

als A generation

and the
content and style of ritu-

of children
with Pagan parents adults can become, or are expected to become,

different sorts of people when they have children
in their religious lives.

An example of this phenomenon can be

found in the alternative education movement of

debate whether
to include chil-

nities. Adults

dren in
ritual practice

or wait until they reach

jority. Some adults argue
that the religion is

Waldorf schools. Based on the esoteric teachings
of nineteenth-century Austrian Rudolf Steiner,meant specifically

for adults, and others argue

for the
value of allowing

children to find their

Own religious paths
rather than indoctrinating

children into a religion
chosen by the parents,

as the parents
wish their parents had done for

round the world these schools use a curriculum

based on an understanding of children as unfold-

ing and developing threefold beings-made up
of hands, heads, and hearts. In this system, teach-
ers have the responsibility of supporting children

not only in their intellectual growth but also in

their physical, emotional, and spiritual growth.
As such, Waldorf teaching is, ideally, not just a

job but a calling-involving a whole life com-
mitment to the work, including a commitment
to stay with a class through eight grades and a

commitment to tasks such as daily meditation on

the children in their care. Teachers become like

them.
Routinization of Paganism is occurring

partly as a result of this
new generation. Many

parents want standard
traditions to pass on to

their children, and they no longer have the time
to create new rituals on a regular basis because

of the demands of parenting. This routiniza-

tion manifests in debates over questions such
as whether to pay full-time clergy or whether
to purchase land, issues that have wide-rangingg
afects on the adult community, even when chil
dren are not present.32

Pagans have experienced an increase in
births of children in their communities in the

mothers, doing intense emotional labor.
Meanwhile, in concert with the school envi-

ronment, parents are also expected to transtorm

their homes and parenting styles to become

ideal nurturers. This includes limiting or entirely
forbidding television watching at home, filling
the home with children’s toys and other objects

late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries,
but, at the other end of the spectrum, religions
an also be affected by choices not to have chil-aren. At its height, the American Shaker move Cnt helped increase its numbers by taking in orphans. Because the community embraced bacy, its adherents bore

made from natural materials such as silk or

wood, and modeling joyful homemaking for

young children. In
this context, the well-being

and healthy development of the child is thought

to depend on the model of self and home
that

parents and teachers present. Thus,
in the Wal-

dorf context, the right teaching of spiritual chil-

dren also means the creation of particular kinds

of spiritual adults.3

wn, so it became a community that would not
no children of their

ave younger biological have
with.
have vindled to those that can be counted on

generations to contend
wenty-first-century numbers of ShakerTS

the fingers of a single hand.
227

Part 2 Religion and Culture in the Space of Ethics

There are other contexts in which
Sometimes, religious adults are expected

not only to

from children. In the New Testament, the Gos-
pel of Matthew records that Jesus said, “Unless
you change and become like little children, you

will never enter the kingdom of heaven” Chris-
tians who follow this Scripture consider how to

turn to children for spiritual insight, times believing that they have sensory

teach children but also to learn
adults

some beyond the ordinary
therefore something to teach adults. The story of the Cottingle fair ies is that, in 1920, Arthur Conan Doyle pub. lished photographs that he believed showeobserve children in order to discover how too real fairies. The photographs had been taken hu a pair of cousins, aged ten and sixteen, behindthe house where they were living in Cottinpleu England.

The Fox sisters, whose experiences are acknowledged as the beginning of modern Spir.itualism, were about the same age as the girlswho supposedly saw the fairies when the sistersfirst heard the rappings of a spirit in their home
in New York State. These young sisters were so
eagerly listened to that their story marks the
birth of what became, in the nineteenth century,
a popular religious movement, many partici-
pants in which were adults who could gain com-

fort through a mediums communication with

change and become like them.

“BECOME LIKE LITTLE
CHILDREN”

The following verse from Matthew
18:1-6 of the New International Ver-

sion translation of the Bible records

teachings by Jesus on children and
childishness:

‘At that time the disciples came

to Jesus and asked, “Who is the

greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
He called a little child and had

their deceased children.
The difficulty with the ways in which

children transform adults is that, because of
him stand among them. 3And he

said: “I tell you the truth, unless you
change and become like little chil

dren, you will never enter the king-
dom of heaven. 1Therefore, whoever

humbles himself like this child is the

this process, discussion of childhood quickly
becomes discussion of adulthood, and, before
we know it, real children have slipped from our

view. In public debates about children, “rallying
for children’s welfare becomes the front for other

agendas, whether that of upholding a pristine

vision of marriage, polishing a tarnished mem-

ory of stay-at-home mothers, or defending
tam

ly diversity regardless of the costs.”H
Because

beliefs about and morals surrounding childre
give adults something to do and be, it

is easy
tor

conversations that are ostensibly about childreu
to become, in reality, conversations about adut

lhis is the trap that this article
has continualuy

tried to avoid throughout the
consideration ne

of children and religion.

greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
And whoever welcomes a little

child like this in my name welcomes
me. But if anyone causes one of
these little ones who believe in me
to sin, it would be better for him to
have a large millstone hung around
his neck and to be drowned in the
depths of the sea.’

228

Whedon, Children

CoNCLUSION

L childhood
trope

describes little Alexan-

bered like pale flippers on a walrus out of its
element. My embarrassment ran scarlet and
deep, hidden under my clothes.” ribes litle Alexan-

So what

dna of th f the
big

screen?

All
reen? All

of the ones
consid-

if she

were
nonfictional,

hat none of them fit. A childhood, filled with amusements that accom

we

uld
have

to say
tha:

Ould nderstood as a person,
not a cipher plish no work, looks very unlike a childhood that

ilo
faith-a

person
shaped by the specificity

of siblings. She also realizes that there is nothing

Leah recognizes that her conception of

child
is

best
under

which
we may

pour
our adult

ered.

ere
can

hit. Or,
if she

were
nonfictional,

adult hopes, fears, requires labor for survival and care for younger

into whic

sor her
religious

locatic

or h nd shaping that
situation. Were emerges from childhood. Compared to her, her

and fait ation and also constantly natural or obvious about the age at which one

Alexand

a real
child, we

would need to dis-

ver
her as

an agent of fher
own religious expe

interpreting and
African friends do not seem to be children at all.
So the description of childhood for her time and

ience.
a5 well as

someone who changes religious place does not hold in another culture, and
the

hife for adultslts around her,
such as her friend Koy. chronological age of childhood is not fixed.

We cannot
assume

that we know
what it means It is tempting to view childhood as a step

on the way to adulthood. Although it is interest-

for her
to be a

child.

Another
fictional character,

Leah Price, the ing and important to think about how children’s

daughter of
a US missionary

to Africa in Bar-

bara Kingsolvers
novel The Poisonwood Bible, is

stunned by this
realization about her own child-

hood when she compares
herself to her African

religious lives are but a part of a life course that
also includes adolescence, adulthood, and old

age, we must not reduce childhood to a mere

means to an end. Children “are in fact already
somewhere, not just on their way to an adult

destination.% We can learn a great deal about

religion and about religious people by tocus-

ing on the “somewhere” where children live.
Indeed, because children in religion have only
rarely been carefully studied, there is still a great

deal more to be learned about them, making the

ried the family’s baby everywhere she went and
field of religion and children an exciting arena in

friend Pascal.

It struck me what
a wide world of differ-

ence there was between
our sort of games-

“Mother May 1?,” “Hide and
Seek”-and his:

“Find Food,” “Recognize Poisonwood,” “Build

a House” And here he wasa boy no older
than

eight or nine. He had a younger sister who car

hacked weeds with her mother in the manioc which to work.

field. I could see that the whole idea and busi-

ness of Childhood was nothing guaranteed. It
seemed to me, in fact, like something more or

less invented by white people and stuck onto
the front end of grown-up life like a frill on a
dress. For the first time ever I felt a stirring of

anger against my father for making me a white

GLOSSARY

Child Abuse: Physically or emotionally harmful

treatment of children. Religious communities
preacher’s child from Georgia. This wasn’t my have often been accused of fostering child abuse.
fault. 1 bit my lip and labored on my own small house under the guava tree, but beside the Childhood: A socially and historically con-
perlect talents of Pascal, my own hands lum-

structed period of the human life course, during

229

Part 2 Religion and Culture in the Space of Ethics

starts somewhere between birth and a couple of

years old and ends somewhere between puberty
and age twenty-one.

which the person is considered a child. It usually Boylan, Anne M. Sunday School: The Formation of an American Institution, 1790-1880. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988
Bunge, Marcia J, ed. The Child in Christian Thought. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001 Examples of children’s religious material culture Clark, Cindy Dell. Flights of Fancy, Leapsof Faith: Children’s Myths in Contemporar o

Material Culture: Physical artifacts of a culture.

include Bibles, teaching videos, amulets, and
ritual clothing.

America. Chicago: University of ChicapRite of Passage: A ritual marking transition
from one stage of life or social status to another.
Examples of rites of passage in childhood are Kincaid, James R. Erotic Innocence: The Culture

bris, Wicaning, first Communion, and bar or

Press, 1995.

of Child Molesting. Durham, NC: Duke Uni
versity Press, 1998.bat mitzvah.

Socialization: Sociological term for the process Marcus, Ivan G. Rituals of Childhood: lewish

Acculturation in Medieval Europe. New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996.

by which children learn to behave within a par-
ticular society through the implicit and explicit
teachings of parents, schools, religious commu-
nities, and others.

Ziolkowski, Eric. Evil Children in Religion, Lit-
erature, and Art. New York: Palgrave, 2001.

Zipes, Jack. Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales, Chil
dren, and the Culture Industry. New York:
Routledge, 1997.FOR FURTHER READING

Bales, Susan Ridgley. When I Was a Child: Chil-
dren’s Interpretations of First Communion.
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina

Press, 2006

230