Sunday School for Atheists

This article, from Time, was linked from a Church Communications Pro article.

Here are my notes:

Sunday School for Atheists

"When you have kids," says Julie Willey, a design engineer, "you start to notice that your co-workers or friends have church groups to help teach their kids values and to be able to lean on." So every week, Willey, who was raised Buddhist and says she has never believed in God, and her husband pack their four kids into their blue minivan and head to the Humanist Community Center in Palo Alto, Calif., for atheist Sunday school.

...the weekly instruction supports their position that it's O.K. to not believe in God and gives them a place to reinforce the morals and values they want their children to have.

It seems to me that within the walls of the church, we believe that we are the only ones that must fight for support of our position (i.e. Christian Worldview). Sadly, it may also be common for Christian's to believe that non-Christians have no "morals and values".

Kneisley, 26, a graduate student at the University of Missouri, says she realized Damian needed to learn about secularism after a neighbor showed him the Bible. "Damian was quite certain this guy was right and was telling him this amazing truth that I had never shared," says Kneisley. In most ways a traditional sleep-away camp...Camp Quest also taught Damian critical thinking, world religions and tales of famous freethinkers (an umbrella term for atheists, agnostics and other rationalists)...

So interesting: I could rearrange a few of the words and this would become a quote from any Christian community.

The Palo Alto Sunday family program uses music, art and discussion to encourage personal expression, intellectual curiosity and collaboration.

There are a few things that the Christian Community could learn.

...people who are coerced into renouncing their beliefs might not actually change their minds but could be acting out of self-preservation--an important lesson for young atheists who may feel pressure to say they believe in God.

Could that be true the other way around also? Perhaps some people are coerced into claiming beliefs as their own, though they are only acting out of self-preservation within a setting of strong peer-pressure or potential embarrassment.

Blogged with Flock