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QUESTION:
"My husband and I are Christian, grew up in a Christian church, and have always lived life to Christian values…we recently got some new neighbors who have kids our kids ages, and their kids asked to come to play with ours. The issue is, we do not want our kids to have outside influences of other religions…their car has a sticker on it that says “pagan” and I don’t want their kids to hurt ours in anyways or talk about their “gods”…what do we do in this situation? I am not trying to bash anyone for how they live but want whats best for my kiddos"
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TOP ANSWERS (AS SELECTED BY MODERATOR):
The following top answers have been selected by a moderator from hundreds of responses to the original question.
"Your kids are going to experience other religions throughout there life. You can’t keep your children from everyone who doesn’t have the same beliefs as you unless you lock them in your basement"
"They will be exposed to different religions in school on the playground. You can’t shelter your kids from everything that’s different."
"This… this is like, a late April Fool’s joke, right? If not, OP, PLEASE, make yourself some friends outside of your cult, because, dang."
"I think you could teach your kids that everyone has different beliefs and that’s ok, teach them to play nicely with others no matter what they’re family believe in. Just because they don’t believe in your God, doesn’t mean they’re going to hurt your kids."
"Paganism is taking value in the earth and thanking the gods for what is provided. A lot of christian practices are derived from pagan and wiccan origins. I’d welcome your new neighbors and hope that they open your mind a little bit to the wonders of a beautiful new childhood friendship."
"Best advice I can give is you better home school your kids and don’t let them around any other people cause eventually it’s gonna be brought up with other kids. You can’t be a real Christian if you judge others for their beliefs."
"Your kids will learn about other religions somehow anyways so use it as an educational opportunity… don’t strip them of a potentially great friendship bc of religious differences…"
"Yes the world is full of people who are different!! Accept differences and love differences"
"Yes, you absolutely let them play with the neighbor kids! You have to teach your kids tolerance in the world we are living in today. Let them know that some people have beliefs that are different. What are you going to do when they are old enough to go off to college? They will be hit hard with reality if you don’t let them interact with others outside of your bubble."
"What would jesus do???"
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