{"id":51433,"date":"2017-09-19T20:56:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T01:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=51433"},"modified":"2022-08-09T21:00:27","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T02:00:27","slug":"my-parents-dont-want-me-to-be-a-christian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-parents-dont-want-me-to-be-a-christian\/","title":{"rendered":"My parents don&#8217;t want me to be a Christian"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>I believe in God, but my parents don&#8217;t. They don&#8217;t want me to be a Christian, but I do. I don&#8217;t know what to do. Please help.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>It is a tough situation when a young teen realizes the truth, but his parents reject it. Most countries have laws that state that parents can decide what is in the best interests of their children. It isn&#8217;t until a child gets older &#8212; at the age of majority (when the government says you are an adult) or close to it &#8212; that the child can insist on his own choices in regards to religion.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve known several teenagers in situations similar to yours. How they handled it has varied.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>One young man that I knew decided that he was going to be a true Christian. His mother opposed it, but he insisted, even snuck out to the house to attend church services and got baptized. His mother got so mad that she kicked him out of the house at the age of 14. He went and lived with his best friend&#8217;s family who were also Christians. He was one of the strongest Christians I&#8217;ve known.<\/li>\n<li>One young man snuck out of his house to meet with a preacher. He eventually was baptized and attended services once in a while, but his father put his foot down and literally moved where there was no nearby church. The young man had to wait until he became older, but sadly he lost his faith before then.<\/li>\n<li>Another young man eventually talked his parents into letting him go to church services. His parents weren&#8217;t so much against Christianity but couldn&#8217;t understand why he didn&#8217;t want to accept their brand of religion. They visited the church with him. While they don&#8217;t go and once in a while try to talk him out of going, they have not outright stopped him.<\/li>\n<li>Another young man studies with me as often as he can, once a week &#8212; usually when his mother is not home because she objects to him thinking about another religion. He is waiting until he is able to drive on his own to attend church services.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In some ways, I understand where the parents are coming from. There are a tremendous number of creeps on the Internet. Parents don&#8217;t want their children talking to strangers or having people they don&#8217;t know influencing their children. From a safety point of view, they are right. But it still cuts off people&#8217;s interest in becoming better people from the teachings that will improve them.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, I can&#8217;t tell you what to do. If you want to study Christianity with me, I will be happy to do so. If you want to find a church near you, I&#8217;ll try to locate one for you to contact.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: I believe in God, but my parents don&#8217;t. They don&#8217;t want me to be a Christian, but I do. I don&#8217;t know what to do. Please help. Answer: It is a tough situation when a young teen realizes the truth, but his parents reject it. Most countries have laws that state that parents can&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[99,1509],"class_list":["post-51433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-becoming-a-christian","tag-parents"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":97440,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-your-child-has-doubts\/","url_meta":{"origin":51433,"position":0},"title":"When Your Child Has Doubts","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 21, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Nathan Ward via InLight Media What should you do when your child starts questioning their faith? For many Christian parents, a child expressing doubts can feel scary. But what if those questions aren't something to shut down-but something to welcome? In this conversation, Dr. Nathan Ward talks about how\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Teenager&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Teenager","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/parenting\/teenager\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34512,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-want-to-be-baptized-but-my-parents-dont-think-it-is-necessary\/","url_meta":{"origin":51433,"position":1},"title":"I want to be baptized, but my parents don&#8217;t think it is necessary","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I lost a lot of my faith recently due to the fact that I realized baby baptism doesn't count and nothing that I did concerning God counted. I can't even be baptized again yet because my parents don't think it's necessary after infant baptism, so I don't know what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44115,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-daughter-is-planning-to-marry-someone-we-do-not-think-is-suitable\/","url_meta":{"origin":51433,"position":2},"title":"My daughter is planning to marry someone we do not think is suitable","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Jeff, I stumbled onto\u00a0Do you need her parent's blessing before marrying?\u00a0I was looking for information to present to my children living at home why I can't attend a marriage between my daughter and a young man whom she feels is \"perfect.\" My husband did not give his blessing for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34936,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-parents-dont-like-the-guy-im-dating-and-i-dont-know-what-to-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":51433,"position":3},"title":"My parents don&#8217;t like the guy I&#8217;m dating and I don&#8217;t know what to do","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 25, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I have a problem with my parents not being supportive when it comes to my relationships. They want to choose for me whom I date even if I hate the person. They don't consider my feelings at all. I had to date one guy whom I will name\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41963,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-we-break-up-so-my-boyfriends-parents-dont-think-he-converts-because-of-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":51433,"position":4},"title":"Should we break up so my boyfriend&#8217;s parents don&#8217;t think he converts because of me?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I just came across your website and you had really good advice especially about relationships. I hope you can give me some advice on my problem. I met my boyfriend during university life three years ago and during that time he wasn't a Christian. I knew it was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36282,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-you-need-to-be-baptized-in-order-to-go-to-heaven\/","url_meta":{"origin":51433,"position":5},"title":"Do you need to be baptized in order to go to heaven?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I have a couple of questions, but I hope I am not bothering you in any way. Do you need to be baptized in order to go to heaven? If so, what other things must you do? Do you need to be baptized to be a Christian? Can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51433\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}