Faith Incident

[Maranatha]

My 5 year old daughter had a play date yesterday and my DMIL was watching. After her friend left and my daughter went to bed my DMIL related the incident below.

My daughter’s friend, also 5, is Jewish. Her parents are good friends. With Christmas near, we have lost of decorations up. During the play date, my DD asked her grandmother to read a Catholic children’s storybook. My DD’s friend immediately declared, “Jesus is not the Son of God.” To this my daughter answered, “He is too, my Daddy says he is.”

In order to defuse the situation, my DMIL, responded to my daughter, your friend believes Jesus was not the Son of God and your father believes that He is. “It’s O.K. for each of you to believe what you want.”

My question is, should I just let this go and not say anything to my DD or my DMIL or should I bring this up in some way?

 

[juno24]

My 5 year old daughter had a play date yesterday and my DMIL was watching. After her friend left and my daughter went to bed my DMIL related the incident below.

My daughter’s friend, also 5, is Jewish. Her parents are good friends. With Christmas near, we have lost of decorations up. During the play date, my DD asked her grandmother to read a Catholic children’s storybook. My DD’s friend immediately declared, “Jesus is not the Son of God.” To this my daughter answered, “He is too, my Daddy says he is.”

In order to defuse the situation, my DMIL, responded to my daughter, your friend believes Jesus was not the Son of God and your father believes that He is. “It’s O.K. for each of you to believe what you want.”

My question is, should I just let this go and not say anything to my DD or my DMIL or should I bring this up in some way?

I would discuss it with your daughter, and explain that we believe that Jesus is the Son of God, but not everyone else believes that way. I would not go into great detail, as she is only 5 years old, but I would let her know that Grandmother was probably just trying to head off an argument between the 2 girls. Let your daughter know that she can be assured that her daddy is teaching her correctly. If she asks questions, then you can discuss it further. I would not bring it up with Grandmother, though, because like I said she was probably just trying to head off an argument. She was probably caught off guard and said the most neutral thing that came to mind.

 

[WenckebachCath]

I find it interesting that a 5 year old would be so adament about Jesus not being the son of God. When I discussed our faith with our children at that age, I never went into comparative religion and the veracity of other religions’ beliefs. They would have never had it in their minds to point out the ‘false beliefs’ of a Jewish child, or any child of any other faith.

I would keep an eye on this situation and an ear open.

 

[Rawb]

I find it interesting that a 5 year old would be so adament about Jesus not being the son of God. When I discussed our faith with our children at that age, I never went into comparative religion and the veracity of other religions’ beliefs. They would have never had it in their minds to point out the ‘false beliefs’ of a Jewish child, or any child of any other faith.

I’d assume that the Jewish child has been told many times by her parents that Jesus is not the Son of God, simply when explaining their beliefs. In fact, it could be as simple as a week before the child asked “Why don’t we see _____ at temple?” and the mother/father responded “Well, they’re Catholic/Christian” and the child asks “what’s that” and the parent explains they believe Jesus is the messiah and “we don’t, because Jesus is NOT the Son of God” after all, that’s going to be what the child will have to say to MANY other children throughout his/her life.

I doubt there’s a secret conversion attempt going on.

And I agree with other posters that it sounds like Grandma quickly said the most neutral thing that came to mind to simply avert an argument.

 

[dranzal]

While I agree that the grandmother was trying to avoid conflict, five years old is old enough to retain information literally. I have told my kids something that I thought was harmless and they remember it years later. Point being, telling the children it doesn’t matter what you believe may be one of the biggest issues with the faith today. I would tell the child that different people have different faiths, going only into a little detail that God tells us about Himself slowly over time. As a Jew, her friend is a very close relative, spiritually. You can tell her that even at the time Jesus lived, some Jews weren’t sure He was the One. But He did miracles and came back to life. His followers died for their belief in Him.

This is not too heavy for a five year old. My kids have had to learn pretty early as I have a Muslim brother. Rather than never letting them meet him for fear of confusing them, I catechize them first.