Article September 1, 1962 Issue

Signs of the Times

David A. Redding

Christian Herald

The Reverend David A. Redding in the Christian Herald New York, New York

The home means everything to Christianity. It is tempting to shove the transmission of religion to the church's shoulders, but the church doesn't have the shoulders for it. Christianity is hanging, not on that one hour a week at Sunday school, but on what is happening day and night at home.

Every home is teaching and distributing some brand of religion. Parents can pretend they will not prematurely chain their child to any religion, so he can later choose it all by himself, but they are fooling themselves. Such a position is ridiculous, dangerous. ... No sane parent will turn his son loose in the library and let him take his pick. ... The tender age cannot tell the difference between weeds and plants nor weather adult arctic winds unshielded. The gardeners of this sacred trust dare not abdicate to nature.

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