Children shape and are shaped by the beliefs of the adults around them. Whether you’re a secular person raising your own children or a non-believer who cares for, mentors, or spends time with children being raised by religious parents, navigating relationships with religious friends and family about matters involving kids can be sensitive and consequential.
How should non-believers — both parents and non-parents who have children in their lives — deal with religious friends and family when the issue involves children? And what differences, if any, should exist between relationships with friends vs. relatives?
Related questions:
- How do secular parents set boundaries around religious activities and proselytizing when children spend time with religious relatives or friends?
- For non-believers without children: how should you respond when religious parents discourage your influence or try to shield their children from atheist perspectives? Similarly, for the non-religious with children, how should you respond when their friends’ parents try to minimize your children’s influence on their children?
- When is it appropriate to allow children to attend religious events with relatives or friends, and how should those arrangements be framed for the child?
- How can non-believers use interactions with religious adults as opportunities to teach critical thinking, empathy, and pluralism, without undermining family ties?
- What language and practices help communicate boundaries respectfully to religious loved ones while protecting children’s intellectual freedom?
- How should decisions change based on a child’s age, temperament, or expressed curiosity about religion?
- When does covert or overt proselytizing from relatives or friends justify limiting contact, and how can that be handled ethically?
- What community resources, mutual agreements, or conflict-resolution strategies can ease tensions and support children’s wellbeing?
Let’s share practical strategies, boundary-setting language, and ethical principles that help secular people preserve family relationships and nurture children with intellectual freedom and emotional security.
When & Where:
The forum is on Thursday, March 5, 2026 at 6:30 pm in Community Room A at the Keith Summey Library, located at 3503 Rivers Ave in North Charleston.
You can bring dinner! We are allowed to have food and drink inside the community room at the library (we just can’t have heat sources). Since we are meeting around dinner time, we invite people to bring take-out dinner or snacks. We also have the space from 6 pm, so welcome people to come early to socialize before we begin the discussion.
About the Group:
The Freethinkers’ Forum is a monthly gathering facilitated by the Secular Humanist of the Lowcountry to discuss topics of interest to freethinkers, atheists, agnostics and other non-religious people. The purpose of these gatherings is to foster respectful dialogue of interesting and intellectually stimulating topics. The focus is discussion and so we will not have speakers. We may have brief presentations to introduce topics, but those will be restricted to 15 minutes or less. There may be optional readings or television or film recommendations to stimulate discussion.
***All participants are asked to familiarize themselves with and agree to follow our code of conduct.