Portia--I'm concerned about appropriateness, esp, in light of the fact that he is wanting to learn about religion in a community that has a very strong belief system that I don't share.
I don't know your ds, so can't predict the best way to deal with it from his unique personality, but fwiw, we've found with our children it helps to talk about our beliefs and our differences at home, in depth, and then with an understanding that not everyone believes the same things, help them understand that it's important to be respectful of others' beliefs. I am sure I'm not explaining this well but in general, having an open dialogue at home has, I think, helped prevent any of my kids saying something disrespectful to others (and helped them not think of others with disrespect). This is my suggestion:
Rather than focus on what the differences between your beliefs are, have you considered looking for commonalities? While you may not believe in the specific details of conservative Christianity, I've found that in considering different religions (and non-religions) that most human beings have core values centered on being good, honest, fair in how we treat others etc. Most of us are seeking to live a good life while we are here on earth, and many of us have different ideas about what happens when we die but none of us know for certain.
If you want to get deeper into differences, you can talk about why different beliefs come about - often because people are seeking a truth or reassurance that there is something more than what we know of here on earth, sometimes because people are scared, sometimes because people are vulnerable to what other people preach etc. I don't know what the situation is specifically within your family, but you might approach talking to your ds about your own journey - how you were raised, what led you to the place you are now in your beliefs etc.
Last thought - I've found that discussing different beliefs etc have actually been really interesting conversations with my children. Perhaps you and your ds could turn this around a corner a bit from him digging deep into reading about other religions to the two of you exploring a bit together, reading, talking, researching. I'm not suggesting you do that to change/morph any of your beliefs! Just suggesting that by discussing it with him and following him a bit as he digs deeper, it might help lead to good discussions where you can tackle the idea of how to deal with this within the community you are living in in a way that is respectful of others so you don't have to worry about what he will say to others. Hope that makes sense!
Best wishes,
polarbear
