If anyone in our family (full of very conservative Christians) hears him talk about the Bible the way he talks about it, there will be an uproar. And who knows what he says about it at (public) school. He wanted to take it to read at school, but I put my foot down on that one and told him to please not discuss any of this (but that seems wrong). I'm also concerned that the Bible will confuse him, since it has to be way above his reading level, and I'm not equipped with the knowledge myself to try to interpret it for him (heck, it's above the reading level of most adults). Has anyone dealt with anything like this? I guess it's simpler if you yourself have clear beliefs and you can tell your child "You need to believe X, but not Y" but I can't do that. I'm also not an archaeologist/historian and have no idea which parts of the Bible are historically accurate and I doubt there is anything at his reading level that explains this. He carefully packed up the Bible in his suitcase a few hours ago and is probably reading it at boy scout camp right now. I am hoping he doesn't talk about it there.
The old saying is that one should not discuss sex, religion, and politics in polite company. But I don't agree, especially regarding the last two. People can get upset when discussing religion or politics, because the stakes are so high. Is there life after death? Should the nation go to war or spend billions of dollars on XYZ? If you say that people should avoid discussing subjects where the stakes are high, that means they should discuss only trivial things, such as whether one sports team is likely to beat another. There should be room for both kinds of topics.
