Functional Age Of Accountability

[RedViking]

To live under my roof, they follow my rules. Once they move out, they're free to make their own decisions, but they better be ready to pay for their own education at that point too. Still a welcome member of the family, but subject to my rules for financial support.

[katherine the great]

Honestly I have seen good and bad in homes with and without faith.

Absolutely! I get annoyed by the attitude that non LDS people can't possibly be happy--that is ridiculous! If we listen to LDS leaders, many of them also say this (maybe unknowingly.) The most recent comment like this I heard came from Sherry Dew. She had been on a trip to Africa and was struck with how happy and joyful the people were and how satisfied with their lives in spite of the fact that they lived in poverty. She contrasted this with her experience with American women. This part of her talk was actually addressing clinical depression in Americans.

I come from an extended family that is part LDS. We have differences in our lifestyles, but most of our families are pretty functional and have produced good, honest, educated children for the most part. One thing we share in common though--we have all educated our children according to our own religious or non religious beliefs. My family was very active in the LDS faith, one aunt educated her child in the Jewish faith, another aunt and one uncle gave their children no religious education, one aunt was Episcopalian, and two were Non Denominational Christian. I don't think any of us have ever been in jail, we all pay our taxes and try to volunteer in our communities...I feel really sorry for people who are completely blind to all the good that exists in the world outside the LDS community.

I guess my point is that parents are not good parents if they don't try to instill their values in their children. This is what good parents have done for thousands of years. Children need guidance and their religious education is just as important as their secular education IF they are reared in a religious home.

I began to believe that the rest of the world was in this state of "fake happiness" because they were not LDS.