Dear Editor,
Ben Alltimes article, ‘The elephant in the playground’ January p.13), on how (en so many children from Christian homes succumb to peer pressure and give up their faith, is salutary but a little pessimistic. Our family was part of a church for many years where nearly all the children are still very much Christians, often friends and spouses, and who look back on growing up in their church with great affection and delight – they refer to going back to ‘the shire’ (borrowing from Tolkien). Now why?
The church culture was intentional about family and children, who were not a nuisance or expense, but a precious privilege for which there could only be deep gratitude and desperate prayer. The church services were long (Presbyterian) but hospitable to children, with children’s singing and imaginative Sunday School, and afterwards you often found your children being talked to by other church members.
