There are some modern parents who do not raise their children in any religious tradition. Let the child choose for him/herself, they say. I want them to be free to be themselves. This is not the way the Bible thinks. After the instruction to love God Moses concludes: Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today. Drill them into your children. Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest. The modern illusion is that we made our choices in splendid isolation, that my choice is produced by my soul from a blank slate. It isn’t. From the first moment of our existence the way we see things, the values we hold, the opinions we form are shaped by the environment in which we find ourselves. We have the freedom to accept or reject the environment in which we are raised but the reality is that we are only ourselves as part of a larger community.
