One problem we encounter in college is that students who are no longer made to go to church stop going. I think the problem is not that we've failed to enforce the value of church: the problem is that we've failed to give our children the power of choice. One of the best things to teach about church is that it is an option we are all free to accept or reject. "No" is a real option. And it is better that children encounter it sooner rather than later.
Consider the case of Mary and Martin, ordinary kids. Mary's family goes to church. Martin's does not. Would you let your children play with another kid their age who said that church was silly and that their family doesn't do that sort of thing? Too many parents think of such scenarios as a choice between forbidding the interaction on the one hand and merely ignoring it on the other. There is a third way.
