I'm having a real quandry here...I do know what I want to do about it but I'm thinking that I need to be delicate.
My daughter recently tried out for a softball team in Olathe. It is an ASA sanctioned league as far as they use ASA umps. The team is geared to teach young girls the proper techniques to play softball, and works with them towards honing their skills at a young age with aims to play at the collegiate level. There is another issue...I don't think that colleges should give full rides for sports...I think since the USA is a society that has to pay huge amounts of money for furthering education, then scholarships should be given to students based on academics alone. But since the USA puts a far higher premium on entertainment than intelligence, the system is flawed in my opinion. University tutions are bound to skyrocket in the next ten years, so I guess trying to use the flawed capitalist system for collegiate sports scholarships is an avenue to pursue...but that is not the moral issue at hand.
For some audacious reason her new coach has supposed that my daughter is a christian. Without talking to me or my wife to ask permission, the coach requires that 8 and 9 year old girls bend a knee and pray before and after practice. Being that I am an Atheist, I have a huge problem with this. The thing is my wife is not an Atheist. So we are conflicted on this. I am not raising my daughter to believe in one certain thing. I think it is flat wrong to pass religion on to little kids. Religion should be a personal choice made when someone can truly contemplate it. A parent forcing their supernatural dogma onto a young child is not fair. Sure my daughter was given a couple little kids bibles as baby shower gifts, and she likes to read them just like she likes reading Harry Potter, but I have also informed her that is just one way that some people believe. I have told her about other world religions. She even tends to think reincarnation is the neatest of the options...which it certainly is most compelling, but that does not make it so.
My daughter still acts like she believes in the tooth fairy, santa claus and the easter bunny...so I've figured it's okay at her age for her to be exposed to the grandest fairy tale of them all...god. So it has not been that big of a deal. I've bascially told her where I stand on it, and that I have just one of many opinions on the issue. But now I have a softball coach forcing my kid to pray to an imaginary cultist thing. For now I'm simmering on the issue, due to the fact that my wife is on the fence and we are both parents. Plus I also don't feel it's right to force my rational perspective on my child. My child has her own mind.
I just keep reminding her that there are thousands of religions and that no matter what anyone says evolution DID happen and is still happening. I am doing my best to keep the wonder of science and naturalism instilled in her. I do not want her to fall into a cult, but if she does I want it to be her own informed choice, not because her parents or a softball coach wants her to. I guess the quandry is should I step in and confront the coach on his unethical supposition, as I fear that my daughter will immediately get kicked off the team. The coach proclaims on the team's website that one of the prerequisits to be on the team is to give [his] god glory. The problem is my daughter loves to play softball, and there are very few "serious" team openings...damn that flying spaghetti monster.
-A
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