How your secular kids should deal with religious bullying from other kids

[es35]

Tell you’re kids that it’s OK to believe in God or not to believe– different people have different view and we are all good people!
If another kid threatens your kid with Hell and tells him/her that they will go to Hell if they don't believe in God:
tell your kid to tell the aggressive kid one of the following responses:

-not everyone believes in God and it’s OK not to believe - we're all good if we do good
or
-stop being a bully (if they persist to threaten)
or
-Hell is as make believe as Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, so stop being a bully

and then if the aggressive kid keeps threatening to just walk away and say nothing further (or if in danger go to a teacher they like and complain).

(This stuff is very hard for kids to deal with and that's why I and other atheists have been trying to come up with ways for them to cope)

[mountain grammy]

1. This is so important

from a kid who was a victim of religious bullying. One good Catholic girl told my my dad, who had died the year before, was burning in hell because he wasn't Catholic and being ridiculed for not having dirt on my forehead. I was 10.

[Freelancer]

4. Religion itself didn't want me to be religious. It pounded the anti-theism into me from day one.

When I was 6, I asked too many questions in Sunday school -- about Noah's Ark, and how all the babies of the animals would have to marry their brothers and sisters -- and other things. So, I was ejected. My mother was called to come and get me. The teacher sat me out on a big tree stump in front of the church to wait. I heard something, and turned to see all the kids in the Sunday school class clustered at the windows of the school -- looking at me. They weren't really laughing, or jeering, or anything -- just looking with interest. Actually, I suspect that many of them would have loved to join me on that stump.

[mountain grammy]

6. Funny story.. how did mom react?

My mom was great. whenever I told her some religious thing someone said to me, she would laugh and laugh until I laughed too.

[Freelancer]

9. She took it well. I think she had mixed feelings about sending me to Sunday school.

She was a single mother, and I think she felt pressure to try to give me as 'conventional' a childhood as possible. When she saw it was a poor fit, she dropped it... thankfully.

[mountain grammy]

10. Smart mom!

[Freelancer]

2. Go for a shut-down, not a reasonable challenge.

Something like... I heard that Jesus was bullied horribly, and that he forgave them. I forgive you. That put's me on Jesus' side here. What side are you on?

[Warpy]

3. I agree. I had to cope with Southern Baptist bullies and outquoting them was also a good strategy.

When I became an angsty high schooler, it was more along the lines of "Oh, come off it, you don't really believe that bullshit, you're too smart for that."

[Freelancer]

5. That's a good one. -nt

[mountain grammy]

7. That's a good one!

I don't believe in Jesus, but it'll get to someone who does.

[frogmarch]

8. Here's another one:

Why don't you bawl Jesus out in your prayers for not being a Christian?