Children have not independently formed their parents’ religious convictions.

Evidence

Baroness Hale also made a point about consent that goes deeper than the specific facts of the case. Religious conviction is, by nature, an individual matter. Adults form their religious convictions through a process that involves choice, reasoning, experience, and commitment. Children raised in a religious tradition have not independently formed the convictions of that tradition — they are being raised in it. The question of whether a child’s religious tradition requires corporal punishment is not the child’s question to answer; it is the parents’ question, and the parents’ answer cannot be binding on the child in a way that requires the child to suffer physical punishment. — , The Rod and the Child, 9369

Categorization

• XREF: Ties to debates about baptism/confirmation consent and to liberal theories of religious toleration. — connects to: Scholars dispute whether a four-year-old could genuinely experience religious conversion — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 3158; US law limits parental religious authority where children would be harmed — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 10844; An immigrant child’s cultural consciousness can vanish with its oldest generation. — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 979 (+2 more)

Related

• Children adopt beliefs backed by adults’ credible displays of devotion. (similarity 0.91)
• Religious liberty does not extend to imposing non-consensual harm on children (similarity 0.83)
• Parental religious conviction does not override children’s bodily autonomy. (similarity 0.83)
• Scholars dispute whether a four-year-old could genuinely experience religious conversion (similarity 0.83)
• Children’s rights must be balanced against parental religious liberty. (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• US law limits parental religious authority where children would be harmed #complicates (0.40) — , The Rod and the Child, 10844