Gratitude and parents' rights over their children's religious upbringing

ISSN： 1469-9362

Source： Journal of Beliefs and Values, Vol.25, Iss.3, 2004-12, pp. : 295-306

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Abstract

Although most parents claim their children owe them obligations of gratitude, there has been no attempt to analyze gratitude as a basis for parental rights over children's religious upbringing. Parents' provision of benefits to their children in an altruistic fashion requires that children ought normally to honor parental requests that they participate in religious rituals and attend sectarian education. However, the limits on parental altruism and the self-defeating nature of extreme demands for requital of gratitude suggest that gratitude is not a sufficiently strong basis to justify the rights of parents to prevent their children's exposure to religious beliefs inconsistent with their own. The state acts consistently with children's obligation of gratitude when it offers an education providing children the right to exit their religious communities, but not when it seeks to promote radical religious autonomy.