I first discovered your program when I found your episode "Restoring the Senses, Life Gardening, and Orthodox Easter." I was impressed, and being a father of two, decided to listen to your episode on the spirituality of parenting.

I am disappointed. I think that you omitted one of the primary spiritual issues that the vast majority of faithful believers actually have.

Rabbi Sasso offers many good insights. Her understanding of both the need to maintain an open stance with your children's spirituality and her suggestion that we teach our children out of the spiritual tradition in which we were raised, are balanced on the surface. But there is an undertone that seems to lean towards the idea that "spirituality" is exclusively personal, is pretty distant from religion, that all paths are equal, and we should allow our children to find their own way. This view is explicit in the recorded questions from parents that were interspersed through the program. Most, if not all of the questions or comments were "I have found a path for me, how do I make sure my children find their own path for themselves."

I don't think this resonates with the vast majority of religious adherents worldwide. Most faithful believers think that their spiritual and religious tradition is a rich and glorious gift they can give to their children. They also believe that there are spiritual dangers and they have to teach their children about them just as we have to teach them about other dangers. It deeply hurts my son's feelings when I insist he not step of the curb into the street and I try to be loving about the discipline, but I know there is a danger and wrong paths. But I also want to teach him to see danger for himself, understand risk, and govern himself. Likewise, there are spiritual directions that my Faith tradition assures me can lead down dangerous paths.

I think a more common question that most faithful have is "I want my children to see the beauty of our Faith that I see and I want them to maintain our faith and make it their own personally. I know that forcing it down their throat is not the correct way, but I also don't want to give them the impression that their spiritual path is an exclusively personal choice and that all choices are equal. How to maintain that balance?"

I have seen families negotiate this question well, who produced children who love God and have maintained the Faith they were raised with and I have seen families that botch this terribly and whose deeply resentful children bolt as soon as possible. This is most religious parents' single biggest fear.

I think that you failed to really discuss that.

I wouldn't bother to say anything if I didn't feel like both you and Rabbi Sasso are capable of intelligently addressing this question. I respect the quality of your work and the content of this program so far as it went, but this seems like a big hole in the discussion.

Thank you for listening.

I thought the conversation with Sandy Sasso was beautiful. Sandy had such wise and insightful views on the things all religions share, and cons tructed a very useful philosophy for us all to contemplate in thinking about the differences between religions when she called them simply different languages. I was very inspired by the whole dialog between Krista and Sandy.

Today's program was fascinating to me, as a parent, grandparent and as a teacher. My field is early childhood education; I have been and still am a classroom teacher, a director, and an early childhood consultant.As a Jewish educator, I can attest to the spirituality of young children. However, it is an experience as a parent that I wish to share.

My eldest daughter, Naomi Tova, at the age of 5, asked me the following question as I was driving her home from preschool, "Mommy, when me die?" I was shocked, but said to her, "Not for a long, long time." Thinking back on it after all these years, I wonder if she knew something that I did not know. A few months later, she did die, from viral pneumonia. She was a victim of familial dysautonomia, a Jewish genetic disease. Did she intuitively know? I will never know, but in my heart of hearts, I think she knew.

"The Spirituality of Parenting" touched my spirit where it has been longing. As a newly expecting mother I have been questioning how I will raise my child. Actually, this is a subject I have had mental and spiritual battles over for years as I was raised in the routine of church going but lacked a deep soulful fulfillment therefore turning me away from organized religion at an early age. I've never lost my belief that there is a God but I have only grown in question. In addition I married a man with a similar negative, early experience in the church. Together we happened on listening to this particular program on sunday morning and we both felt a new sense of hope and reassurance for raising a spiritual child.

Spirituality and developing one's conversation with the spirit or what it is we truely are about or where we actually come from is something we all have in common. However, being a part of a specific religion doesn't necessarily have anything to do with pursuing a life filled with wonder and curiosity. As a matter of fact it often means the opposite. The idea that we need or must get or children involved with a specific religion is total balderdash. One can ask the deep questions of what is this god I say I believe in all about or do I want to believe in any god without being a part of any specific religion. The Taoist caller was right on. Discussing information together makes sense but preaching it must be Jesus or anyone else is what turns people away.

My two children were talking the other night about God. One asked the other, a cancer survivor, if he believed in God. "If there is one, he hates me," was the reply. My daughter replied, "when I was really little, I believed that god was laughing at me. Not in a nice way. Now I don't believe in god and you shouldn't either." A well meaning person recently told me that I should open up to Jesus Christ and that anything that stood in my way was the devil making me doubt. Some experiences do not lend one to believe either in God as some sort of friend or that the devil is controlling your thoughts.

Thank you so much for your exploration of this important topic. Prior to hearing this show, I felt guilty about not formally teaching my children about my faith. While I take them to church, my Christian faith is as much a fundamental part of me as being human or female. As a result of this show, I now realize that I have taught my children far more than I realize through my actions and approach to the world. While formal instruction has its role, shaping a child's faith through a parent's actions and deeds produces a lasting and durable faith.

In addition to being the mother of two teenagers, I am also a preschool teacher in a Christian preschool. I highly recommend Max Lucado's books, especially You Are Special. It is a lovely story about how one should only care what God thinks of you, not what other mortals think. Also, I love Richard Paul Evans' The Light of Christmas, which is a story about compassion and generosity being the most important gifts. My only problem is that in reading them aloud at story time, I tend to get choked up — they are that good.

Thank you for your wonderful, thought-provoking programs. You have widened my horizons and provided much food for thought, as well as given me some wonderful books to read.

It was wonderful listening to your conversation. Many of us find complete resonance with the questions that the children ask — we too have asked them and did not get answers. In fact I feel our teachings should begin with what we do not know and understand and keep that as a base for all further explorations. Science and religion both begin with inquiry and perhaps in our complete inquiry is our redemption. Atheist parents find it uncomfortable to impose religious rituals, but how about the ritual of questioning and giving honest answers to them?

Sandy Sasso was cogent beyond parallel. She truly transcended dogma and represented the very best that all and any religion has to offer — a non-competitive, free inquiry. I thank from bottom of my heart.

It seems like a really bad idea to teach children that the existence of God is a fact. I think it teaches children that they have an innate moral superiority over non-believers. I feel this type of religious moral superiority conceptually very similar to racism — where people different from you are inherently inferior ("I'm going to Heaven because I believe in Jesus, but you're going to Hell…").

Teaching God's existence to children as a fact also makes them vulnerable to propaganda later in life. I believe the U.S. Republican Party uses religion to manipulate voters.

Clearly religion is at the core of the horrific problems in the Middle East and many other parts of the world. Perhaps teaching children to be responsible for their own actions, for valuing all life (not just the lives of believers) is more appropriate.

Rabbi Sasso surely discussed a most important subject, raising our children to have faith, yet, she failed to point us to God's word. How do we build faith in our offspring without encouraging them to embrace the truths of Scripture? Yes, I am a devoted Christian and find her idea of embracing all religions a modern fallacy. I definitely believe in studying both Old and New Testaments and teaching them to our children. God's word is alive, powerful, and regenerative. Its pages reveal the sinfulness of man, the holiness of God, and the way of salvation. It answers questions about evil, suffering, happiness, life's meaning, and future bliss. These are vitally important truths to the development of faith and Godly livin

The program on parenting is so relevant. I have this discussion weekly if not daily. It could be that I have a young child and our friends with young ones are having these same issues. Here are a few book suggests for young children: How Does God Listen? by Kay Lindahl (Skylight Path), Hide-and-Seek with God by Mary Ann Moore (Skinner House), What Does God Look Like? by Lawrence and Karen Kushner (Skylight Path), and What if Nobody Forgave? and Other Stories edited by Colleen M. McDonald (Skinner House). I have also found the Unitarian Universalist congregation and wonderful home for people of all faiths. My child gets to have first hand experience with people living different ways of seeing the spiritual life.

We parents happily discarded Christianity but yet taught our children about religions we left behind so they may early on recognize religious superstition and fallacy in answering the big questions and to instead cultivate critical thinking. Religions tend to trap the mind. So regard the universe, which is after all, far grander than religions and gods.

Thank you so much for addressing the issue of parenting and spirituality. My husband and I are not religious and have been very concerned about how to introduce religion to our daughter who is now 17 months old. We feel it is important to give her a good foundation and want to impart spirituality and introduce her to religion. Your show today made us feel that although we are not religious that we can at the very least engage in the conversation with her. We don't have the answers to God and religion, but we now feel less scared about how to approach it with our daughter. We don't want her to grow up with the void that we did. Thank you so much for the recommended readings. We will be purchasing a few books today. Your show today was invaluable.

Jon and Myla Kabat-Zinn wrote a beautiful book called, Everyday Blessings: The Sacred Act of Mindful Parenting. In 2004, a group discussion guide was developed by members of the Mothers Center of Southwest Nassau on Long Island, which is one of 33 Mothers Centers around the US. At the suggestion of a few mothers who had read the book independently, a group was listed as part of the larger list of group offerings for the spring 2004 eight-week discussion group cycle. Ten women signed on, and, along with two peer facilitators, began the discussion group that would also work on developing a guide that would be available for future groups.

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As with the majority of Mothers' Center discussion groups, the Mindful Parenting group met for one-and-a-half-hour time slots, with childcare provided on site. Members were encouraged to read a certain section of the book in preparation for the next group, however, mothers would participate in the discussion even if they were unable to do the complete reading. To foster the inclusion of these "non-readers", and to help focus the discussion, a passage (no more than a page's worth) would be read and distributed on small pieces of paper. When that area of discussion seemed to be complete, the group facilitators would be ready with another passage. Rather than having a firm, fixed plan about how much would be accomplished in the group time, the discussion was "allowed" to follow it's own pace.

Although this group ran for one and a half hours at each of eight sessions, it is reasonable to consider different group time formats, depending on the setting, number of participants, and the childcare constraints. A guiding tenet at Mothers Centers is that group participants speak from the "I" in an effort to have a dialogue that is nonjudgmental and nurturing of self-discovery. That, along with a commitment to confidentiality, is very helpful to the optimal functioning of the group.

The National Association of Mothers' Centers sustains a network of programs in communities, in corporations, and in collaborations with other local agencies and organizations that provide forums for parents to discuss and reflect on the changes, challenges, opportunities, and joys becoming a parent brings. Whether in someone's living room, at an established Mothers' Center, at the local library or community center or in the workplace at lunchtime, Mothers' Center discussion groups are making a difference for families everyday.

I just wanted to thank you not only for the programme on the spirituality of parenting, but for the general standard and breadth of discussion on your programme. It stretches me, makes me think, introduces me to the views of people I would not usually come across. You have the courage to tackle issues that Christians need to think about but which more conservative groups would turn away from or give a skewed view. Thank you. In the U.K., we so often only hear the extreme conservative face of American Christianity — your programme reminds us that there are deep thinkers who are open to new ideas out there! Thank you.