Christian child kicked out of Atheist home

I don't want to be this guy, but Atheists like myself are much more understanding of different viewpoints other than their own. That's stereotyping in some fashion, and it would be hard to believe for me that it has never happened in reverse, so I want to leave that caveat, but it would be very strange indeed. Our main gripe is having a different viewpoint pushed on us, so why would try and do the same to another?

That's my two cents.

My sister became born again (gag) and left our family for many years. I can fully imagine her telling people that she was rejected by us as an interpretation that we would not be converted by her. We never wanted her to leave. It was devastating to all of us. It was a key experience in my deconversion. (I had been Catholic with a very, what I thought at the time, positive feeling about god prior to her crazy born again life) ironic that her greatest desire- to convert people to her sick religion, led me right away from most ‘believing’ )

I've never heard of this happening. I have heard of it being a big problem in the household, usually when the kid won't shut up, but not once did I hear of them getting kicked out; despite being mouthy, pushy little gits. :p

I heard from someone that she was shunned by her family for being Christian, with sort of a vague implication that her family was not, but I'm pretty sure they were Christian, just probably Orthodox (guessing by her country of origin). Also she was generally a pretty untrustworthy person so I don't know how far to believe her.

Within my own country, I've never heard of it. I wouldn't be surprised if it happened at some point, but it seems to be super, super rare. Part of it I'm guessing is that atheism doesn't have a dogma that states that non-believers are going to hell or are at war with god or something like that. That sort of rhetoric really amps up the potential for parents to turn on their kids. Some asshole atheists have the view that Christians are all stupid or even mentally ill. But while living with a parent who felt that way about you would undoubtedly be awful, it seems less likely to result in being actually kicked out on the street than "convert to my faith or you'll burn in hell and also you're an enemy of god!"

Another reason, at least in my country (US), is that pretty much all atheists know at least some Christians. As such, even those that hate Christianity, are a little more familiar with or inoculated to it, I would guess. It's hard to get through life here without having at least some Christian friends or family that you generally put up with. As such, if a child converted to Christianity, the atheist parent is probably reasonably familiar with what Christianity is and the range of behaviors that Christians can have. On the other hand, there's a lot of places in this country where Christian parents might not have much of any experience with out atheists and might have remained extremely ignorant of how atheists behave and what they believe (or don't). That can result in much worse outcomes, I would assume. Maybe that would be different in an atheist-majority country.

Those are just my theories on the matter.

I'm pretty sure its probably happened but it doesn't happen with anywhere near the same frequency.

I like to think Christians, particularly of the Evangelical variety, have this lifetime belief that they're building up immense riches and their place in heaven and what better way to help them do that than to show their God their unquestioning fealty to God than to cast out an apostate child from their home and family?

An Athiest wouldn't have anything major to gain from the same thing, like a strong standing in whatever happens postdeath, because we don't believe in an afterlife. That said a bigoted Evangelical and an Egalitarian Athiest are not the most compatible housemates, and I think there's definitely potential that an Athiest could cast out an Evangelical child under certain circumstances. I means there's millions of us, so there's surely someone who's done it.

We had an Athiest on here and he talked about how his Evangelical 16 year old son is chastising him for dating men in his 20s. If I were the parents, it'd definitely have me thinking of ways to help that sanctimonious brat get down off his high horse.

As others have mentioned, it's possible though much less probable. I've personally never heard of actual shunning or negative treatment by atheist families against religious children, with the exception of a few one-sided "my family persecutes me by not joining me in prayer" types of things.

I don't think it's ever happened. If it has, it's much more rare than the reverse. The closest I've heard is some Christian Children cutting all ties with Gay/Lesbian parents to appease their cults. But that's them choosing to leave, not being kicked out, and that's also when they have the ability to just move out.

This is a really great post and I would like to suggest that you post it over on r/Christianity. If you don't want to do that then would you mind if I do it? I think they need to hear it.

There was a post here about a week or two ago that dealt with this inverse relationship, with the child telling his parents they were going to Hell and the father wasn't sure what to do about it. Some suggested a "you will not associate with this church group" solution, which persecution-sensitive Christians may consider to be enough to validate their illogical beliefs.