non-Christian moms (and dads)

How do you explain Jesus to your child. My son has been asking questions lately (sees the names of churches and he knows that it was a person. he once asked why people get upset when you say his name)

I try to explain it to him as we believe, but I don't want him to offend any of his friends or say the wrong thing to them. I try to tell him that we have to remember that different people believe in different things and we need to respect that, but he has already checked out.

Didn't know if anyone had a good answer/idea for this situation.

Re: non-Christian moms (and dads)

Well, DH was raised Jewish. I was raised Catholic. Neither of us practice those religions. We attend a Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (Humanistic beliefs) and my kids attend a Lutheran school So if you're still following all of that here's how I explain it...

First, I stick to the history:
Jesus of Nazareth was a man who lived a long time ago in a place called Jerusalem (and I showed them on the map, hey I teach history...lol.)

Then I explain how many different faiths recognize Jesus: Throughout his life he tried to help people. If someone needed clothes, he clothed them. If someone was hungry, he got them food. He also saw many problems with the way people acted towards each other (just like today) and he tried to teach them to be better towards each other.

People who are Christians believe that the man Jesus was not just like other man. They believe he was sent here by God (they believe God is Jesus's father) to be the greatest teacher for the world. Other religions don't believe that Jesus was God's son.

When they ask what it means to believe or have faith in something that you can't prove, I ask them "How do you know I love you?" and they've said, "I just know. I can feel it." That's how I explained why some people "have faith or believe" in Jesus and God and others do not. That's what makes people of all religions different. No one is right or wrong, it's what they feel is right for them.

This is the answer that most pleases the Jewish-Catholic-UU contingency amongst our friends and family

Re: non-Christian moms (and dads)

We are Jewish. I explained to my children he was a man that lived a long time ago in Israel; and that he had friends who liked to listen to him speak. Those friends told other people about him and people think of him like the son of g-d, but that we don't think that, rather, we think that everyone has a direct link to g-d. That when you need guidance, you can talk directly to g-d too. I did not get into the holy trinity. I did say that it is not nice to take g-d's name in vain and many people also consider it wrong to take Jesus' name in vain as well so we don't do it either. I try to teach my children to be respectful of other religions, cultures, races, and abilities. I think that once my son goes to public school in the fall we will face many more questions. I am curious to hear others answers as well.

Re: non-Christian moms (and dads)

I am Catholic, but I absolutely love both of those answers!