Many discussions of children’s religious education focus on the ‘nuts and bolts’ of children’s ministry approaches and practices or the intersections of development and faith formation. However, there’s another area that needs our attention: the historical and continuing malformation of children’s lives by religious institutions because of intentional or implicit bias. An example of such malformation can be seen in the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report released by the U.S. Department of the Interior in May 2022.
Our opening plenary in the 2023 Annual Meeting will focus on times and ways that religious education has been irresponsible in its interactions with children. We also welcome RIG and collaborative proposals that address such issues from an ethnographic study, historic or contemporary sociocultural analysis, theological reflection or other perspectives. Visit the REA2023 | Call for Proposals and REA2023 | Guidelines for Proposals to suggest how you might contribute to the conversation.