Does the evil CofE really want to indoctrinate our children?

The Guardian is running a story based on a paper going to the next General Synod under the headline 'Church recruiting drive targets two year-olds'. The overall narrative is that there aren't any children in church any more, so new attempts will be made to recruit them by such means as running parent and toddler groups, providing information to schools and colleges and speaking out more on issues like climate change which the young are interested in.

The predictable reaction to the piece has been to debate whether this constitutes attempts to indoctrinate the young.

Mouse's reaction is that the Guardian story is a clever one, as it stirs up these fears, without actually reporting anything controversial. Only the most hard-line secularist would argue that church's should not run groups for parents and families, as huge numbers of churches already do. Only someone with a twisted sense of reality would think that providing a further education college with a "social, moral, spiritual and cultural curriculum" was an attempt to indoctrinate children with Christianity when they are not in a position to rationally defend themselves.

The reality is that the Church should hit back hard with a clear message:

1. A core tenet of Christianity is the belief that everyone has to come to their own decision and faith - the Church is simply not in the business of attempting to hood-wink, coerce, brainwash or trick anyone into Christianity.
2. The current age of aggressive secularism is denying young people (and everyone else)the opportunity to make their own minds up by insisting that religion should be kept out of the public sphere, only to be discussed in private households.
3. This is leading to more people that ever are growing up without any knowledge of the basics of Christianity. Attempts to reach them are a response to their desire to know more, and our belief that they should be in possession of the facts before they make their minds up.

All of these statements are observably true, and plenty of evidence can be amassed to support them.

It is a fact that the age profile in the good old CofE presents us with a demographic time bomb. It is right for the Church to respond by reaching out to young people, as they are not hearing the basics of Christianity anywhere else. There is absolutely nothing malevolent about it, and any attempts to imply otherwise are simply wrong.