“You’re Only a Christian Because of Your Christian Parents” How to Respond

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Over the course of a friendly exchange with an atheist or agnostic, you might come across the strange objection that your belief in Christ is predicated on your parents’ belief in Christ. In other words, your environment determined your Christianity. If your parents hadn’t been believers in Christianity, then you would’ve likely been a skeptic of some kind.

How should we go about responding to this frequent objection?

1. There are some “Christians” who are believers solely because of their environment

As Christians, we should be swift to acknowledge that lukewarm followers exist, sometimes called nominalism. These are typically people who grew up in the church and have yet to genuinely accept Christ into their hearts and seek a further relationship with him. The skeptic is correct in saying that people in this category only consider themselves “Christians” due to their parents. However, we need to point out that, based on Scripture, we do not consider these people “real” Christians—they have yet to receive the forgiveness of Christ and the seal of salvation. That is, if and until their faith is authentic.

But unfortunately, the skeptic promoting this objection is unlikely only speaking of people in that category. Rather, they mean to suggest that all Christians are products of their environment. Nevertheless, we can grant their point in some cases.

2. Share Your Experience

Most Christians involved in some kind of ministry know someone or of someone who was not brought up in a Christian household, if not yourself, and yet later found came to believe in Christianity. Experience tends to counteract slogans. It is important to bring attention to your experience because unwarranted slogans don’t stand a chance against them. Even if you were brought up in a Christian household, explain how this did not and does not determine your free choice to choose Christ.

The objection made by the skeptic seems to imply a cult-like attitude within Christianity. Help the skeptic see that you, as a faithful and committed follower of Christ, are not under any delusion or brainwashing. Furthermore, explain that what Christ desires according to Scripture is a conscious choice, not a forceful submission. While Scripture spells the importance of raising children in a Christ-loving, biblically informed environment, Jesus is interested in a reciprocal relationship, which is only achieved through a freely willed decision.

3. Genetic Fallacy

This objection is hardly an objection; it carries no logical weight in the context of a debate. So then why do skeptics repeat it? Well, they are either uninformed or they choose to repeat it for rhetorical purposes—to persuade the audience or opponent. In fact, to object to the truth of Christianity because of how Christians obtain their belief is known as the Genetic Fallacy. This epistemological fallacy is defined as a person knowingly arguing against a truth claim based on how their opponent came to believe in that truth claim. Why is this a fallacy? Because how we come to our beliefs (epistemology) has nothing to do with whether that belief is true or false (ontology).

Imagine you are back in your high school algebra class taking a test. One section of the math test asks a multiple choice question regarding the value of X. You have four options, A, B, C, or D. Let’s say you worked out the steps to solve the equations in order to find the value of X, and you found that the answer is C, which turns out to be correct. Taking the test to your right is Johnny, who was too lazy to work out the equations and simply guessed C. You know that the answer is C because you accomplished the steps to get the answer, whereas Johnny guessed the correct answer solely by luck. Is Johnny’s answer wrong because of why he chose C? Of course not! Johnny is still correct because the truth of the multiple choice question stems from the logic of what the question is asking, not how a person chooses one answer over another.

The same applies to Christianity… even if you do believe in Christianity in large part because of your environment growing up, that does not make Christianity false. Moreover, turn the objection back on the skeptic. The same can be applied to atheism: Atheism is not false because there are atheists who only believe in it due to their environment.