We attended the Independence Day parade in downtown Aurora yesterday, arriving at about 9:30.  We sat on the west side of Broadway between Galena and Downer.

For some reason, the city hadn't run the streetsweepers before the parade.  The gutters were filled with cigarette butts.  I was trying to kick some of them out of the way, get our little picnic blanket thing spread on the sidewalk, and get the two ambulatory kids settled in.  Sarah, who's two and a half, decided she wanted to stay in the stroller, Caden, five, sat on the curb.

Some friends were meeting us there, and we saw them across the street.  I stood off to the side of our group to mark the territory, so there would be room for everyone.  Caden was up and down, talking to his mom, checking out the storefront bar we were in front of.

Our friends made their way across, and I made another sweep of the area, in case there was something undone that needed doing.  It was at this time that I noticed Caden holding a little booklet.  It had an eagle on the front, and American flags.  I figured it was some politician's handout, or some informational thing from the city, that someone had given him on their way up the street while I was busy with other things.

He looked at it for a few minutes.  He can read quite well, so I knew he was reading it.  Then he asked me, a little nervously, "Dad, what is this?"

I came over by the wall where he was standing and stood next to him so I could see what he was reading.  Ah, I see.  It was a tract from Cornerstone Church.  It was many pages long, mostly text, mostly talking about how the reader is sinful and must repent.

In earlier times, before he was really reading, I would have just told him it was for grownups, given him something else to play with, and left it at that.  But he was sincerely interested now.  I knew I'd have to do some explaining to him at some point; I wasn't prepared for it to be at the Independence Day parade.

"Well," I began, "lots of people have lots of different ideas about what god is.  And some of those people really want you to believe what they believe.  So they print up things like this and hand them out."

He listened, but seemed a little confused.

"This kind of stuff is really confusing for kids.  It's even confusing for a lot of grownups.  You don't have to worry about it right now.  Just worry about being a kid, and your mom and dad will always take good care of you."

I asked him if he wanted me to put it away, and he said no, he liked the pictures.  I wasn't going to take it away from him against his will.  Better that he check it out a little bit with some parental guidance than have it enter the realm of "you can't have that."

He pointed to a word in large print in one of the pictures.  "What does that mean?"

The word he was pointing at was 'sin.'  I knew he could read it, he'd just never heard the word before, and certainly never seen it in print.  I explained that some people use the word 'sin' to talk about the bad things that people do.  That seemed to satisfy him.

He held on to the booklet for a long time, well after he'd finished looking at it.  Finally, he handed it to me.  He looked a little concerned.  "Will you put this away?"

"Sure I will."  I stuck in in my pocket.

It wasn't until we'd gotten home after the fireworks last night that I had more time to think about this incident.  What had happened while neither me nor my wife were looking?  Someone came along and handed my five year old son a Christian religious tract without permission from anyone.

Suddenly, I wondered how that person would feel if I'd handed their kid a pamphlet outlining all the inconsistencies and horrors of the Bible.  Or about Vishnu.  Or Thor.  Or the Flying Spaghetti Monster.  I was a little pissed.

And how sneaky was this thing?  A giant eagle and flying flags on the cover and the back.  A little sticker on the back from the church and its address.  No indication apart from that that inside would be descriptions of how people are innately bad, and need the grace of an invisible spirit to overcome that.

I have a couple of letters to write today.  One, to the city, for not running the streetsweepers before the parade.  The other, to that church, to voice my discontent about their handing their literature to my son without my permission.

Hand it out to adults, fine.  Adults are responsible for themselves.  You've got no business handing that stuff out to minors without their parents' permission.  And kids who aren't even in kindergarten yet?  You should be ashamed of yourselves.

Frankly, you shouldn't even be proselytizing in any way to minors without their parents' permission.

Edit: I realized this later (from the letter I sent them) --

It is the parents' exclusive right and responsibility to raise their children.  You have this right and responsibility as much as I do; it is protected for both of us by (ironically) the nation we celebrate on July 4th every year.