Can catechism lead to atheism? Not surprisingly, it can. I am sharing below the testimony of a Sunday School teacher of 20 year’s standing. It brought me to tears. If you too are a parent, priest, pastor, catechist, student or a critically aware young person, then please read this. I have also added some reflections of my own at the end.
{Sunday School is turning our kids into atheists. I know this because I led the ministry for 20 years — and I just uncovered the tragedy that happened to my students. I was proud of how I taught Sunday School. I used illustrated Bible story drawings, verse memorization competitions, songs with rehearsed hand motions, bible games, arts and crafts, special snacks.
The kids loved it. And parents thanked me every single week. “Miss Juliana, my daughter loves your class!” “My son memorized every book of the Bible thanks to you!” I thought I was raising the next generation of faithful young believers. I was wrong.
Last year, I decided to look up my former students; kids I taught from 2004 to 2020. I found 83 of them on social media. What I discovered made me sick. 61 of them (73%) no longer consider themselves Christians. They walked away from the faith. Seventy-three percent. Kids who won our Bible trivia championships. Kids who memorized entire chapters of Scripture. Kids who got baptized in our church. Gone. I started reading what they were posting. “Finally free from this religion that only exists to brainwash people with lies”. “I gave up on faith and left the church. Best decision I ever made”. “Can’t believe I bought into these fairy tales for so long”. But there was one post that stopped me cold.
It was from Emma. I taught her from age 5 to 12. She wrote: “Sunday School taught me to memorize little stories. It never taught me to think. The first time someone asked me WHY I believed in God, I had no answer. That’s when I realized I didn’t actually believe anything — I was just trained to repeat.” Is that what I did for 20 years?
I didn’t sleep for three nights. I kept replaying our lessons in my head. What did we actually teach? Noah built an ark. David defeated Goliath. Jonah was swallowed by a fish. Jesus died and rose again. WHAT happened? We never taught them *WHY* any of it was true. We never taught them to defend what they believed. We taught them stories and called it faith. Then we sent them off to college with a highlighted Bible and zero ability to answer a single hard question.
That week, I tested our current Sunday School class, 12 kids, ages 10 to 12, our biggest group. “Why do you believe the Bible is true?” “Because it’s the Word of God.” “How do you know it’s the Word of God?” “Because… the Bible says so?” “What would you say if someone told you Christianity is no different from any other religion?” Dead silence and blank stares. “What if a professor told you there’s no evidence for the resurrection?” One boy said: “I’d just say I have faith.” That is not an answer. That is giving up on faith. I was looking at 12 future atheists. Not because they were bad kids. Because I was using the same useless method I’d been using for 20 years.
I was so shaken I called Pastor Augustino that afternoon. “I think Sunday School is part of the problem. I think we’re accidentally raising atheists.” Silence. “What do you mean?” I told him about the 73%, about Emma’s post, about the test with the current class. “We teach WHAT to believe. We never teach WHY. So when someone challenges them, they have no response. They figure there ARE no reasons. And they leave. They walk away from everything.”
Then he said something that floored me. “I’ve been thinking the same thing for years. I just didn’t know what to do about it.” “What do you mean?” “I watched my own nephew drift away. Same story, raised in church, Sunday School every week. Got to college, couldn’t answer the hard questions, decided it was all a lie, and gave himself to the world. His mom, my sister, blames the church. She might be right.”
“So what do we do?” “I found something three months ago. A pastor in São Paulo told me about a solution. “Systematic theology” for children. 52 weeks. Teaches WHY Christianity is true — not just WHAT the stories say.” “Theology for kids?” “Real arguments, evidence for God. Why the Bible is reliable, how to defend the resurrection. All taught at a level kids can actually understand. The kids in his Sunday School can now explain things that most ADULTS can’t.”
He handed me the workbook. “I’ve been waiting for the right teacher to test this. Someone who gets the problem. That someone is you.” I took it home that night. I opened to Lesson 1: How Do We Know God Exists? No little stories. No coloring pages. The cosmological argument — explained for a child. The moral argument, with examples from their everyday life. Evidence, logic, reasons. I nearly cried.
This is what Emma needed. THIS is what all those 54 kids needed. And I never taught it. That Sunday, I threw our old teaching method in the trash. “Today we’re doing something different. I’m going to teach you “WHY” we believe what we believe.” Confused looks.
“Everything that begins to exist has a cause. Did the universe have a beginning?” A girl named Laila answered. “Scientists say yes. The Big Bang.” “So if the universe had a beginning, what caused it?” A boy named Manuel got excited. “Something that never began. Something eternal.” “And what could that be?” “God?” “You just made a logical argument for the existence of God. Without quoting a single Bible verse.” Their eyes went wide. For the first time in 20 years, I saw kids engaging with faith like a puzzle to be solved, not a story to memorize.
Week 4: Why Trust the Bible? Before, I taught: “The Bible is true because it’s the Word of God.” Now I taught: 5,800 Greek manuscripts. Dated to decades after the original events. More evidence than almost any document from the ancient world. Manuel raised his hand. “So we have more proof for the Bible than for things everyone just accepts? Like Julius Caesar?” “Way more.” “Why did nobody ever tell us that?” “Because I didn’t know. Until now.”
Week 7: Evidence for the Resurrection. We covered the minimal facts approach. Five facts that even non-Christian scholars accept. The kids knocked down each alternative explanation one by one. “Conspiracy theory doesn’t work because they died for it.” “Legend theory doesn’t work because the sources are too early.” These kids were 11 and 12 years old. Thinking like investigators. Defending like apologists.
Week 10, I got a phone call from Laila’s dad. “Miss Juliana, what is going on in Sunday School?” My stomach churned. “Laila just spent 45 minutes at dinner explaining why the resurrection is historically reliable. She used terms like ‘minimal facts’ and ‘manuscript evidence.’ She’s 11 years old. Her uncle, who’s an atheist, couldn’t counter a single argument.” “Is that… good?” “Good? It’s incredible. She asked me to share what she’s learning. This is what Sunday School should have been all along.”
Week 14, something unexpected happened. I got a message on Facebook. From Emma, the same Emma who posted about being “trained to repeat.” “Miss Juliana, my mom told me you’re teaching Sunday School differently now. Something about evidence and arguments. I wish I’d learned that. Maybe I wouldn’t have drifted away from God.” I told her about the workbook and what I’d learned. About how sorry I was. “Could you send it to me? I’ve been an atheist for 6 years. But honestly… nobody ever showed me real evidence. They just told me to believe.” I sent her the link that night.
Week 18, Emma wrote again. “Okay, I’m on week 8. The resurrection stuff is harder to dismiss than I expected. I’m not saying I believe yet. But I’m a lot less sure that I don’t.” Week 20, Pastor Ronaldo made an announcement. “I’m overhauling our entire Sunday School program. Miss Juliana tested something that is transforming our kids”.
They’re not just learning stories, they’re learning to defend the faith.” He showed a video of Manuel explaining the cosmological argument. He’s 12 years old. Three parents enrolled their kids in Sunday School that day. Kids who had never come before. One dad told me after the service: “I stopped trusting Sunday School years ago. It felt like a Bible babysitter. What you described? That’s what my kids actually need.”
I’m 58 years old. I taught Sunday School for 20 years. And for 20 years, I was part of the problem. Games, crafts, and memorized verses aren’t enough. They never were. They raise kids who can recite but can’t reason. Kids who can quote but can’t question. Kids who look like believers — until someone asks “why” — and they have nothing left to stand on. 73% of my former students walked away. Not because Sunday School was weak on Bible stories. Because it was weak on reasons.
If your church’s Sunday School looks like mine did: games, stories, songs, crafts, and nothing about WHY faith and God are actually true… your kids are being set up to fail. 52 weeks of systematic theology. It’s not replacing the Bible. It’s teaching kids why the Bible is worth believing in the first place. Don’t wait 20 years like I did. The kids in your Sunday School are counting on you. Stop training them to repeat. Start teaching them to think, before they become another Emma. Before it’s too late and they walk away from the faith and into the world.
By Fernanda Carvalho, US based}
From 1979 to 1982 I was the Secretary of the U.P. Regional Youth & Vocations Bureau. In that capacity I reached out to thousands of youth across north India, through 5 day spiritual renewal programmes that brought young people to a tangible experience of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.
I have also written several articles and books including on the Trinity, Christology and Ecclesiology. They were not “stories” but an adult understanding of our faith that is not opposed to reason. They are two sides of the same coin, as both are seeking truth. If you really love the next generation, wake up before it’s too late. From what, where, who and when, seek the Why.
I was unable to verify the author of this reflection. When I searched the net I found over 4000 Fernanda Carvalhos in the US! Names have been changed to protect their identity.
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