Can You Call A Child A Christian?

Richard Dawkins is an amusing character. Dawkins believes you cannot justifiably call a child “Christian” and to do so is child abuse. Some things follow from this, like having these children removed from their parents. You wouldn’t allow a child to remain in an abusive house, right? It’s kind of funny though because some atheists will say all babies are atheists and so there is a presumption of atheism. I don’t know if Dawkins takes this route, but I doubt it because the reason he believes one cannot be a Christian child must also apply to atheist children. Anywho, having been Catholic, I have a different approach to this now. 

Before, I would typically say that a child can justifiably be called a Christian based upon his parents authority. If Mommy and Daddy say that Santa is going to bring little Timmy gifts, little Timmy can take it upon the authority of his parents, whom he trusts and at his age has no reason to doubt, that Santa will bring him gifts. Sure, he hasn’t gone through philosophical rigor (not that Dawkins has either!) but at his age, this seems sufficient. 

There is a better answer now I think. I realized this taking in the Catholic worldview, though one needn’t be a Catholic to come to this conclusion. When a child, an infant in particular, gets baptized, he is part of the family of God. Now, one needn’t be cognizant of this in order for this to be true. In the same way, we have no choice of what biological family we are put into, yet we are rightly said to be a member of that family. We can make a choice to leave that family when we grow up, but by default, you are part of the family. In the same way, an infant can become part of the family of God, without his permission, and that family we call a Christian family. So, when we say that a child is Christian, it need not have cognizance because it is not solely a choice of intellect. It is intellectual at a certain point, but it is always familial.