Question
We have a well adjusted 15 year old son who gets good grades in school, is involved in the school band, music lessons outside of school as well as an extracurricular hip hop dance class. All of these activities are optional for him and we support his interests with enthusiasm. He also enjoys considerable freedom to play video games in his free time; though we continue to monitor what games he plays and limit his time to ones we feel are age appropriate and socially constructive.
Our problem is that my husband and I are active in our local church and we feel this is a nonnegotiable important family activity. Our son strongly resists our insistence that he attend the youth Sunday school and Sunday Worship service on a weekly basis. There are a good number of youth in the church we go to, several that he is friends with outside of church as well. We are at our wits end since he argues passionately that he doesn't believe, nor does he get anything out of going to church. He defiantly argues that it is his right to choose and that we can't force him to go. We had a similar conflict with our older son, who is now 21 and not involved in church.
I would like advice whether we, as his parents, have a right to expect that he attend church with us? And if so, what is the best approach for resolving this weekly conflict?
