Jane Addams' Settlement House: Social Morality or Organized Religion?

Reading the chapters in Jane Addams' book, "Twenty Years at Hull House", makes me think about how much influence outside forces and upbringing has on a person.

I was talking with a friend a few days ago about whether children should be raised a certain religion and expected to follow it, or raised without any religious influence and given the choice as to what to believe and what to follow when they are old enough to know the difference and make decisions for themselves.

I certainly don't believe parents should push their children to believe anything, however, I do think it is important to have a strong family background and that might include religious beliefs. More importantly, it includes moral and cultural traditions and values. There is a certain level of goodness and certain types of values that can be considered important in every religion. Jane Addams' childhood and upbringing with her father's kind, helping towards others nature definitely influenced her growth and maturity and helped her become the type of person who would open a settlement house. In class we talked about whether Jane Addams was putting her religious and personal beliefs upon the women she took into her settlement house. I believe that while she may have been sharing and teaching values to other people in that house, those were values that are similar to many religions and groups of people, not values that just focus on the teaching and belief in one specific religion. By only sharing her values and not her religious beliefs, she was able to reach a large spectrum of people and avoid imposing her religion onto them.

Some people really take religion to be an important part of their lives and others do not. But regardless of whether you use religion or some other system of values and traditions, each group of people and each family in particular has that set background that makes them unique and helps them raise children, grow, and face troubled times. I am thankful that my parents have always been a supportive influence in my life and that they have constantly taught me the value of other people and the importance of caring and respecting everyone around me. That has nothing to do with religion and has everything to do with being a kind hearted, respectful human being. In that sense, Jane Addams was simply doing what she knew best and was taught by her father (and also consequently by the Quaker religion that she followed). She was just doing what a good person would do, regardless of what religion they may believe in.