What’s better for kids? Taekwando, or church?

My next-door neighbor, Bob, is a good guy. He’s a kid’s doctor. He drives a motorcycle and has tatoos, but has a gentle nature that children … and their parents … adore.

In summers past we have leaned on rakes and talked politics and weather. We have shoveled the shared sidewalks in the freezing cold and dug out fence posts that blew over with strong spring rains.

He has two great kids who are polite and fun-loving. They look adults in the eye when they speak and always say thank you and please.

But there is a chasm in our beliefs much wider than the 15 feet between our houses. We’ve talked about eternity, and meaning and purpose. We’ve talked about sin, and the need to fix our human condition. He’ll have none of it.

My Sunday family tradition is a quiet morning and a couple of hours of worship, praise and teaching. It’s been that way since I was a child. But for the neighbors, every Sunday morning the kids run out to the SUV with the Darwin fish on the bumper,  dressed in white pants and  a long shirt tied off with belt. They come home and eat a breakfast with bacon — I can smell it wafting on the wind.

Bragging about his kids one day, Bob told me how well they are doing in Taekwondo . “It teaches them discipline.”

It might teach you how to say please and thank you and how to respond to bullies. But it doesn’t give one iota of insight into eternity.

What do you think? What kinds of things do you see your neighbors doing on Sunday? Comment here.