# "Preachers' kids" in other faiths **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 27, 2011, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preachers-kids-in-other-faiths/579895 "2011-04-27T14:11:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preachers-kids-in-other-faiths/579895/1 "2011-04-27T14:11:44Z")
Preachers’ kids, or PKs, are the children of Protestant clergy. The stereotype is that they’re far more likely to rebel, get into trouble, smoke, drink, fall away from the faith and disappoint their parents, supposedly in reaction to their disciplined/repressive upbringing and the high expectations their families and the community have for them. Like any other stereotype, it’s probably about 95.3% jive. Do PKs in other faiths have the same reputation - the imam’s son, the rabbi’s daughter, etc.? ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preachers-kids-in-other-faiths/579895/2 "2011-04-27T14:28:25Z")
There’s a longstanding joke in the neopagan community (where 90% of practitioners consider themselves Priests or Priestesses) that our kids are going to rebel by becoming Baptists. And there’s some kernel of truth in it, as many of the kids do begin investigating Christianity when they’re teens, to see what they’re missing out on and maybe to find answers their parents haven’t given them. There was one adorable group a few years ago at one of the pagan festivals who literally snuck off into the woods - away from the dancing and drumming and naked people - for unauthorized Bible study together. The parents found it quite hilarious, actually. But it did seem to be a good demonstration that kids raised in strong religious traditions need to do their own investigating, and feel the need to do so clandestinely and rebelliously, even in a spiritual community which is as eclectic and open as is humanly possible. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preachers-kids-in-other-faiths/579895/3 "2011-08-09T14:05:15Z")
Thanks. Anyone else? ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preachers-kids-in-other-faiths/579895/4 "2011-08-09T14:15:02Z")
There’s a running meme in Unitarian Universalism that almost no one in any given congregation was raised in the faith. UU kids are encouraged to think for themselves and find their own way; the vast majority end up finding their way somewhere else. ---
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preachers-kids-in-other-faiths/579895/5 "2011-08-09T15:21:32Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > There’s a longstanding joke in the neopagan community (where 90% of practitioners consider themselves Priests or Priestesses) that our kids are going to rebel by becoming Baptists. I remember an article, which my google-fu is too weak to find, that suggests between 20% and 35% of U.S. children will change away from their parents religion, and that number holds true of pretty much every religious preference including atheism and agnosticism. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preachers-kids-in-other-faiths/579895/6 "2011-08-09T16:23:43Z")
It would be pretty hard to top this [set of preacher’s kids](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Borgia_(1474)): > [@](#): > > Giovanni Borgia, 2nd duke of Gandía (1474 or 1476 – 14 June 1497) was the son of Pope Alexander VI and the brother of Cesare Borgia, Gioffre Borgia, and Lucrezia Borgia. > … > He was murdered the night of 14 June 1497 near what would later become the Piazza della Giudecca (in the Ghetto of Rome). It has been speculated that his own brother Cesare Borgia had him murdered. However, there is another rumor which tells that his younger brother Gioffre Borgia murdered him due to Giovanni’s relationship with his wife, Sancia. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preachers-kids-in-other-faiths/579895/7 "2011-08-09T18:42:48Z")
Not faith-based, but I had a student whose history cracked me up. Born in Spain, American father, Spanish mother; the father was an artist, won a grant to spend several months in Spain, got nabbed by a local girl. So how did their firstborn rebel against his so-laid-back-they’re-horizontal, bohemian parents? At the time I met him, he was a US Army Lieutenant on his way to Dentistry school, a vocation he’d discovered while working as a dentist’s assistant in the Army. Makes perfect sense to me! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preachers-kids-in-other-faiths/579895/8 "2011-08-09T18:50:06Z")
I was good friends with a PK growing up. His father was a liberal Prebysterian minister in our church. He was only slightly wild, joining a fraternity in college. He is now far more conservative than his father ever was and a lawyer in Southern California. One of his sister’s was easygoing and last I checked probably also going into clergy. The other sister was a tiresome stuck up young woman.