My status as an Anglican Christian has just been tested. This test was on the cards. With grim inevitability, my son became a teenager. Could his mother and I persuade him to get confirmed? What would happen when the irresistible force of our religious parenting met the immovable object of our 14-year-old agnostic?

In fact, we were a bit agnostic about whether it mattered, and why. Maybe his avowed agnosticism should be respected. Maybe trying to pressure him would backfire, and make a committed atheist of him. Why pressure him to get confirmed out of familial duty?