Physophical Question of the Day:

[ickaimp]

Bizzare Job Opening of the Day:
'Human Intelligence Instructor **Secret Clearance Required**'

Y'know, I can't make these sort of titles up. ^^;;

Physophical question of the week day:

A while back, one the kids I watch was doing their spelling homework, making sentances with their spelling words. The sentance the kid came up with (and he was rather proud of this) was:

"We burned the church down to the ground."

I was kind of horrified by this, and steered the sentance to something else, also using the spelling words. But he couldn't understand why I was disturbed by this sentance and I couldn't figure why he wasn't. Until he said that he'd never been to one. To him, a church was just a building. ~_~

-Since his father is supposedly bringing them up Christian, that's for him to teach them about and one discussion I'm not getting into. I'm there to make sure homework gets done.

But I was talking to my Dad about this and he made a comment that has had me thinking. He thought that it was a pity that the kids weren't going to some sort of church, because religion tended to be one of the major things that shaped one's morals and sense of right and wrong.

I've been kind of pondering that ever since... Just how much does religion reflect on a person's sense of morals or is something that is more dependant on the person?

er, does that make sense? ._.

impfics: Murder on the Dancefloor (Kazuha/Heiji)

Comments

[quiltrebel.livejournal.com]

Christianity in theory is fine, but as the mother of the boy in question and as a bisexual, do I really want my sons being taught that their mom is going to Hell for her orientation (which, by the way, is NOT a choice)? Do I really want my kids exposed to the apparent intolerance of other faiths that seems to run rampant in today's Christianity, when I am Wiccan? My kids know the difference between right and wrong because their father and I have taught them so, not because their father's invisible friend says so.

My religion has only one rule, and it seems to cover everything "An ye harm none, do what ye will." And the consequence for breaking this rule? Whatever you put out into the universe comes back at you three-fold.

I would rather have open-minded, tolerant children than "good Christians".

[ickaimp.livejournal.com]

I would rather have open-minded, tolerant children than "good Christians".

Open-minded is good. No complaints at all about open-minded.

Ignorant is dangerous.

-That's- what has us running scared.

[quiltrebel.livejournal.com]

Billions of people on earth live well without knowledge of Christ. As for my kids, it's up to their dad to teach them, because I'm not going to educate them in a faith I don't agree with. But really, who is it hurting if they don't know who the "man on the stick" is? If I teach them about Christ, they will hear about his wife and child and how he was nothing more than a mortal man with good ideas.

[ickaimp.livejournal.com]

Pause. Hold on.

Take the religious connotations out of it.

He had No Problems with Burning Down A Building.

The fact that it was a Church was neither here nor there, it just meant that it was a place that had nothing to do with him. So therefore it was okay to burn, because it didn't have any sort of impact or impression on him.

It could have just as easily been a Post Office or a Shrine or a Temple or a Restaurant or a Synagogue, it's all the same in his eyes. He doesn't know what 'Holy' or 'Sacred' means, much less 'Christian' or 'Pagan'. They're just buildings that people go to.

Hence my previous statement about Ignorance. As the saying goes: "Ignorance leads to Fear. Fear leads to Hate. Hate leads to- (fill in ending of your choice)"

The reason that religion came into it was because I was questioning my Dad's comment about 'Religion helping to define Morals', I'm trying to see both sides of it. I love my Dad, but that doesn't mean I automatically agree with everything he says.

How you raise your kids is your business. I'm not there to teach them personal beliefs or religion. I'm there to make sure that they're safe and that homework gets done.

But that doesn't mean that I'm going to stop questioning things when stuff that surprises or confuses me pops up.

[ysabet.livejournal.com]

**nods** I got the same thing from my dad. He didn't make me believe, he made me think... and he didn't particularly approve of my being a pagan, btw. He was Baptist; I attended his baptism (he was in his 50's at the time). He didn't teach me about his God or my gods, he taught me to think about stuff and to try not to avoid the questions. Did I like it? Not particularly. Habits are hard to break, though.

[ysabet.livejournal.com]

**Ysabet pulls a soapbox out of nowhere, looks around furtively, and climbs on top**

The thing is, though, ARE they being taught? A church is defined as a place of worship of a god, not a Christian or Jewish or Buddhist god. It's where you show respect to your diety-- and where other people do as well, even if you don't follow their faith. I don't care if it's called a church, temple, grove, synagogue, vail, circle, or Baptist strip-mall storefront: if the worship's there, so's the god.

Wicca has *lots* of rules (like 'Guess what? If you do something wrong, you have to balance it out! Nobody's going to do it for you!') and they're as individual as the person who believes... and so does any other faith. I've been a neopagan since I was old enough to understand what was going on (early teens), but I respect other people's faiths; I have had friends that were Quaker, Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist, Atheist, 7th-Day Adventist, you name it. What they believe is their business, not mine. What worries me in this instance is the idea that innocence and ignorance are considered similar, and that open-mindedness automatically happens. It *doesn't.* It has to be taught, and ignorance is the universe's one and only automatic capital crime.

Not an attack here, you understand; but this is important. I can't imagine ever being an Athiest, but I'd rather know people that were ethical Athiests than religiously-minded, dogma-trained sure-of-themself churchgoers of ANY faith, pagan or otherwise. 'Exposure' goes along with 'teaching'; you can tell somebody about fire and say "This will burn you if you stick your hand in it" but they won't feel the heat and understand until they see the fire in person and *think* about it-- and they probably won't think about it unless they're made to, because the questions are uncomfortable. Ignorance is scary, and doesn't just go away with either age or the kind of general knowledge that people pick up from peer groups. I grew up in the deep South, and if I hadn't had a father who was willing to explain stuff to me and make me think, I'd be one bigoted little Ysabet (my grandmama *was*, sad to say; my mom, on the other hand, learned better. And all my soap-boxing in this response is a condensation of the things my dad made me think about, whether I liked to or not.)

Like I said, no attacks here and definitely no preaching-- it's just a topic that's really important to me and so, so very easy to let slip between the cracks; innocence and ignorance look an awful lot alike... but they aren't. Who's teaching? ARE they teaching? And if they aren't, who's learning?

**climbs off soapbox, sets it on fire and warms hands**