My mom gave The Girl two books tonight. I love my mom more than anything, but man, I wish she would stop shoving religion down my throat.
One book is an advent book, one is a Xmas book. The advent one isn’t too bad. I can chance a few words here and there and it is palatable, but the Xmas one … wow. I don’t know what I am going to do with that one. It’s heavy on the “original sin” concept which seems a little heavy for a child.
I actually wish I had my mom’s faith. I wish I could just blindly believe, but I don’t. I do believe in God. I don’t know why, I just do. I am certain there is a God. After that, who knows? I certainly don’t believe that God is going to send the vast majority of the people of the world to hell just because they don’t believe exactly the right thing.
The funny thing is, I can tell all of you that. I can tell anyone that. Except my mother. Here I sit, 43 years old, still afraid of what my mother might think of me. Scared of the lecture that would follow. Worried about saying “not only is The Girl not going to Sunday school yet, she is likely not going ever.”
Would anyone like to join me as I burn in hell?
2 responses so far ↓
Alda // November 21, 2008 at 6:35 pm |
Sure, I’ll join you!
Shawna // December 1, 2008 at 8:57 pm |
I believe in God, but not heaven and hell and I do not consider myself Christian and don’t really know what the word for me is. Not exactly agnostic but not sure what religion matches my beliefs.
I do think the sense of community that can be gained from belonging to an organization like a church is great though. I was talking to a Jewish fellow who was complaining that parents’ friends were always trying to set him up with their daughters and he seemed surprised when I expressed how nice I thought it was to have that sense of belonging and people caring about him. I think it gave him a new appreciation for the would-be matchmakers.
All this is to say, if you do decide to let The Girl participate in any religous stuff for your mother’s sake, it would still have an up side. And if you don’t, well, that’s fine too. She’s your daughter and you have the right to make those kind of decisions for her.