ignore this if you are religious

[jennickels]

My kids have been going to this puppet show thing at the park every Wednesday since the beginning of July.  They get free snow cones, a candy of some kind and dinner (nachos or pizza or mac & cheese).  They have games and then the puppet show which I'm told continues from one week to the next.  The kids have been having a blast and all the kids in the neighborhood go.  I never really thought much about the people putting it on.  They seemed like a nice group and really enjoy entertaining the kids dressed as pirates, lol.

Well today is the 2nd to last day and the kids just got home.  My 5yo comes up and shows me a little flyer they gave her for a special "pirate day" on Saturday at the local 7th Day Adventist Church.  Not going.

Anyway, she runs off to use the bathroom and comes back to finish telling me about the candy she got and the "tattoos" (like face art but on her hands).  Then I look at her shirt and she has a big sticker that says, "Jesus is my best friend."  I about died.

...and this is probably where the really religious will want to just go about their day...

See, we're atheist.  We've been raising our kids without religion and god talk as much as possible (minus the three year stint at Catholic school while living in Chicago because the public schools had no room).  I have no problem with religion and religious people as long as they don't try to push it on to me and my kids.

I had heard that the group hosting the park days was from this church but up until today the kids have never mentioned any religious aspect of the show.  (And, no, I've never gone... it's the kids' time to enjoy and I don't hover over them.)  But now I'm concerned.  My 5yo was all excited to tell me how Jesus is her best friend and loves her and I wanted to gag.  I told her to throw away the sticker which was a bit excessive but... blah.

I mean no offense to my religious friends.  I won't try to convince your kids to be atheist and I'd appreciate religious people not trying to convince my kids that Jesus is real and loves them.

Since this is the first mention (and the 5yo missed out on the Catholic schooling) of Jesus since July started and there is only one Wednesday left I'll let it slide.  Most likely she'll forget about it after a few weeks but it bugs me that people (churches) think it's okay to preach to unsuspecting kids while hiding behind being an inclusive neighborhood performing group.

And no where on their flyers they taped up all over and hand out door to door every week say that they are from the church.  It just says that they are this performing group, will be at the park on Wednesday at 5pm and there will be free food and games.

I think it's kind of sneaky and underhanded to then slip Jesus and religion into the performance and games and act like it's no big deal.  Sigh.  And here I thought we lucked out on a nice liberal, care free neighborhood.  There's always got to be that one church/group/person to ruin it for us.

Comments

[jennickels.livejournal.com]

Oh, don't stay away because of the crazies. Just stay north of the "Mason-Dixon line" (which isn't even where people think it is... watched a show on Discovery Channel about it, man Americans are stupid of our own history). I've lived my life in the north part of the country and really haven't had to deal with this crap. Just the occasional thing popping up (like the park thing). I rarely bring up religion to people in real life. On the occasion I've mentioned it I might get a double take but then conversation resumes.

Atheists in the south, though, have a hard time. It sucks. I've known people online who have had their cars vandalized, windows broken, things thrown at them, their kids bullied/ostracized, lost their job, got kicked out of apartments, etc.

I would worry about my 11yo taking a course like that Bible History simply because she wants so desperately to fit in she will try to make herself believe or say she believes to fit in. My 8yo has a very magical sense of the world and it would take one teacher telling her it's all the literal truth for her believe (she was in kindergarten/1st grade when in Catholic school so don't know how much she actually remembers). My 9yo son might look more critically at it. The 5yo is just way too young to even be introduced to it.

I want them to be at an age where they are ready to critically think about different religions and not just believe because their friends do or their teacher told them or some other reason.

My 11yo says she believes but ask her why and she has no idea. Probably thinks she'll go to hell if she doesn't. I don't care if they find religion as long as it's for the right reasons (fitting in is a wrong reason).

Sigh. Usually none of this even comes up in our house.

[magnavox-23.livejournal.com]

It's the religion and the guns. :P I know they're the clichéd stereotypes we get of America and that the truth is probably quite far from it.

I think you have a very healthy worry, but also a excellent sense of your children's abilities to handle these issues. Even though I was not brought up in a religious house, I was well into my teens before I worked out what I did and did not 'believe' with regard to the supernatural. Dawkins helped hammer a few nails. :P

[jennickels.livejournal.com]

Hey, it's only fair that other countries have horribly cliched ideas about us. Americans sure enough have plenty for every other country on the planet.

I actually haven't gotten around to reading Dawkins. I guess spirituality/religion just doesn't really interest me and never did. I remember in high school when people would ask me what I "was" (as in which religion I was) I just told them I believed what I believed and left it at that.

I think by then I'd be what is considered a Deist. I sure didn't believe 98% of what the Catholic Church was teaching.

[magnavox-23.livejournal.com]

It wasn't so much religion/spirituality that interest me, it was the big questions that they couldn't answer - where did the universe come from, why? etc. Dawkins I found had a nice blend of debunking religion & science (he does get into the biology aspects a bit much for me sometimes) that worked with my previous interests in all things space and sci fi was a natural extension of that. :P

I did the whole new age/wiccan thing in my early teens more so to fit in than actually believing. Now I am older and probably wiser...

Organised religion and I never got along.

[jennickels.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm okay not knowing the answers. It's never bothered me. Don't care where we (humans) came from or where we're going to end up. I'm more interested in the where we are now.

And even that doesn't interest me all that much (I am so NOT into politics and what's going on in the world... I have enough to worry about with just my little family).

I knew by like 9 that organized religion was not for me. I was stuck at Catholic school so I nodded and smiled and went along with the program. I don't like having people tell me what to think and feel and believe. Bugs the crap out of me. Even when I was a kid.

Once I realized that I really didn't believe in any of that stuff I had absolutely no interest in exploring further. I find religions (the history/mythology) interesting but it's like way down on the bottom of my "things to research more" list, lol.