I had pulled out my old library discard Circle Round: Raising Children in the Goddess Tradition. It had been a while since I had opened it. It had been a while since I've celebrated a Wiccan holiday (I even missed Summer Solstice this year. It's been a busy summer) and I wanted to start accumulating ideas for Lammas, a holiday we've never celebrated.
Robinson saw me flipping through the book and asked what I was doing. I explained that I was looking for ideas for Lammas, which falls on August 1st.
Then we got into a rather lengthy discussion about our children and religion.
It's not like we don't talk about religion in our house. Most of the time we simply live our day-to-day life without the need for it. We don't go to church. We don't pray before meals. We don't encourage (or discourage) our children to believe in a God, Gods, or a Goddess. We don't have weekly Bible study. Perhaps some of you feel that we are doing our children a disservice.
But I don't think so.
I have many problems with the Bible. Chalk up my unbelief to: numerous inherent contradictions, misogamy, culturally inappropriate to modern day, and (my personal favorite) a God who acts like a 2 year old. I cannot worship a deity who throws tantrums when his followers misbehave.
Don't get me wrong. There is something to be said about having faith. Faith can get you through hard times and challenging events. Faith can cement relationships and build new ones. But it's not an end-all. There are certain things that faith simply cannot do. I fear the people who exist on blind faith the most.
In the meantime, our discussion made me realize that I should be making more of an effort to celebrate the Wiccan holidays with my family. I enjoy watching Arthur get so excited about Yule and would like him to have that feeling throughout the year, not just during Yule.
Blessed be.
Robinson saw me flipping through the book and asked what I was doing. I explained that I was looking for ideas for Lammas, which falls on August 1st.
Then we got into a rather lengthy discussion about our children and religion.
It's not like we don't talk about religion in our house. Most of the time we simply live our day-to-day life without the need for it. We don't go to church. We don't pray before meals. We don't encourage (or discourage) our children to believe in a God, Gods, or a Goddess. We don't have weekly Bible study. Perhaps some of you feel that we are doing our children a disservice.
But I don't think so.
I have many problems with the Bible. Chalk up my unbelief to: numerous inherent contradictions, misogamy, culturally inappropriate to modern day, and (my personal favorite) a God who acts like a 2 year old. I cannot worship a deity who throws tantrums when his followers misbehave.
Don't get me wrong. There is something to be said about having faith. Faith can get you through hard times and challenging events. Faith can cement relationships and build new ones. But it's not an end-all. There are certain things that faith simply cannot do. I fear the people who exist on blind faith the most.
In the meantime, our discussion made me realize that I should be making more of an effort to celebrate the Wiccan holidays with my family. I enjoy watching Arthur get so excited about Yule and would like him to have that feeling throughout the year, not just during Yule.
Blessed be.
0 comments: