Hmmm....

[senoritafish]

Order Now, only $19.50 for Marvin and Mavis Smiley and the Sunshine Valley Boys, doing "Springtime on Broadway" a Broadway tribute done entirely in bluegrass. All one tempo, all one key - don't miss out!

I needed a laugh. Garrison, if it were real, I'd order it. I already own "Bach does the Beatles."

Typical Saturday night. Listening to PHC. Both Angus and Gareth are at Grandma's - they'll go to Sunday School with her in the morning. I am still ambivalent about this; I would like them to be exposed to different religions, including non-Christian ones, but I am do not myself paritcipate in any particular organized belief. I was raised a Christian Scientist, and to this day, get a little defensive when I hear people disparaging it, but I don't practice it. I occasionally consume alcohol and I go the doctor.

So I was put on the spot last Sunday when John's mother and grandmother came over for dinner. Afterwards, John plunked an envelope of papers in front of me, right in front of his relatives. It contained three applications for baptism at my mother-in-laws Espiscopal Church. Now Christian Scientists do not baptise, or take communion or any of those physical things other Christian churches do. It goes along with Mary Baker Eddy taking the "no graven images" thing literally. There are no images, no stained glass, no crosses, and no symbolism of water, wine or wafers. Although intellectually, I know it's just a few drops of water, and why would it hurt, this makes me uncomfortable. It's something completely foreign to me. Does she actually think my kids are going to hell if this doesn't happen? Another difference - in CS, hell as well as heaven are states of mind, not actual places.

This is why I'm not religous. It just gives me a headaches and gives heads of state reasons to start wars.

Comments

[li-kao.livejournal.com]

I was raised as a Southern Baptist, but parted ways with that faith by the time I was 12 or so. I did get to have the experience of being completely immersed in the "dunking tank" at my church while wearing my good Sunday clothes. Every kid's gotta love that.

There is one branch of my family that is Roman Catholic. My grandmother is a fairly rigid Southern Baptist. She recently confided in me that she was worried for the kids in the Catholic branch of the family because even though they are Christian, she didn't think that the Catholics had a "very personal" relationship with God.

Sigh.

[miss-geek.livejournal.com]

eeep... when i had dasan i was attacked on all sides about when and where i was going to get him babtised. my family of very non-practicing catholics still thinks that if you are at least babtised you can in fact be forgiven even if you never go to church ever. then his dad's family that was ultra born again christian... no thanks to both sides.

they kept at me for awhile, but it was just a big nono to me. not going to commit my kid to something that young... i'm sorry you have to deal with that. it's rough when you just want them to have choices and be exposed to everything...

[metalmensch.livejournal.com]

I was born into a split faith household. My mother is babtist with mormon sympathies, and my father is lutheran. Both grandparents wanted me babtized in their faith. My parents solved the problem quite easily. I was not babtized. I was then given the opportunity to explore whatever faith I wanted, and choose any of them I wanted (including none of the above) when I turned 8. I chose none, but my family didn't really have a problem with that, since I had been allowed to choose for myself.


Happy Mother's day btw.

[senoritafish.livejournal.com]

John calls the Espiscopal church "Catholic Light" All of the kneeling and one-third the guilt.

I remember going to church with a friend once, where they did the full dunk tank thing. It scared me a little at the time.

[senoritafish.livejournal.com]

I guess I may have to butt heads with her about it. I've basically been ignoring her hints, but I guess I'm going to have to deal with it soon. I hate confrontation.

[senoritafish.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the wishes!

That's what I would like to do, but that's not going to sit well with my MIL. She has a strong personality.

[talonsage.livejournal.com]

*growl* That kind of thing just pisses me off. I was raised Methodist (see, can't even spell it anymore) and Jim while in the army was briefly Mormon. We now celebrate pagan practices, going twice monthly to Earth Centered Traditions meetings. I allowed Ripley to be blessed by my doula's and friend's priest (Espiscopal, i liked her priest, she was really neat, and it was such a small thing to do for Viki who had done such WONDERFUL things for me)but trying to force baptisims makes me VERY angry. It just seems so wrong, and leaves me with a VERY nasty taste in my mouth and a strong urge to do violence.

My advice is to fight this. Tooth and nail. Makes me feel lucky my parent's are religiously ambivlant and my MIL knows better than to meddle either with me or my husband about such things.

*hugs* Stick to your guns!!!

[talonsage.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I actually agree with CS's definations of heaven and hell...back when I was heavily into debate about abortion ( I PROMISE I won't get on my pro-choice soapbox here) I was told often I was going to hell for not believing in THEIR version of God/Jesus/all shit holy...my response always was, "Bring it on...I'm LIVING hell right now. Let's see them do worse." *smirk* Ah, memories...*considers breaking into song...*

[bakayaro-onna.livejournal.com]

Talon breaking into song? And when I first glanced at the first section I thought I read "Springtime for Hitler" instead of "Springtime on Broadway".

Shall we stand and sing that in the church while using squirt guns as baptism devices? And wafers make great confetti when you break them up!

In case you didn't know, I am a born-again Christian with some Pagan, Polynesian, Buddhism and other dashes mixed in, can't you tell?

[senoritafish.livejournal.com]

Hee, hee, they actually included that song in the skit - if you want to listen to it, it's here (http://www.prairiehome.org/performances/20030510/index.shtml) (scroll down to the link that says 1:22:52 - needs real player). Very funny.

If they actually used squirt guns, I might go for it. *Squirt* I got you, you're Catholic. *Squirt* No, now you're Baptist! *Squirt* I got you, now you're Hindu! Umm, no, that's not quite right - getting carried away here....

[senoritafish.livejournal.com]

Hope you don't think I was ignoring you - I actually had something all typed out last night, and my ISP disconnected me just before I posted it. The internet gods apparently didn't want me to, so I gave up and went to bed.

John would be the first to tell that his mother is pushy. She seems to be taking it for granted that her way is just automatically going to happen. I actually get along better with her than he does, but I've never done anything to piss her off yet, he tells me. I plan to confront her about it - maybe I'll take her out to lunch or something, but I have to work up my courage, she intimidates me. Gah!

(Where is a bag of Powdermilk Biscuits* when you need 'em?)