Several excellent questions!
We raised our children (in their early years) in the Lutheran Church, where we were very very involved. They also went to an Episcopalian private school, but it was not at all "religious" in the classroom. They had a brief morning convo that I thought was an excellent start to the day- sort of a center and focus time- very calming.
When we moved out of Dallas and they entered public school, they were in 6 and 8th grade. At that time, one decided he was an atheist, and the other just thought the whole thing very boring. I had burned out on what I had experienced and was no longer convinced that organized religion had much to do with God. If there was one.
So we stopped going.
One of my college roommates, a brilliant woman, raised strict Catholic, became a Unitarian. She has a PhD from MIT in either Physics or CHem (I always forget)and is Dean of a College. The U. Church fills the need for her and her family for a moral environment, basically Christian in its philosophy- and for social interactions - and that is the one thing I do believe a church can do in this age where we are so alienated from each other. Your story about your Uni friend sounds exactly like what KC tried to explain to me about the intellectual appeal of that church. Basically you can believe whatever suits you.
The difference between Santa and religion seems great to me. Santa is a once a year occurrence who has little to do with daily life- he isn't integral in the way Christianity demands itself to be. I can't see any reason to teach it if you're not going to believe it as a faith. By definition Christian churches expect allegiance to and belief in a miraculous and mysterious triune God.
I can make up happier fairy tales to comfort small children, if that is all the meaning Christianity would have for you. When you say teach as we teach about Santa...you mean believe in it for 7 years, and then tell them never mind, it was a lie? ALl these adults, week after week, teaching you about Jesus, are just deluded? No, I think that would be really confusing and unsettling. Better not to start it.
(Just thought of Ciderhouse Rules where when Fuzzy dies, they tell the other orphans that he has found a family)
At least EVERYONE agrees that Santa isn't really coming down the chimney and no one gets really ticked when you don't believe in him anymore. |
