Sunday, May 2, 2010

Beliefs

It may come a shock to some but I and most of my family are not christian(see name of blog). I was raised Baha'i (http://www.bahai.org/) and my husband was not raised with any belief system. We have both developed our own thru the years and have hopefully passed them on to our kids to start them on their own journeys. Our kids were allowed to go to different churches with their friends, we took them to some and they were generally exposed to most religions. A couple of years ago we joined the Unitarian Universalist congregation (http://www.uua.org/). The first time we went there I was amazed at several members who were wearing pentacle and not catching any flak from it. I found out that this church has a large group of Pagans that go there, it felt like a good place to be.
One of my daughters went to a friends baptism a couple of years ago, I thought it was a neat experience for her. Later she asked me when she was going to be baptized ( her friend had explained the she HAD to get baptized). Now we do not believe in baptizing,especially children. Most kids have no idea why they are getting baptized, they do it because their parents/church/friends tell them they need to do it. I think this is an adult decision, know why you are doing it and deep understanding of this decision. So--- My adult son who is married to a wonderful girl called me to say he was getting baptized! They had been following the pagan path.He had said they had started attending the church where his wife works as a daycare teacher and were really liking it there, it felt good. His siblings will probably razz him a bit but I am happy for him. I know he is going into this with his eyes and heart open and not because someone forced their beliefs on him. It is the right decision for him at this time.
I see all religions as part of a huge diamond with many faucets. Each faucets represents a religion/belief surrounding Spirit/Goddess/God/Allah/Vishnu/Yahweh/Almighty or whatever you call this entity in you heart. Some stay with what they grow up with, some go to the opposite extreme, a lot try out different paths taking a little from each to fit what works for them. In the book The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk the main characters celebrate sacred days from all the religions and combined some from them all. To me this would be ideal, then no one can tell someone else that their beliefs are wrong.

1 comment:

tressabelle said...

Great article, Penny. My oldest (who is now 21) also disregarded her Pagan upbringing and is now a Baptist. I accept it. It's just who she is. Her chosen religion suits her.