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Wednesday, February 6, 2008

CHRISTless Christianity; RELIGIONless Religion

The February 11 issue of "Newsweek" has a "Modern Family" column on page 60 titled "Talking to Kids About God." The author, Kathleen Deveny, is a self-described "cafeteria Catholic" (I admire her honesty...come down the serving line of the Catholic faith and take want you want; pass on what you don't like...and, alas, it is not just Catholics who do so).

She thinks "it is easier to talk to (her) daughter about sex than about God. Perhaps that's because I have a pretty good idea where babies come from, but I'm still a little fuzzy on the details about God."

Well, since she is (again, by her own admission) picking-and-choosing tidbits here and there about her faith, it is no wonder she is "fuzzy on the details."

But the saddest part in her column occurs as she quotes a friend who has a nine-year-old daughter, "I kind of play down the religious aspect of church...At a recent meeting to discuss what we would like the Sunday school to teach, I got quite a few funny looks when I said I didn't want a lot of emphasis on the spiritual side of things."

Man, I sure am glad she got some "funny looks" instead of applause!

I was raised in a non-church-going family. Christ grabbed me when I was 26. These many years later I still can't understand why people (regardless of denomination) go to church if they don't believe. Obviously for some it is a cultural thing; some, I suppose, go for the "sake of the children."

But to verbalize one's belief that Sunday school should not teach spiritual things amazes me. That's not even "holding to a form of godliness..."

1 comment:

tvtv3 said...

It's a sign of the times, Jack. A sign of the times. I'm glad that people didn't applaud her, but I would wager that events like that are more common place than most people would suspect.