And I have to laugh!
What must happen is that I mention being in a group of all atheists or freethinking people whenever we are, somehow, in a group where atheists are in the majority. It's absolutely noteworthy to mention it because it's rare. Exceedingly rare. And nice.
The thing is that this claim (or is it an accusation?) by this friend of mine is another way for people to express their underlying disapproval.
Message received...Friend.
Think about it.
See. It's a total double standard and yet another sign of Christian privilege in this country. The interesting thing is that when I comment thusly to my friend she states her concern that she is just worried for the kids, that they are not learning to live in this Christian culture. HA.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Other atheist and freethinking parents,
please, in the comments, set my friend straight
Wow, the idea of our family being able to spend most of our time around like minded people would be amazing!! We are 99.9% surrounded by christians who of course assume we are christians too. I spend 40 hours a week at work with christians. Thankfully we have a group of science loving homeschoolers we hang out with a few times a month, and we have a lot in common with them, but I think most if not all are christian. We belong to an atheist group (no kids in the group) but are only able to get with them around 5 times a year. And we are friends with 1 family who are atheists and see them fewer times than that....My daughter takes a Spanish class and it is in a classroom in a church and it makes all of our stomachs turn when we go there because for an hour and a half we have to see religious messages all over the place. So, I feel like my kids have a deficit in the area of hanging out with like minded people. I am sorry but always hanging out with people who believe in a fictional overseer that when you pray to him, makes sure you pass a test, but fails to save a baby dying of Leukemia is difficult. If anything, our kids will have more people skills and be more tolerant than any christian. But really, I don't want to them to be too tolerant. Anyway, I have been reading your blog for years and if this is the first time I commented, I am sorry. I really enjoy it. Thanks!!!
ReplyDeleteWe are in a similar situation to yourselves. I let my older daughter even attend a christian camp with her best friend at the time which I really regret now. As I feel it leaves her with some feelings of guilt and confusion although she tries to hide it. My younger daughter has no qualms but, like you about 99% of her friends are christians. I purposely hunt for secular groups for us to join into these days but they are hard to find here in NZ homeschooling circles.
DeleteMy husband adamantly refuses to attend the monthly think and drinks with me. I have invited him. He's met at least one member because that member was the one who helped me get my driver's license last year. And yet, I have attended church with him in the past. I have gone to the Feast with him and attended services. Many of my friends online are Christians and my family for the most part are believers and therefore Christians as well. And even the think and drink that I attend, that's for those in the freethinker's group I'm in, we've had a Christian at. In fact, he has followed our blog for many years and found out Facebook page. So a lot of times, we don't even get an event that is atheists only because Christians STILL want to barge in and try to put their two cents in! But the uproar if we were atheists were to do the same...
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm curious, what exactly is she speaking of when she says Christian culture? Are we talking about the uneducated, bigoted, xenophobic, homophobic culture like that my husband is entrenched into? Or are we talking about the "love thy neighbor", do good works, culture that does not require a god whatsoever? I mean really, I would love to know what Christian culture is because I have seen believers of every sort. I'm also curious if she were to say the same to a Christian who home-schools and more or less isolates their children as much as possible from the real world as some Christians do.