Religion

I’ve talked politics and sex already so I might as well keep it up while I’m on a roll.

I’ve never kept my religious beliefs a secret. I believe in neither a god nor religion itself. I was brought up in a family that is religious in a mild kind of way. My parents attend church once a month or so – they like how peaceful it is. I went to Sunday school as a child – mum and dad wanted us to be armed with information before we decided what direction we wanted to take with regard to religion when we grew up. All three of us chose the no-church route. My sister perhaps less so than my brother and I. She went through a reborn phase during her teenage years (which passed as quickly as it came – thank god) and chose to have a church wedding.

Which brings me to the purpose of this post.

I have been happy with my non-religious stance for the last 20 odd years. I attend church for weddings and funerals only. I sing the appropriate songs and listen to the appropriate prayers – because they are important to the people that are getting married or buried. I was fortunate to marry someone that feels the same way that I do. Shaun attended a religious school so has also made an informed decision not to believe in god or attend church.

But what do we do for our children? I think that every individual has the right to make up their own mind, but I also have some inherant issues with the concept of religion. I’m not sure that I am comfortable sending my kids to church and I don’t think that non-religious schools teach religion any more. Although I understand the concepts, I would be hard pushed to give my children the information required in order to make their own decisions without influencing them.

The children aren’t born yet and the subject has already arisen. My mother brought out my christening gown a few months back. I told her that there won’t be a christening. It seemed to take her a while to get her head around that, but to her credit, she didn’t debate it with me. She knows it’s my decision to make. I told her that we would have some sort of non-religious naming ceremony/celebration.  She suggested that perhaps the baby could wear the christening gown to that. I told her that I had already bought a superman costume complete with built in cape and we were thinking that perhaps that would be more appropriate. As it turns out, we then found out that we would be having two babies and above all other things, my mother is fair. There is no way she would allow one baby to wear a special outfit and not the other!

Interestingly, my sister has decided that they will be christening their child.

I’m thinking that sounds like the perfect time to crack out the superman suits.