NationStates Jolt Archive

Time to play what if (If you want to skip the explanation to the actual question, feel free)...

For those of you not paying attention, my son was born about 4 weeks ago. Lately my wife and I have been talking about how we plan to raise him and what we want to teach him, which has led us to discuss what or how to deal with our beliefs.

My wife is Buddhist, but not too serious about it. She's also Japanese which means that there are certain Shinto rituals that she does and wants for our son. I am Christian, but feel very strongly that my son's beliefs should be up to him to decide when he is old enough to look at everything and judge what is right for him, meaning I don't plan to have him baptized. Mainly we've agreed to leave him alone and let him figure it out while being around to answer questions about what we believe in.

But (Here's the question), what would you do if your son or daughter chose beliefs that are diametrically opposed to yours? Meaning, if for example, you are hard core Atheist, they decide to become a born again Christian? Or vice versa? How would you handle it?

I'd probably try my hardest to be tolerant, and hope that my resolve held out so that I didn't snap at them or anything, which would be a bit sad.

I don't think I'd be too bothered. But I'm sans kiddies, so what would I know?


Also, raise your son to be a pastafarian. He'll appreciate it if he has a sense of humour. Also, he's half Japanese, and Japan is the home of Ramen.

Time to play what if (If you want to skip the explanation to the actual question, feel free)...

For those of you not paying attention, my son was born about 4 weeks ago. Lately my wife and I have been talking about how we plan to raise him and what we want to teach him, which has led us to discuss what or how to deal with our beliefs.

My wife is Buddhist, but not too serious about it. She's also Japanese which means that there are certain Shinto rituals that she does and wants for our son. I am Christian, but feel very strongly that my son's beliefs should be up to him to decide when he is old enough to look at everything and judge what is right for him, meaning I don't plan to have him baptized. Mainly we've agreed to leave him alone and let him figure it out while being around to answer questions about what we believe in.

But (Here's the question), what would you do if your son or daughter chose beliefs that are diametrically opposed to yours? Meaning, if for example, you are hard core Atheist, they decide to become a born again Christian? Or vice versa? How would you handle it?

Heh easy, leave it up to them, answer all of their questions.

I'm Sikh, my wife is atheist, and I myself come from a largely atheist family, as does my wife. My kids at this moment in time are atheist, and they may or may not change their minds.

Father: Atheist
Mother: Buddhist
Grandmother: Buddhist
Me: Agnostic (ex Atheist)
Siblings: Atheist

Me: Agnostic (ex Atheist)

You should read the Atheist/Agnostic thread, from about here (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13155000&postcount=46)

Also, raise your son to be a pastafarian. He'll appreciate it if he has a sense of humour. Also, he's half Japanese, and Japan is the home of Ramen.
There's just something missing in the translation. I've tried to explain the concept behind the FSM, but my wife really thinks it's wrong. She accepts atheism, she understands WHY the FSM, but she still doesn't get why anyone would actually do that. So... if he wants to be, he won't be getting it from me. I want to EAT my ramen, not wear it. ;)

I would only be really upset if the kid ended up having beliefs that I thought would be inherently and seriously harmful, like if the kid became a skinhead or joined one of those "churches" that talk about killing all the fags.

My kid brother will probably end up being religious (he's leaning that way already), even though our family is devoutly agnostic and 3/4 atheist. My parents and I are a little sad that Little Bro will not be sharing in our particular world-view, but we know that he'll probably be happy and healthy and just fine when/if he embraces religion. We just want him to be safe and happy, after all, and there will always be so many other places where we can share our lives.

Take the kid to Sunday school, do the Shinto rituals, be good parents. Don't worry about what the grandparents think. He'll turn out fine.

Lets see:

I am a Satanist.
My mother is Wiccan.
My sister is pagan.
One brother is an Atheist.
One brother is Agnostic.
My wife is Christian.

Our children, not only will have the freedom to chose what to believe, and acceptance of their beliefs, but chances are they will have some family member who would share that belief.

if you belong to a sect that baptises babies, i dont see a reason not to baptise him. if its common in your denomination to wait, then wait.

your religion is as much a part of your culture as your wife's religion is part of hers. you recognize that there is nothing "wrong" with your wife doing shinto things with your son. its also not wrong for you to do christian things with him.

the key is to not diss the other spouses beliefs. your son will sort it out in his own head when he is old enough. he may well grow up to be both shinto and christian.

so take him to church with you now and then. when he is older teach him to pray. tell him bible stories. celebrate christian holidays. it might be hard to fit it all in with the shinto versions of the same thing but thats a good problem not a bad one.

it will only enrich his life.

and CONGRATULATIONS!

make sure your wife is getting as much sleep as possible.

Me: Atheist
My parents: Agnostic
In-laws: Jewish
Husband: 'I don't wanna say'; non-confrontational anti-religious crap j

If we had children, it would be up to them, though I wouldn't put it past me to ensure that my children grow up to be at least agnostic. ;)

Shrug and wait till it passes.

If there is one thing I've learned about religious beliefs in my life is that they are never set in stone. They will ALWAYS change eventually, as long as the person in question is willing to actually think about them.
I've seen people drift between atheism, Christianity, Wicca, Buddhism, back to atheism. It takes a few years, normally.
So I just wouldn't worry too much and trust in my child's ability to think for him/herself.

Shrug and wait till it passes.

If there is one thing I've learned about religious beliefs in my life is that they are never set in stone. They will ALWAYS change eventually, as long as the person in question is willing to actually think about them.
I've seen people drift between atheism, Christianity, Wicca, Buddhism, back to atheism. It takes a few years, normally.
So I just wouldn't worry too much and trust in my child's ability to think for him/herself.
This is also a very good point. The only sticky part is that, as a parent, you also have to exercise judgment about when you do need to step in.

For instance, there was a cult that used to try to recruit on my college campus. They would get hold of the schedule for Freshman Welcome week, and would make sure to target new freshman at every possible opportunity. This cult was deeply cultish, too, the sort that would do everything they could to convince a kid to totally cut themselves off from their family, drop out of school, move to a compound, and give everything they owned to the scammers running the cult. (During my Junior year they ended up getting busted for some money-related crimes, and were finally run off for good.)

It must be hell for a parent to try to deal with something like that. It's totally normal for your kid to have some dramatic new beliefs or ideas when they've gone off to school for the first time. A good parent doesn't want to squash that, and wants their kid to be able to try on different ideas and beliefs to see which ones fit. Yet a good parent also wants to keep their child safe and help their kid see pitfalls before Junior pitches into them head first.

But (Here's the question), what would you do if your son or daughter chose beliefs that are diametrically opposed to yours? Meaning, if for example, you are hard core Atheist, they decide to become a born again Christian? Or vice versa? How would you handle it?
I might point out several flaws in logic and would be seriously concerned about my kid if they became a hardcore christian.

But yeah, my dad is rather adamant about his religion, which is why I don't discuss religion with him. The rest of my family seems pretty apathetic.

This is also a very good point. The only sticky part is that, as a parent, you also have to exercise judgment about when you do need to step in.

For instance, there was a cult that used to try to recruit on my college campus. They would get hold of the schedule for Freshman Welcome week, and would make sure to target new freshman at every possible opportunity. This cult was deeply cultish, too, the sort that would do everything they could to convince a kid to totally cut themselves off from their family, drop out of school, move to a compound, and give everything they owned to the scammers running the cult. (During my Junior year they ended up getting busted for some money-related crimes, and were finally run off for good.)

It must be hell for a parent to try to deal with something like that. It's totally normal for your kid to have some dramatic new beliefs or ideas when they've gone off to school for the first time. A good parent doesn't want to squash that, and wants their kid to be able to try on different ideas and beliefs to see which ones fit. Yet a good parent also wants to keep their child safe and help their kid see pitfalls before Junior pitches into them head first.

Well, cults are a bit of an extreme scenario. Not entirely unlikely, unfortunately, but I had understood Nervun's question to be aimed at more mainstream and slightly less harmful groups and faiths.
I wouldn't be too happy if my kid started to hang out with Jehova's witnesses, either, to be honest.
It's very hard to give general advise in this case, as the desire for faith varies from person to person, and at different ages. And I think it's this desire to believe in something that eventually determines what a person chooses to believe in.

Well, cults are a bit of an extreme scenario. Not entirely unlikely, unfortunately, but I had understood Nervun's question to be aimed at more mainstream and slightly less harmful groups and faiths.
I wouldn't be too happy if my kid started to hang out with Jehova's witnesses, either, to be honest.
It's very hard to give general advise in this case, as the desire for faith varies from person to person, and at different ages. And I think it's this desire to believe in something that eventually determines what a person chooses to believe in.
Well, yeah, my point was that there's not always a clean line between "less harmful" groups and "more harmful" ones.

I'm agnostic and tolerant of any religion as long as they don't try to "enlighten" me, don't expect me to take them too seriously, and maybe please keep down the ritualistic racket (church bells 'n' stuff)?
I don't believe there is a "diametrical opposite" to that, except maybe fundamentalist pantheism? :D

My family is religiously - strange.

I'm a recovering Catholic Agnostic neo-Pagan Taoist.
My ex is a lapsed Catholic
My kids are agnostic - except I think my son would really like to be able to believe something.
Both my parents were apathetic agnostics
My grandmother was Mormon.
My sister is Pagan.

I really don't care what my kids do as long as they're happy and don't try to turn me into what they are.

But, if my kids ever became California Liberals, I would cry.

Mother: Atheist
Dad: Atheist
Me: Atheist

If one of my kids, which I'll probably never have, grew up to be religious I would be dissapointed but it wouldn't bother me too much if they continued to be good people.

if you belong to a sect that baptises babies, i dont see a reason not to baptise him. if its common in your denomination to wait, then wait.

your religion is as much a part of your culture as your wife's religion is part of hers. you recognize that there is nothing "wrong" with your wife doing shinto things with your son. its also not wrong for you to do christian things with him.

the key is to not diss the other spouses beliefs. your son will sort it out in his own head when he is old enough. he may well grow up to be both shinto and christian.

so take him to church with you now and then. when he is older teach him to pray. tell him bible stories. celebrate christian holidays. it might be hard to fit it all in with the shinto versions of the same thing but thats a good problem not a bad one.

it will only enrich his life.

and CONGRATULATIONS!

make sure your wife is getting as much sleep as possible.

double agree.

I wouldn't have a problem but my extended family would probably have a slight problem should my future children turn to catholicism. It doesn't bother me though and I would never let my family meddle in such affairs

I used to be catholic, but now atheist.
Parents are Catholic, but no where as into it as before.
My brothers are...I'm not sure. They've probably stopped caring years ago.

I'm now mostly apathetic towards religion, so if I had kids and they were religious, I'd be fine, granted they don't try to force their beliefs on me.

But (Here's the question), what would you do if your son or daughter chose beliefs that are diametrically opposed to yours? Meaning, if for example, you are hard core Atheist, they decide to become a born again Christian? Or vice versa? How would you handle it?

I would admit serious difficulty in handling such a situation, especially since I'd have tried to prevent it. Not in the sense of saying "religion is bad, mmkay?" but in promoting reason and logic over belief without evidence and then letting her decide for herself. I would hope she would have the sense not to fall prey to something like a Born-Again Christian.

How I would handle it though...I cannot say. Fuck, I'm only twenty anyway. I hardly intend to have kids now. I'll probably wait till I'm at least thirty.

bhudism is way better than christianity :D:D

dont go round telling him you have to live like this or burn in hell for the rest of etirnity, thats just not nice (and retarded) :p, so yeah if you have to choose go with budhism but best to make him make up his own mind

It would probably be difficult. I'm nominally Catholic, but haven't been a practicing Catholic in 25 years. Most of my beliefs are a combination of Zen Buddhist/Taoist with some "New Age" thought, so a child that went the opposite way would likely be a Fundamentalist Christian who would come at odds with me the second they tried to proselytize/denounce me, and we'd probably never speak again. If I ever had a child, I would try to teach them to respect others' beliefs, and Evangelical Christianity doesn't often do that. I would still love, but would likely not want to be around, a child that constantly harangues me about how I'm going to hell for not being just like them.

Me: Agnostic
Mother: Agnostic
Brother: Agnostic
Sister: Agnostic
Dad: Normally not religious but has his moments when he gets offended by the random "Jesus Christ!" or "God damn it!"
Fiance: Muslim

My dads random religious bullshit turned me off from religion when I was a young'n (easily influenced and impressionable, y'know...), and top that off with my dad doing some very horrible things to me, I embraced my mother and what she believes more than anything. I eventually started to actually look up some stuff to find what I truly wanted, which made me consider myself an atheist for a while. I also had a period were I'd periodically pray, but that didn't really work out, and now I'm comfortably agnostic - a fence sitter.

I have a son from a previous relationship. My son never grew up with a mother, so when my fiance came into the picture he attached to him like glue. They've grown to a point where I do consider him his father as well as me, and is further proven by my encouraging my son call him dad.

However, my fiance doesn't try to raise him with his beliefs. He realizes that despite the strong relationship and bond, he's still my son and that my beliefs among all others should be the one he's raised with. Since me and my fiance agree on 99.99% of everything, it hasn't become a big deal, and since I'm agnostic I guess he's open to a child that isn't necessarily religious either. I do think my fiance should raise him with his own views though, because a single view is slanted, and I want my child to be open and accepting.

If he turns out the complete opposite of how I raised him, I'll be pretty damn upset but accept the fact that I raised him to think for himself and hoped he'd use common sense and not go the other way. Then cry for a month.

Mom: Roman Catholic.
Dad: Catholic-different sect
Stepdad: fell away from his religion
Me: Roman Catholic/Neo-Pagan.

As long as my (purely hypothetical) offspring don't believe in something violent or bigoted, I'd probably be fine with it.

That or some sort of cult. I'd probably have to give 'em a good stern talking-to about how harmful cults can be and possibly scare the living shit out of a few people.

OT:
Mom: Hindu
Dad: Hindu
Sister (so far as I know): Hindu
Extended family/grandparents, etc.: Hindu

Me? Atheist/Agnostic, but I don't think anyone takes me seriously about it.

I'll indoctrinate my children so good they'll never even think of having different believes. (in reality I don't plan on having children, but if I had and they did have different views (which I doubt, everybody I know i atheist and they only do some of the silly religious things out of tradition) I think I would respect them, what else to do?)

As long as my (purely hypothetical) offspring don't believe in something violent or bigoted, I'd probably be fine with it.

That or some sort of cult. I'd probably have to give 'em a good stern talking-to about how harmful cults can be and possibly scare the living shit out of a few people.

OT:
Mom: Hindu
Dad: Hindu
Sister (so far as I know): Hindu
Extended family/grandparents, etc.: Hindu

Me? Atheist/Agnostic, but I don't think anyone takes me seriously about it.

Same...except sub in "sikh" for "Hindu"

No child of mine is gonna believe in any 'god'! :p

Honestly, on the very slim chance that I ever have children and they happen to chose a faith not of my own, I don't think I'd care much as long as I didn't have to hear about it. The best of the faithful are the people who you can't tell are religious.

I have no real desire to have children, but if I do, I hope I do as good a job as my parents did of dealing with their snot-nosed, always-angry, atheist, troublemaker of a son when I was growing up.

See, both of my parents are religious. My dad's a very Liberal Episcopal who very nearly ended up becoming a Preist in the church when he was younger. However, as he got older, he became jaded by the evils he saw being done in the name of his religion, and he doesn't go to church any more, except on Christmas. My mother comes from a Methodist family, and is, herself, a non-denominational Christian.

When I was younger, we never really stayed in one place for long. We lived in Boston, Boca Raton, and Northern Virginia. We went to an Episcopal church in Boston, an Unitarian Universalist church in Florida, and we went to a very liberal Episcopal church in Virginia. However, when we moved out to Washington, my father could not find a church he felt at home in. The local Episcopals were of the Conservative flavor, and he had been boycotting the UU since a particularly rude woman gave a sermon about population control at our last UU church, and spent the whole time glaring at my brother and I.

So, when I became a militant Atheist of the troublemaking, won't-ever-drop-it kind, and refused to take part in religious stuff, my parents took it well. They never attempted to pressure me, and never argued with me, unless I was actively seeking a debate with them. The only time we really fought was when I lost my temper and called the local church a bunch of, "Biggotted, Christian pigs", and then it was because I was myself being a biggot.

As a Nontheist/Noneoftheabovereallytheist, I hope I can show as much tolerance and support for my child as my parents did, even if they disagree with me completely.

Time to play what if (If you want to skip the explanation to the actual question, feel free)...

For those of you not paying attention, my son was born about 4 weeks ago. Lately my wife and I have been talking about how we plan to raise him and what we want to teach him, which has led us to discuss what or how to deal with our beliefs.

My wife is Buddhist, but not too serious about it. She's also Japanese which means that there are certain Shinto rituals that she does and wants for our son. I am Christian, but feel very strongly that my son's beliefs should be up to him to decide when he is old enough to look at everything and judge what is right for him, meaning I don't plan to have him baptized. Mainly we've agreed to leave him alone and let him figure it out while being around to answer questions about what we believe in.

But (Here's the question), what would you do if your son or daughter chose beliefs that are diametrically opposed to yours? Meaning, if for example, you are hard core Atheist, they decide to become a born again Christian? Or vice versa? How would you handle it?

If they started pushing their beliefs on me, I'd react rather badly. If they didn't, I'd be okay with it.

I was raised unitarian so if I had kids that's how they would be raised.

If they rebelled and became fundamentalist christian, at least they won't be doing anything dangerous. The only religion I would get mad about is any kind of stupid cult. I won't raise a scientologist.

if i had a kid who decided to be religious i'd ask them why, then most likely call them a wally, then say "whatever makes you happy, just don't get too weird about it". my mum treated my atheism as a personal afront but i think she's forgiven me by now, she had to learn a lot of tolerance with me growing up, ha!

But (Here's the question), what would you do if your son or daughter chose beliefs that are diametrically opposed to yours? Meaning, if for example, you are hard core Atheist, they decide to become a born again Christian? Or vice versa? How would you handle it?
I'm big on "evangelizing through actions," mostly because it seems like less work than evangelizing from a soapbox. It's no more true than with children: If a kid grew up in a Christian household and his parents behaved in a good, Christian way, you probably wouldn't have to ever take him to church for him to associate himself with Christianity, even if it's the type that sleeps in on Sundays. Likewise, if a kid grew up with Christians who he couldn't wait to escape from, daily Mass wouldn't keep him part of the Church.
In short, if you want your children to make up their own mind about what they believe, that's good, but they're most likely to follow your lead. If you're a good parent, I don't see how a child could adopt views diametrically opposed to yours (not counting teenage rebellion, cult brainwashing, persecution, etc.).

What exactly to people mean when they say their relative is pagan? A bit of a catch-all for Western pre-Christian beliefs isn't it?

Me: Deist
Brother: Deist (I converted him from Agnosticism)
Father: Catholic
Mother: The best I could say is she is mystical, although she does favor the Catholic church

Dad: raised Anglican, probably more of a Deist now
Mum: Protestant
Sister: lapsed Anglican/Protestant
Sister: lapsed Capitalist
Partner: Catholic
Me: sliding toward Buddhist

Mom: Raised Lutheran, had a go at Bhuddism in the 60s, now non-practicing.

Dad: Raised Catholic, minimalistic practicing Catholic.

Me: Parents didn't shove religion down my throat, but did put me in Catholic school for a good education... where of course religion was shoved down my throat, became agnostic then realized I do believe in something and eventually decided that my beliefs mostly allign with Wiccan.

Husband: Raised Catholic in a very conservative Catholic family, is anything but Catholic now.

Son: Baptised Catholic, but I never took him to church or preached any one particular belief to him. Only recently since forced to live with husband's family temporarily has he been taken to church... he doesn't like it.

first of all i just wanted to say you sound like fantastic parents, Very few of us have the freedom to grow up without a religion being forced on us.

I have very different views to my parents and that's quite hard sometimes. There are issues we just cannot talk about.

I don't have children but if I did I would do the same as you. It is a mature and thoughtful and most importantly it shows respect for different beliefs. Actually thinking about it I may have to compromise, eg I don't celebrate Christmas, but most people do so would i put up a tree? Well no, but when the child's older would i let him / her put up a tree probably yes.

Other than my immediate family there are a couple of different religions in my family and also a catholic / protestant divide amongst the Christians with each being brought up to think they are superior to the other.

Well done again for allowing your child the freedom to chose

What exactly to people mean when they say their relative is pagan? A bit of a catch-all for Western pre-Christian beliefs isn't it?

they mean neo-pagan, as in people who pretend to have a clue about the belief systems of extinct cultures and generally make fools of themselves.

I shall shelter my children from religion until they are 18, at which point I legal do not have to give a fuck about them.

if you belong to a sect that baptises babies, i dont see a reason not to baptise him. if its common in your denomination to wait, then wait.
Me, personally, I believe in waiting until the child actually understand what he or she is doing.

your religion is as much a part of your culture as your wife's religion is part of hers. you recognize that there is nothing "wrong" with your wife doing shinto things with your son. its also not wrong for you to do christian things with him.
Well, with Shinto, it's... well... Odd. Japan and the Japanese usually don't bother seperating religion from culture, so when people go to a shrine at New Years, they do so less because of faith and more because they are Japanese. The closest annology I could give you would be US and Canada's Thanksgiving, people celebrate them because they are American or Canadian, not because they are particuarlly religious, even though originally they were such holidays. So when my wife wants to take him to the shrine on his 100th day, it's not religion, just being Japanese.

the key is to not diss the other spouses beliefs. your son will sort it out in his own head when he is old enough. he may well grow up to be both shinto and christian.
Heh... then he'll be like every other Japanese. ;)

and CONGRATULATIONS!
Thanks!

make sure your wife is getting as much sleep as possible.
I'm trying, but God that woman is stuborn!

my mum is quite strongly christian, my dad is kind of agnostic/uninterested i think (never really talked religion with my dad), and i'm not sure about my sister, she definitely doesn't like organised relgion but i don't know what she actually believes in if anything.

Just one. I think I'm the best thing to have hit this world in many a year. Rest of my family think I'm just being a total arse.
it's a gulf I don't think will ever be bridged. I feel sorry for them, I really do.

my mother had been raised, i forget for sure which of the three major division within judaism at the time her mother's family had been. for her, though, by the time i came along, it was pretty much just all about the holidays. my dad had been raised episcopalian, to the extent you could say he had been raised at all, long and complex story their, but at any rate by the time i was born he had become an agnostic with genericly cryptochristic overtones.

you could say i was raised not particularly over religeous. so of course, part of growing being to try things you're not familiar with, when i was 11 i started going to the different churches in the little town where we lived. there weren't any synagogs, and i never did get arround to trying the catholics, but i did spend three years listning to the brainwashing of an outfit called assembly of god. for variety i'd occasionnaly slip over to the methodests who were at least sane, mostly. it took my three years to figure out they were a bunch of loonies, but all that speaking in toungs and singing hallaluya, and getting born again again and again was a hell of a kick, and they were all having a grand time and all, but it sort of eventually dawned on me, that whatever god there was, none of this seemed very likely to have a whole lot of anything to do with.

when i was in the air force (which is how i got out of being drafted into the army, another long story), i finnally got to explore jewish chappell, which was pretty cool, a lot mellower and a lot more connected with ancient eternity then the other lunacy had been.

after i got out, when i was going to u.n.r., i hooked up with the baha'is, and for anyone who doesn't know who or what they are, the're definately worth exploring. if western monothiesm makes sense to you, they are, most likely, as is their claim, the most current itteration thereof, and therefor, as well as for other reasons, perhapse the most sensible.

i've since drifted away from then as well and come to the conclusion that while there may be one god or zillions of god like beings, what we don't know we don't know. what we can feel and experience without pretending to know what we don't, we can. and they probably make good friends to have, big invisible and friendly and all the little invisible and friendly whatever's too.

i actually started reading about buddhism along about the same time as i was first exploring the christer loonies, but, like i said, there wasn't anything else in that little town.

much later, when i was working for the railroad, several years after getting out of the air force, i started reading about daoism too.

and then when i was with the baha'is i met some indiginous people, washoe and western shoshone over in reno/sparks, although, not realizing it, i had grown up going to school with some of the maidu people from arround where i've lived most of my life.

so i've come to see real spiritness where you find it, while at the same time shunning fanatacism, as even the revealers of beliefs themselves did, each in there own day, and i'm not so sure the day won't come when maybe they'll all get the message. about fanatacism being not on that is.

so anyway, back to the question: i think everyone has to do their own seeking and fallow their own path, however hard this may be on parents or anyone else. just, the only major thing, is to keep pointing out the perils to all of us, of whatever belief, of going overboard, putting myopic perceptions ahead of the kind of world we all have to live in. beyond that, it's all there to explore to their hearts content.

=^^=
.../\...

Most of my family are non practicing Christians. My grandma and her partner are agnostic I believe. I do have a few fundies in my family some where, but I stray away from them. I, of course, am a practicing Christian.

they mean neo-pagan, as in people who pretend to have a clue about the belief systems of extinct cultures and generally make fools of themselves.

Oh, I thought maybe they were druids or something. :)

in my fam we have

- ex Children of God/The Family Cult members
- Baptists
- Pentacostal Christians
- Catholics
- non-denominational Protestants
- New Agey-change-their-belief-system-every-cycle-of-the-moon
- Spiritualists [think they can talk to & see the dead]
- Indian guru-junkies - have no idea if there is a name for what they believe but they will wait hours in line to kiss an old Indian lady's feet ???
- Atheists

basically, we're a bag of mixed nuts :D

Oh, I thought maybe they were druids or something. :)

that's exactly what i mean.