So what happened, Biggirl? Did she ever go back? Did you ever find out what type of church it was? (I was really curious about that.) I want closure!
Biggirl writes:
I’ve got some questions for you all:
How can my daughter find religion this way when she doesn’t know what this religion actually is? It seems to me that she’s not really finding God, she’s just hanging out with her friends.
How can I encourage my children to explore their own sprituality when I, myself, think that sprituality in the form of organized religion is nothing but a bunch of bunk, scare tactics and peer pressure used to make their adherents conform to whatever rules that particular religion endorses?
Why is religion so much harder for me to deal with than sex is, when it comes to my children?
Before anything else, some personal observations about posters to these boards here.
I had the impression that they are all like Cecil Adams, the Straight Dope head mentor, who very certainly gives the picture of a very intelligent person who lives and acts according to pure reason and facts; but the posters here are not all like Cecil Adams; it takes all kinds.
You are right, of course; your daughter is more into social grouping than into religion.
You know that, children specially have to find belonging in a group; many many grown-ups do also.
Talk to her, no arguments here though, as you would a friend and confidante, casually and as occasion on your part calls, about your own views on religion, the good life, pretenses of society, etc.
She might one day come to be a postgraduate Christian, or whatever; better an ecumenical religionist.
No need to become an atheist, however.
What is a postgraduate Christian or an ecumenical religionist?
Look up the posts of Susma Rio Sep here, and you might find something useful.
Forgive me for the self-plugging here; it is flattering to know that others are looking up my posts.
Why is religion harder to talk with kids than sex?
Because sex is real and religion is not; religion is purely emotion; and you know from life that dealing with people who are emotionally ‘subservientized’ is like hitting your head against Gibraltar.
Once your girl becomes ‘allied’ with the people running the Bible study, it will be very hard to put in a rational word into her head; but continue taking to her as a friend and confidant, as I hinted to you above.
One day she will grow up and outgrow her religious convictions if any.
Susma Rio Sep
I guess she decided she’d rather go straight to hell than to be seen in public with her mother.
I asked her about it last week and she told me that she doesn’t have time for it now with basketball, soccer and her girlfriend’s sweet sixteen. I really think it was all about a boy-- that she’s no longer interested in.