No, I haven't killed a pig.

The BBQ Pit
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I don’t even eat pig…well, the occasional bacon, but that’s it.

I spent all of yesterday working with my mother on sewing a black dress because I need one for a ritual we women are doing in church next Sunday.

Mom has cued in to the fact that I’m pagan. This fact does not make her happy, since she’s kind of nominally Presbyterian/Christian Science, but she’s being relatively tolerant of it. (Read: She hasn’t ripped my head off about it yet. I think she’s just happy that I’m not an atheist (sp?) like my sister…)

Anyway, I’m trying to explain the ritual (such as it is) to her, and all of a sudden out of the blue she pops off with, “have you killed a pig yet?”

SisterCoyote: “Uh…no? What?”
Mom: “You know, a pig or a chicken…”
SC: “EEW. No, Mom, we don’t do that…”

then spending the next few minutes trying to explain paganism/wicca to my mother (which probably would have gone much better if I hadn’t let drop that we were going to symbolically burn one of the women on Sunday :eek: ). Mom falls silent and continues pinning pieces of fabric to each other, then says,

“Do you suppose God approves of you guys?”

The only response I can come up with that won’t provoke an arguement? “I don’t see why he wouldn’t.”

AAAAARRRRRRRRRGH! I love my mother, but I wish she’d read a book. Or something - I know everything I try and tell her goes in one ear and out the other.

Sheesh.

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Did you burn your bacon?

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At least she didn’t ask if you’d sacrificed a live virgin yet…

:smiley:

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So, if you didn’t kill the pig, can I have it?

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TOP TEN WICCAN ANSWERS to well-intentioned Mom-types…

  1. Oh, God pretty much got all that burning-at-the-stake stuff out of his system and things are better now.

  2. Of course She does!

  3. Hey, never underestimate the value of a notorious counterexample!

  4. Ever since we slipped a little eye of newt into the communion chalice, He’s left us alone.

  5. Why not? We spend less time than the others disapproving of all the other guys, which seems to please God if I understand matters correctly.

  6. I suppose so. Hasn’t said otherwise.

  7. Well, I went to a mainstream church once and the preacher seemed to think God didn’t approve of anyone there, so I took him at his word and went elsewhere.

  8. Part of what we do is ask God within ourselves to answer that question, for we seek to harm none as we go through life.

  9. Come along to our next coven and you can ask God yourself!

  10. Wisdom is as light, and its source shineth of its own accord. It is not a sin nor a sign of irreverence to seek your own answers.

:wink:

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You wouldn’t happen to know where… ah never mind.

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Of course I meant to reply to this post, but God thwarted my evil plan.

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And if you haven’t sacrificed the live virgin yet -

Can I have her?

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Dear, you could always quote Him (or at least His biographers) about what He thinks about you. Starting with John 3:16-17.

Glad to know about the pigs. One of the things I like most about Judaism is that people don’t try to feed you pork.

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Funny, Poly, I was just reading that section of John for my “Jesus in Film: His life and Works” class.

I followed up with “well, we’re in the habit of following His big commandment, which is ‘love each other as I have loved you.’”

This got no response. I’m still not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but I didn’t want to ask, you know?

(BTW Poly, TYVM - having you around is a great reminder of what’s good about Christianity)

Um…the closest she’s come to bringing this up was asking if they were planning on stripping me down to my skivvies and symbolically sacrificing me on Sunday. (The answer to this was a most emphatic no - ain’t nobody seeing this pagan naked, I don’t do skyclad).

Iguana Boy, sorry, no offense, but I don’t have time for a relationship right now. However, if you’d like to meet my roommate (and her iguana, who is currently gravid) I’ll be happy to arrange an introduction. :smiley:

AHunter3, I may just have to try a couple of those; although I’ve invited her and my dad up to the ritual on Sunday. Somehow, I don’t see this happening. :eek: if it does, though.

Oh, and WRT the pig…sorry, guys. I have a rat, my roommate has an iguana. I don’t think any of the folk in my group have a pig.

The big complicating factor for me is that I’m not exactly Wiccan in my beliefs. Agnostic neo-shamanic neo-pagan without the drugs, that’s me.

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– Bonus answer that didn’t make the Top Ten –

  1. Well, 9 out of 10 gods surveyed do
    (Or, “most of them do”).
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I apologize in advance, but I’m afraid my first reaction to the OP is “Mom’s Christian Science and she objects to Wiccan?” How does her Presbyterian half reconcile her faith in M. B. Eddy?

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  1. Well, of course not. We’re all expecting eternal torment in a lake of sulphur. But at least we don’t have to go to church.
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The one thing I have absolutely learned is that I don’t want to ask my mother about religion. We’re okay as long as neither of us has to explain anything to the other.

However, Mom is nominally more Presbyterian than she is CS - when she and my dad went to church it was a Presbyterian church - it’s just that when I recently said I was willing to read up more on the “family religion” she was looking for books on CS rather than Presbyterianism.

Color me confused.