September 23, 2007

Not a leper

Although, I guess lepers are ok. You can cure them.

It's always weird when someone asks about playdates on Sunday. As long as we aren't busy we are good to go. Is after church good for us? Yes. Then again during church is good for us as well. Are we skipping this week? No. Don't attend a church here? (Implying we haven't found a local parish that works for us).

When the answer is "we don't go." It is still assumed that we are merely too busy or we belong to a church too far away. I usually let it slide but it's always strange to me how people's attitudes change immediately if you say something along the lines of "we don't believe in church"--never mind skipping right to the dreaded "we don't believe in god."

I don't ask people what church they attend. I guess though, that is an accepted conversational point. People ask each other that all the time. It's the equivalent of "what religion are you" but more PC and conversational. So, if the question is acceptable, why are only some of the answers acceptable?

People shake their heads and look at me with that "what are they doing to the children" look when they find out. I feel as if we need to keep it to ourselves so that the boys don't find themselves defending beliefs they haven't had time to form on their own. And yes, I am going to let them make informed decisions on their own. Imagine that?!

I got the look again today when they asked if C went to CCD. Well, no, no he doesn't. "Oh, what church do you belong to?" Now I know this is a well-intentioned question--small talk right up there with discussions of weather. But if it is really small talk then that implies that the answers are not going to be controversial, doesn't it? Isn't that what small talk is? Chatter that won't get anyone into trouble?

Just rambling I guess. But it makes me a little crazy. It's not info that I volunteer (the atheism, not the crazy, people can see the crazy coming from miles away!) but it doesn't seem like it should be something that makes other people uncomfortable. I'm not uncomfortable because they went to church this morning. Doesn't really change my view of them.

If you find out someone's views differ completely from your own does it change the way you interact with them? I would love to say no for all cases but then you might scroll down and read my entry about museum guy and get to yell "liar, liar, pants on fire." Extremes make me nervous. But if I'm not running around recruiting, do I still count as an extreme?

Lots of questions, too little sleep. Interesting mix. Also, I told the truth so the aforementioned pants are not, at this time, on fire. So there.

Posted by michelle at 07:30 PM | Comments (0)