I’ll Take This Religion – Do You Gift Wrap?

I came across a question a woman posted on a forum for moms the other day. She wrote “I'm in BIG trouble. Thanksgiving is over, and Christmas and Hanukkah are just weeks away. I'm freaking because I haven't picked my daughter's religion.” I’m not kidding. I had to read it twice, not believing that she would actually treat religion as if it was some quick purchase she had to pick up at Target. I scrolled down to read the responses fully expecting the first to be something to the effect of “Are you serious?” To my surprise not one of the twenty odd responses indicated the least bit of shock over her question.

Everyone was quite (helpful?), often suggesting she give Unitarian Universalism a whirl. UU, for those who may not know, is a cult that picks and chooses elements from world religions. UU follows a doctrine of relativism, or the idea that everyone can have their own personal truth, which as I mentioned in another of my postings is a total contradiction. Truth must be consistently true or else it isn’t truth.

Other advice included just not bringing religion into it at all, and I actually partly agree. Here's why. First, Christ was not born at Christmas. It is estimated that his birth was sometime in the spring. St. Nicholas, while obviously Christian, was famous for secretly giving gifts to the poor and while that was a very nice thing to do, and he should no doubt be honored for his generosity, the association with Christmas really has nothing to do with him. Lastly, Christmas trees have pagan roots, no pun intended. Christmas is a cultural holiday and I’m totally fine with that. It’s fun to decorate the tree and listen to Christmas carols, but I spend no more time with Jesus on Christmas than I do on any other day of the year. He should always be glorified.

Now what I do take issue with is her flippant approach to all this. My suggestion to her would be to educate herself so she can guide her daughter in the search for truth. If, as she stated in her post, she is an atheist I would hope she has all the facts that she claims support her beliefs. And she better be darn sure she can refute any argument for opposing views. I think children are owed the truth. And they should know that they can rely on their parents to provide them with it.