Religion and People-Making

yeah it's very much identity and just a "this is how I grew up" kind of thing. Like as though there would be something empty about growing up without it.

I feel there might be something empty, then again I have never done this so maybe there won't. I also feel that feeling that way is superstitious. Christmas and Easter was Santa, Easter bunny and church, then we celebrated saint days.

i was raised rc and my kids have had no interaction with religion at all. kinda weird to hear "who is jesus" questions but otherwise i don't give it much thought.

My 7-year-old is currently getting bullied by a girl in his class who laughs at him for not believing in god and tells him hehs going to hell.

Also, this weekend at my in-laws house, he ran out of the poolroom yelling "I'm Samson!" and shaking his hair around. The in-laws are both former Catholics and sometimes when they get drunk, they tell him Bible stories. I don't really mind, although I should probably take the reins and find ways to introduce him to the Bible on my own terms.

hey m bise maybe you can help me out here--like, what do uu churches latch on to? what's the overarching thing that brings ppl together? give my background it's v. hard for me to conceive of tbh.

― call all destroyer, Monday, January 16, 2012 10:22 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

w/o consulting Wikipedia for official church words, I would say love and service to humanity are the kind of overarching themes, so I guess something of a humanist bent. it makes god-belief optional as long as you are good to people and are ~fighting4justice~. by nature it attracts overwhelmingly progressive/liberal types since there's not the whole fealty to an almighty thing. so, outside of theology, there's a p strong consensus on social issues (inviting and inclusive of glbtq, v pro choice, i guess leery of capitalism, etc). it's a p well educated bunch, diverse in age composition, not racially tho, lotta tumblr whites

then again, the old adage comes to mind, Sunday is the most segregated day in America

Both sunny and I are lapsed Catholics. I still have a tenuous hold on the Christian faith, but I long ago fell out of any celebration of organized religion.

But that said, she goes to a Methodist learning center, and in addition to spelling and art, there are also prayers before lunch and chapel services on Wednesdays.

There are a lot of higher questions we can try to answer together when she's older, but for now at four, when she asks if Jesus loves her, I tell her that yes, He does. But that's as far as it goes for now except for when Grampa comes over and says Grace over the takeout pizza.

My daughter goes to a day care, to clarify.

my wife was raised by a deeply lapsed Catholic (ie, divorced teen mom who was afraid to ever set foot in the church again) and I was raised in a reform Judaism household. My wife has zero interest in establishing any religious traditions of her own, but I do have a distinct interest in my daughter (now 4) being aware of her cultural heritage as a Jew and as such we have taken her to seders, lit the candles on Hannukah, etc ... I would probably join a temple if I could find one that I liked that didn't have insane dues, but I have yet to really come across one that interests me in San Francisco. In some ways this may be easier for me than for other parents - having been brought up in an extended family of extremely non-observant Jews (ie, identify as Jews but never went to Temple) I don't feel a pressing obligation to immediately sign my daughter up for Hebrew school and indoctrinate her into a theology I don't agree with. At the same time, Judaism encompasses a very broad set of beliefs so I don't really have a problem with picking a choosing what I introduce to my daughter. I'm sure I'll read her stuff from the Bible at some point, because there are awesome stories in the Bible, and I'll tell her that they're from a book that Jewish people have been reading and re-reading and writing commentaries on for thousands of years.

Hoping to find videos that retell/summarize key stories of the bible that I could share with my 11 year old. Preferably from a secular/atheist perspective, but non-fedora.

Just recently have found that biblical references tend to bring things to a screeching halt for him. All like "wait, what's Noah? I don't get it." Want to inform him without taking too much of his time or being preachy. Something accessible.

Could be any other religions too! Odinism, Hindu, ancient Babylonian religion, whatever. But not being familiar with the basic Jewish Christian stuff seems like it could be a roadblock to understanding.

oh man so much biblical crap out there, it's a bitch to sort through

on the hinduism end there's this incredible book, which is great for little kids:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81Aj5ZLt5sL.jpg

whoa. that looks holy shit awesome.

he is an ex-Pixar (I think?) guy, he has a couple other hindu-themed book, one about how Ganesha broke his tooth, one that's just a catalog of gods/godesses - but the Ramayana one is the best of the crop

I think yr problem is going to be that most biblical stuff is not created from a cultural-studies kind of perspective, it's created primarily for believers to indoctrinate their children.

11 is old enough to read some of R. Crumb's "Book of Genesis" imo (altho you'd probably want to skip certain chapters and you'd have to be okay with boobs and lots of body hair lol). That's a faithful rendition that's done by a non-believer.

most biblical stuff is not created from a cultural-studies kind of perspective

Yeah, that is very much my problem.

The Crumb thing sounds mostly okay, but not quite there yet for some of the genesis material. Suppose I could ask my local comic shop guys if they had anything in this vein, but I think it would get re-shelved in favor of some Batman.

i think these are excellent for children but probably contain religious content as well - you may have to be prepared to skip paragraphs you're not in love with:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Little-Midrash-Says-Beraishis/dp/B000FT6BSG

there's a few volumes (and i just asked my brother and he says it's not so religious and more just the plain midrashim).

the first volume probably contains most of what you want (bereshis deals w/ adam + eve, noah, abraham, etc), the second one is the exodus narrative, the others are only of interest if you're particularly committed to giving your kid a thorough jewish education and not just a broad religious one.

kids books of Bible stories are probly reasonably innocuous as long as you discuss context first imo

altho if it's factual references maybe an age-appropriate encyclopedia wd be the way to go?

"Books" are definitely off-track though. He's got plenty of books that I'd rather he read that he doesn't get around to. Looking specifically for videos.

ah didn't read you properly, okay non-polemical videos is probly much harder.

I feel like my ideal would be something along the lines of Crash Course, which has this episode on historical Christianity, but doesn't go very deep into the stories.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG55ErfdaeY&index=7&list=WL

But even fairly straight-forward bible cartoons that are well-written and not TOTALLY BORING. I've gone through so much garbage on youtube. I'm sure it's gonna fuck up my recommendations for like a week.

hmm yeah I got nothin in the video dept sorry

me neither

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1ExRYenS2w

I think there is some value in this godley play stuff but it's supposed to be performed rather than filmed and idk how you would seek it out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkjXX2xjTkg

*godly