The Local Gods

I've been kicking this blog post around for a few days but just haven't had the time or energy to write it. For the past month or so, we have been attending church on Sunday in preparation for baptizing the babies. Andrew & I are both Lutherans and aren't really very "religious" about church attendance, preferring the idea that you best serve the divine in the world by being a good person and making the world a better place, and not really seeing a lot of that sort of behavior in the churches of the world. I'm a bit of a pagan, really, preferring the woods over most churches as a place to meet up with the divine in the universe.

But when you grew up basically being a Christian, you want to be sure to baptize your little ones, because that way, they have a choice. I want them to learn about religion, all of them!, and be able to understand the way the world works in a way that isn't shoved down their throats but in a way that they can really get to know the good & evil in the world, and the way religion contributes to those things.

In one of the Heinlein novels (I think it's Job, but I'm not sure) he discusses how you should honor the local customs, pay respects to the religion of the majority. I believe in God, although it's not the big white man with a beard that tradition would have us believe in (God does NOT need biological sex). And I think of this song about witches where it talks about how millions of women were killed because they refused to betray their Goddess for the new God in town of Christianity. As far as I'm concerned, it's all different names for the same exact thing. So I have no problem paying respects to the beliefs of the majority. I don't mean that I would go out and be a holy warrior for a cause (that, in my opinion, is one of the worst things about most religions-- their zeal to convert, whether by good works or killing). But I will respect the good things about church, the good things about religion, and I will raise my kids to do the same. If that means I have to get up on Sunday, put on a nice dress & comb my hair & put the babies in a cute outfit, go to church to sing some songs and recite some rituals, and then afterwards, go out to brunch, well then. I'm good with that. I just don't think it's necessarily going to get me into Heaven one day (or that the lack of it would keep me out or send me to Hell, either).

I suppose some people would call it selling out or hedging bets. I think of it as doing the best I can to recognize that we really are here for a reason, and it's not random chance, and there is good & evil in the world and there are ways we have developed over the years to deal with and explain it.

Ah, and now a baby wakes, and the smile of a happy child reminds me of the good things and why I bother. So. Enough dimestore religion and philosophy. Back to the practical day to day life.