Sponsor |  AngelaHayden | Feb 22, 9:57am | My family recently moved to a rural community near Tulsa, OK. My 11 year old daughter previously lived in Morocco for seven years with her loving, muslim relatives. Everything was going very well at her new school until a couple of weeks ago. During recess, her two very, sweet friends tried to save her soul. They informed her that the "rapture" was coming in five years and everyone that wasn't a christian were going to hell.
My daughter came home from school in tears, telling me she was afraid her family in Morocco were all going to hell. She became violently ill and spent two days in bed without eating or drinking. I took her to a local Unitarian church in Tulsa last Sunday hoping to surround her with some open-minded people. She loved it. In fact, there was a female speaker from the local Islam society explaining her religion to the congregation.
We will be attending every Sunday because she loved it so much. My problem is that I don't. The people were very sweet but the chairs in the worship room were uncomfortable and I can't stand the boring hymns everyone sang.
I believe in evolution and really feel uncomfortable in the belief of an all-knowing God. She wants to go to church so she can be "normal" like everyone else. We're stuck between church and social rejection.
My husband is afraid he would lose his job if any of his co-workers read this. I originally deleted the blog entry because I am afraid of the backlash. But this is America right?
angelahayden.blogspot.com/2008/02/11-year-old-daughter-told-youre [angelahayden.blogspot.com/2008/02/11-year-old-daughter-told-youre]-
going_22.html |
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|  LuridHope | Feb 22, 10:50am | Umm... This isn't the Unitarian Universalist Church group.
You would get a little more sympathy if you actually stood for something, not everything or just against one thing. IMHO |
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 |  438731 | Feb 22, 10:57am | Your link is broken.
Fixed
My thoughts... it never ceases to amaze me how backwards the most technologically advanced nation in the world really is! Fucking rapture? Idiots! 11 year old evangelists? Creepy! Losing a job for not believing in fairy tales? Un-fucking-believable! |
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| | LuridHope | Feb 22, 11:08am | I guess we're just spoiled out here on the east coast.
People get in more "trouble" for being religious here than not.
I don't see America as a religious dictatorship the way so many others do.
I see discrimination as a problem in and of itself. |
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Sponsor | | Vortexfugue | Feb 22, 11:11am | 4. I guess we're just spoiled out here on the east coast.
People get in more "trouble" for being religious here than not.
Heh, just try living in Texas. |
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Sponsor | | AngelaHayden | Feb 22, 1:03pm | Vortexfogue - I'm from Texas and it was really bad in Dallas as well.
LuridHope - I'm agnostic that's why I thought I could post here. I don't want sympathy I want freedom from religion and freedom of speech. |
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| | LuridHope | Feb 22, 1:14pm | I was a little abrasive.
I just didn't expect to see such a compromise at the end of the story. |
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Sponsor | | AngelaHayden | Feb 22, 2:07pm | | It is a major compromise and I'm not happy about it. Perhaps, there is an Agnostic or Atheist congregation in Tulsa. I wonder what the kids at school would say when she tells them we are attending the local Atheist congregation? Okay, there are other ways for her to be around open-minded people besides attending church. You talked me out of it. Woo-hoo. No boring church Sundays for me.!!! |
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|  Healyhatman | Feb 23, 5:50am | Much as it will hurt you can't really stop her from going to church or believing, you can only teach her what parts of religion are bad and what things the religious say (things like Intelligent Design for example) are complete lies. Also that going to church "to fit in" is not the way to be forced into religion...
I'll tell you one thing though - if it was my kid she'd be going to church A-fucking-LONE. |
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Sponsor | | northpaw | Feb 23, 6:00am | Hmm, I think you definitely could stop your child from attending church.
Wouldn't you stop her if it was some kind of (less-accepted) cult? |
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Atheist/Agnostic → Discussion