Finding Faith

Something my family has never done well is religion. My father was a life long agnostic and my mother has waffled back and forth from devout christian to apathetic monotheist. We hit up church fairly regularly for a couple of years, but the social aspect was really more the draw for my sisters and I.

When I got married, Dude was 100% against religion or spirtuality of any kind, including my special brand of new age/eastern/western hoo doo invented by copious amounts of pot in college and an afinity for comparitive religion courses. I read tarot and see auras, two things he was completely skeeved out by and refused to discuss. Church of any kind, was out of the question.

Though I've never been an organized religion kind of girl, and being a queer, kind of psychic, new age-y kind of gal with no husband and a live in vulcan life mate, I wasn't sure there was a church out there for the likes of me.  Since Dude moved out, I've been given more of an oppourtunity to look into the spiritual side of life. Vulcan was once a youth pastor and was raised for a time in Utah, so his foundation in organized religion is much more developed than min. For a time, we were taking Pinkone to church on a weekly basis, doing the sunday school thing and considering the possiblity of making church a regular part of our lives.

I struggle with the premise of organized religion, not becuase of the message per-se, but because of the followers, the "rules", and the potential for shunning. So I ask myself, how do I introdue Pinkone to spirituality without opening her up to the rest of it. I don't want her feeling shame becuase her mother, or eventually she, is not the "ideal" christian/buhddist/jew/whatever.

One week during our tour of churches, we attended Christ the King, a non-denominational Christian church that appeals to the "new believer".  After picking Pinkone up from Sunday school, we proceeded to ask her what she learned and how she felt about it. Ever the progressive parents, we are looking to establish a dialouge about religion and spirituality, allowing her the church perspective, and then supplementing with our own morals and beliefs as we go.

"Pinkone, what did you learn today?"

"Ugh, mother...I don't want to talk about it"

"Mkay, well, can you tell me SOMETHING about what you did in Sunday school?"

"Well, okay, I learned that God is kind of a superhero"

"Oh really? Like Batman? or the Flash?" I snicker to myself, wondering where this going.

"More like Superman. He can hear what you need and help you. I'm going to start to pray."

"Really? What are you going to pray about?"  *here is where I start thinking church might be a great thing, maybe we should go more often*

"Yeah, I figure if I pray enough, Superman will turn me into a vampire."

*face palm*

So, we are still working the proper balance of church and comic books in Pinkone's life.

What sorts of methods have you used to infuse faith and morality into your children's lives? Has church helped or hurt your plans for raising moral but open minded kids?