When I think about the people I know who are committed to religious truths, from my perspective, I see people looking for direction, answers and perhaps excuses/reasons why things are the way they are. Answers to how the earth came to be, why the earth came to be and their goal in life is to behave in a way that will lead them to heaven.
The Eight of Us March 09
I am one of eight children and I attended the local Baptist Church from the age of five until I was seventeen. My parents never came to Sunday school or church services and yet by the time I was fifteen I was attending three times a week. Bible study on Monday nights, youth group on Friday nights and church service/Sunday school on Sunday mornings. Motivation to attend included the social aspect of the games and fun we had every Friday night, an extremely cute guy that had to attend as his parents were highly engaged in the church community and the fact that I was allowed to go to any church function. I have never been baptised, however, I did sit annual exams that tested my knowledge of the bible. I recall dinner time discussions about my parents experiences at their local Baptist church in Adelaide where they were married in 1946. My brothers attended the boys brigade and were also highly involved until they were around seventeen. I remember praying to God to help my Dad after he was in a car accident and suffered spinal injuries of which he recovered after a couple of years. I also recall when I decided that praying to God felt useless. I needed to accept responsibility for myself, have faith in my own abilities and create a way to get to where I wanted to go.
One of my brothers left the church and then returned in his mid twenties and gained his license to become a Baptist Minister. He has six children and his wife has home schooled all of them. He travelled to Mexico a couple of times to support other ministers in getting their license and returned for a long period of time to build a church and preach the word of God. (He is a carpenter by trade). His children now have children of their own and they are successful in their jobs and life. I enjoy the sense of calmness and confidence they have in themselves. When I tell this story to others the first question they ask is, what about their social skills? From what I have seen there is no obvious difference between them and my other nephews. Although they did not attend an educational institution they still tested the boundaries throughout their teenage years. I recall sending my brother a bottle of dish washing liquid and a dish cloth for his birthday one year. The card attached had a photo of my husband doing the dishes and the caption read, ‘join us, you’ll be surprised’. (He never did house work, his daughters had to always wear long skirts and he never changed a nappy). He evened the score by phoning me back to say thank you for the gift with the vacum cleaner vibrating in the back ground and his comment was ‘just called to say thank you, can’t talk long, my wife needs to vacuum under the phone table.’ His commitment to religious truths, from what I saw and heard, helped a lot of people to find happiness and direction. I guess our relationship will always remain strong because his religious truths are his and my truths are mine and I guess we are both open minded about what we believe.
- The families we have created!
On the flip side, my sister is a physic. She practices her spirituality through other channels and also appears to help alot of people and give them direction. When I mention these facts about my family people always say, ‘your family parties must be spicy’. I understand why people make that comment but now I understand why our family parties have never been ‘spicy’. In our families case the idea of epistemological relativism where you are welcome to your views and I am welcome to mine are values that our parents have embedded in our innate behaviours seemingly through committed knowledge. I guess the lack of engagement in discussion that the critics of cultural relativism argue are less satisfying are what keeps our family connected.
Prue
May 18, 2009
Cherie,
Reading about your family really reminded me of mine. My mum is one of 8 as well (5 sisters, 2 brothers). Being able to grow up in a really strong family (particularly with many strong female role models) has helped me and others to no end. We are similar also with the religion concept, we have all been christened into the Catholic church. And like you’re family we’ve accepted everyone with their own different beliefs. My mother (and I guess I am her mini me) are very agnostic, while my Aunty who is like a second mother – relies religion to get her through the day and I love the religion she has created. Reading your post reminded me of how lucky we are to have such strong families and to be so close. I feel really lucky to have access to so many wonderful mums and dads – when our students sometimes don’t even have access to one of each! This was a lovely blog which allowed me to go off on a tangent about our lovely families!
Thanks Cherie,
Prue