Constant Belief Teaching & Santorum News

My husband's uncle and I are friends on Facebook.  We don't really talk, but sometimes I comment on a post he made and vice versa.  He, surprisingly, is a very, very strong supporter of Democrats and Obama.  I am not.  At all.  I really, really wanted Santorum to not only win the Republican nomination, but to also sweep Obama off his feet!!

So today, my husband's uncle posted more super negative, ignorant posts about Republicans, Santorum and God.  I read these from him all of the time and honestly think that he can have his opinions and obviously they are not mine, but whatever.  Today, I just couldn't leave it alone.  It felt wrong for me to sit and read these things (it was really the God comments that got to me) and not respond.  So I did.  And it turned into a little bit of a war between me and several other unbelievably crazy ignorant people that he is friends with.  I didn't want it to and eventually dropped most of my points, but what shocked me was what one man said (by the way, not one person agreed with me, lol). 

This man said that he was sure my parents forced their beliefs on me.  He said that he would never force his beliefs on his children and was happy that Mike's uncle wasn't either.   

My response (most of it): "My parents actually did not influence me very much religiously. My mom raised us catholic, but was married to an atheist and my bio-father is really not much of anything. But I do think that it is COMPLETE BS (side note: I cannot believe I said this!  I never say this word and never even say BS) to say that you wont influence your children to believe anything!! You teach your child beliefs. All day, every day. Your beliefs and my beliefs are obviously different. Hopefully you have some of the same beliefs like 1+1=2, that you spell cat c-a-t, and that slapping people in the face for no reason is wrong. those are beliefs and I hope your children are learning them. My beliefs as a Christian are my beliefs. If my daughter wants to grow up and think you spell cat c-o-t, whatever. She is allowed to believe that, even it is wrong, just like you can believe what you want to believe even if it is wrong."

I just cannot believe that someone would think that they are not basically shoving their beliefs down their child's throat every single day, whether for good or bad.  Whether you believe in God or not, whether you believe being gay is right or wrong, whether you are gay or straight, whether you believe Jesus is your savior or you believe in Budha, whether you think public schools are best or homeschooling is best for your family, whether you believe that war can be justified or you are a complete passifist.  We all put our beliefs on our children and to say that we will not push our religious beliefs on our children is 1) wrong, because even in your lacking of influence you are influencing and 2) lazy- my husband and I don't always have the answers, but we try to find them or work around it.  Not having all the answers forces me to learn more, just like with homeschooling.  It would be so much easier to just "ignore" things and not try to educate our daughter, but that doesn't make it the right or best thing. 

In a later comment, I also said, "in the end, hopefully, you are an open-minded and loving enough parent to be ok with their decisions to believe what they want, but, it is ridiculous to say that you dont raise your children with your beliefs."

I am not one to get into arguments or debates... I hate confrontation, but I also hate when people speak about things they don't really know.  The preggo hormones might have had a little something to do with me finally speaking my peice also... I've kind of been in the need of a good debate/fight and better to not start one with my husband :)

What do you think??  Do you try to stay neutral in topics like religion with your kids or do you "force" your beliefs on your children?