children and organized religion

I found this article on the problems faced by child-free church-goers to be fascinating. Also extremely resonant. (Warning: tone is sometimes "undiplomatic".) Thanks to revlainiep for the link.

A few excerpts: ( Read more... )

Update: Apparently, there is a "child-free" movement that is actively hostile to children. I thought the term merely described people who chose not to have kids, without specific implications about attitude. Let me just clarify that I don't have a problem with other people's well-behaved kids. But I do have a problem with bad behavior (from anyone), any expectation that I participate in child-care, and the various efforts out there to elevate children above adults. (As an example of the last, I think adults living in poverty are just as tragic as children living in poverty, and I don't contribute to charities that are about "saving children" as opposed to "saving people".) And yeah, I've seen this kind of elevation of unready children in my congregation, though it's not nearly as prevalent as the article's author says it is in hers.

"chosen"

A conversation with geekosaur prompts me to write about the idea of "the chosen people".

I think there are a couple problems with that phrase. First, let's talk about "chosen". The word "segula" poses some problems for the rabbis; it doesn't show up much and (I gather) it seems to have different connotations in different places. I understand that "treasured" or "precious" is a better translation, though I'm just repeating what others have said to me.

But the real problem with the phrase is "the". It's not there, and I don't think that's an oversight. "Am segula" has no definite article; it's "a [treasured, precious, chosen] people", not the.

But that makes sense. God tells us that we aren't the only ones he deals with; both Torah and Prophets contain testimony to that effect. There are certain nations we have to leave alone because they also have relationships with God. But, more broadly, why can't God have lots of treasured peoples? We humans tend to have lots of treasured possessions, too; is it so different?

It seems to me that the proper response to "we're chosen" is "for what?". If we are chosen, it's that we're chosen to do a particular job. God chooses different peoples for different tasks, just as a craftman chooses different tools for different parts of the job.

Our job, it appears, is to be a "kingdom of priests" to the rest of the world. What does that mean? Originally, it probably meant introducing monotheism; now, I think it means influencing others in ethical behavior. (And, of course, you can't work on others until you improve yourself.) Ethical behavior isn't the reason for all the mitzvot, but, somehow, it is a result of many of them. As for the others, well, we don't always know God's reasons for things.

(And no, this doesn't mean prosyletizing, at least not in the evangelical-Christian sense. Tradition holds that when the moshiach (messiah) comes all the world will bow down to the one God, but that's a far cry from converting everyone to Judaism.)

in other news

Yesterday I got email from Amazon saying that they'd shipped my B5 DVD. I took the free shipping, so I expected this to go by pack mule or something. I was completely unprepared to find the package on my doorstep today. Wow!

Today's mail also brought a book I ordered from another Marketplace affiliate, again using the cheap shipping. (I ordered it Sunday.) Most of my Marketplace experiences have been good; it's a pity that a few bad apples can spoil things for everyone.