[email protected]

This was REALLY really clear. You're so good at clear!!!

I disagree about buddhists to some extent. There are some who can't separate
abortion from religion, nor diet from religion. But in the
American-discussion-list-unschooling context, yes you're right.

This especially was crystaline:
-=-Discussing abortion -- or age of the earth, or family
structure, or environmentalism, or just about anything else! -- with a
fundamentalist Christian is discussing religion.-=-

In a message dated 11/7/02 6:29:54 AM, fetteroll@... writes:

<< on 11/6/02 2:50 PM, SandraDodd@... at SandraDodd@... wrote:

> IF someone who is a Bible literalist stays on this list, it's
> hard for me to believe it is to learn, but easy for me to believe it is to
> proselytize.

And this is perhaps the crux of the problem for many people. If a Hindu or
pagan or even a nonfundamentalist Christian shares how their beliefs are
incorporated into their lives then it comes across as no different than
someone sharing how their culture is incorporated into their lives.

Maybe the sharing of other religions comes across differently to
fundamentalist Christians. I've heard the grousing from fundamentalists that
other religions can share but (fundamentalist) Christians can't so maybe to
fundamentalists it feels like other religions are being shoved at them.

But the huge difference is that other religions don't have the mandate to
proselytize. People of other religions are just sharing what their life
looks like with no pressure to help people see how their way of life is
right and the rest of the world is wrong. They don't have a mandate to tell
other people what decisions they should be making about their lives or
thoughts the Buddhist is no different than discussing it with
a Jew. They may each look to their religions for help on clarifying their
thoughts but the conclusions they come to are not dictated by their
religious teachings. Discussing abortion -- or age of the earth, or family
structure, or environmentalism, or just about anything else! -- with a
fundamentalist Christian is discussing religion. The views come straight
from the Bible. (Often with quotes!) That's not a criticism. It just is as
it is.

The viewpoint of a Hindu is not a Hindu viewpoint. A viewpoint of a
fundamentalist Christian *is* a Christian viewpoint. They are one and the
same so any discussion that is based on Biblical viewpoints is going to look
a lot like proselytizing to many people.

So the general feeling that Christians can't speak up is pretty accurate.
I'm not seeing a way around that because the viewpoint of a fundamentalist
is a religious viewpoint. Well, one way around it is for someone to give up
their fundamentalist beliefs so they can express a nonreligious viewpoint! I
suspect that's not a trade most fundamentalists want to make.

Now if someone wants to discuss how to reconcile fundamentalist Christianity
with unscholing, that's within the paramaters of an unschooling list. But
it's a nonreligious list and religion of any kind can't be a foundation for
decisons on what unschooling is or dictate how it's discussed.

Joyce

[email protected]

In a message dated 11/7/02 9:21:22 AM Central Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:

<< okay, this may seem like an odd question, but does anyone else unschool
religion? (unchurch?)
>>

Well.....we don't go to church if that's what you mean.
I am thinking about doing the Unity church some, I like their philosophies.
But we "do" our spirituality at home....talk about different beliefs and what
not but don't try to make our kids believe like us.
I do a lot of soul searching and questioning of beliefs and I share that with
my children.
When they question, I don't pretend to have the answers. I share different
viewpoints with them and what I personally believe to be true.
I think that's unchurching basically....or unschooling religion.
My children choose, that's the bottom line.

Ren