You're Not Supposed To Talk About....

Religion.

So before I go and lose all my readers (hope not!) let's start with
Massage Monday:
Another seated stretch.... As always, you want to take these into a stretch, not into pain. Sit with your back in the chair and both feet on the floor. Take you right ankle and cross it over your left knee ("sittin' like a man" as my gma used to say). Now just lean your body forward (you want to lean from the waist, not from your shoulders). You should feel a great stretch on the outside of your hip, going into your butt. This can also be done standing, just lean on a wall, bring your ankle to your slightly bent other knee and lean forward. As always, rinse and repeat on the other side. I love this stretch!

On to our subject.

I got a lot of cool mail last week. First there was this...
That's one skein of Knitting Notions Sock Yarn (420 yards in Midnight Blue) and two skeins of Knitting Notions Lace Yarn (388 yards each in Thyme color). 726 yards of laceweight, wtf am I gonna do with that?? That's what happens when you shop at midnite! Don't worry, I already have ideas for it. Do you see the needle in the Midnight yarn? The war against my knitting ennui has begun.

Then I got this big box from my swap buddy at a yarn swap I signed up for over at Swap-bot...

There's two skeins of Lion Brand Wool-ease (which is perfect because I was going to go get some to make my MIL some slippers) and two skeins of Red Heart SuperSaver. She also put the yarn in a lovely basket and added a big tea bag of sorts (I'm guessing it's tub tea, it's huge!) and these books...

Best. swap-buddy. ever!

Then I received another big envelope....

Yarn Pirate, Rain color. Gorgeous!

Then there was this....


The yarn is some hand spun/hand-dyed yarn I'd won on a blog contest. It was a blog I'd never been to and I found it through a link from a blog I adore. Truthfully, most new blogs I read, I find through other blogs linking to contests.

So the woman sends me the yarn and a book about Jesus. I can't begin to express how much that Pissed. Me. Off. And before anyone starts gettin' on me about talking behind someone's back, I've already emailed her. The email I sent was, I think, very diplomatic. It went a little something like this: "Thank you for the yarn. It's very pretty and I really think you did a good job with it. That being said, I was rather upset and very disappointed with the book you sent with it. We ARE NOT Christians. My husband's an atheist and I follow Taoism. I can't help but wonder how you would feel if you'd won some yarn on my blog and I sent it along with a copy of "The God Delusion"?
I'll probably be talking about this on my blog come Monday. I won't be linking to you or using your name. Just giving you a heads up.
Again, great job on the yarn. I hope you keep doing that and knitting. Don't really know what else to say. By for now, Ruth"

So here's my thoughts. I don't care what religion you are and you shouldn't care what mine is. I grew up baptist. My family went to church three times a week. Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night was youth night (anyone out there remember AWANA? It's like boy/girl scouts for church). I loved it as a kid, and that's not belittling anyone that still loves it. I'm just saying, some of my best memories are from vacation bible school, AWANA olympics, and church summer camp!

When I was around 12, things started happening in my life and at my church that made me take a different direction. I never understood the philosophy that God had this unconditional love.... unless you were gay, unless you had (or thought about having) an abortion, unless a hundred other things that made the love so conditional. At church I was seeing a lot of hypocritical people who would say one thing at church and then go commit criminal acts. Or just plain exclusionary acts against new members that made them uncomfortable (like the young couple with a baby - she had lots of piercings in her ears and he had a mohawk and the ice cream social the church had been pumping for weeks was not even mentioned that day).

I started doing my own research. That, a divorce, and a mom smart enough to realize that if I did my own research, I could make my own decisions. My decision was that church and Christianity as a whole were not for me.

I've had people of faith (many different ones) ask how we will raise our children. DAMN that's presumptuous! I tell them all the same thing. We will teach them right from wrong. We will show them by the way we live. We also have an entire shelf on our bookcases that's devoted to religion. There's a Bible, a Book of Mormon, a Koran, books on Eastern and East Indian religions, and many others. When they are old enough and have questions we can't answer to their satisfaction, they can do their own research and make their own decisions.

It's like tattoos. The only people who care if you have tattoos (of which I have six) are people who don't have them. I agree with Whoopi Goldberg, "Organized religion is bad for you. It says we are and you are not." But I don't push my views. And I won't allow others to push their views on me. I find it offensive, rude, and unbelievably presumptuous. I understand that a big part of Christianity is testifying, spreading the word of God. (Acts 9:15 " Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel." That's from memory.) I've always held the belief that the best way to spread the word of god (any god) is to live the best life you can. To lead through example is better then a thousand words, even those in books sent through the mail.

Hoping you all stick around, Ruth!

P.S. Incidentally, she hasn't emailed me back and her blog is gone.