So this seems to be something that's going around the blog world and so I decided that I would add my own to this discussion. There was an article that was done on Polytheist Pride. I do hope that I have gotten the title of the post correct. I really hate not doing it right. Anyway, the most controversial Heathen, and she is, talked about a woman that is a Hellenist that doesn't have a Polytheistic home and will not be raising her child in the religion.
So without turning this into a thirty-five hundred word blog post I want to talk about a few things that came up on the post. First of all, I agree that she should have shame. If you don't teach your child our ways then what's the point in what your doing? The big problem is that this comes from a neo-pagan misunderstanding of teaching your child your ways and forcing your child to follow your ways. Of course what they view as forced is most likely not even close to forced.
What Jeffs did is forced!
Another thing that they say is that they want their child to have a choice and so they don't raise them in their religion. They want them to have freedom to choose for themselves. I really find this a hard thing to even understand. What if your child wants to pray with you, get to know the gods? Are you really going to deny them that right? Are you going to wait until that child is an adult before you allow them to take part. By that time, they want nothing to do with your religion and are on a different path.
Of course you'll say 'this is what the god/goddess wanted them to do.' Instead of owning up to the fact that it was your fault that they don't follow your religion. You can go off and feel good that you didn't 'force' your religion on them. I hope you enjoy your false, feel good, feeling that you get at that. Though I will tell you that the gods won't be impressed.
I also agree that if we don't teach our children, our ways, that our religion will wither on the vine and die. This is how Christianity won. They denied parents the right to teach their children the ways of the gods, to do ritual, and they were all forced to go to church. This caused a break in tradition and the end of pagan belief. Having your child pray with you, burn incense, and learn about the gods isn't forcing religion on your child. Your continuing how the ancients did things.
Heck Heathens do the same thing and the reason that they do this is that they don't want their child to become a Christian or a atheist. Or worse, a anti-theist that has no respect for his, or her, parents. Another argument that was made was that I don't want my child marginalized. Oh I'm not sorry that you feel that way. Your job is to raise your child to be the best person that they can be. Including, and not limited to, religion.
Having your child raised as a Polytheist makes them stronger. Polytheism doesn't deny science and reasoning. In-fact the ancients created science. It was this science, and learning, that was deemed demonic to the church and outlawed. It was only when the church discovered that 'hay, people need to know things' that learning was allowed. But it was only the rich that could afford to learn and not the poor.
I'm also going to agree that other groups are marginalized in the world. But they still teach their children their religion. So why shouldn't we?
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