believing

I am not a religious person. If you know me, this is old news. If I don't know you -- SURPRISE! I'm a heathen. The Carters are somewhat spiritual folks (check out Lisa's f-book statuses for your daily inspiration), and I do generally believe in something, but the four of us have gone to church together exactly zero times. I prefer Easter brunch to Easter mass and this year's Christmas was dedicated to the birth of the NBA season.

If I had to claim a religion, I'd definitely be Jewish. They believe in tolerance and mitzvahs and generally like to bring each other up instead of tear each other down. Plus I share initials with the OG Jew (JESUS CHRIST!). Mainly, though, I am perfectly content to go about believing in my vague yet all powerful higher power whom I like to imagine looks like a cross between my grandfather and of course Morgan Freeman. My god enjoys going to same sex marriage ceremonies, supports women's rights, and has a weekly get together with other deities because, really, can't we all just get along?

Most of my middle schoolers, however, follow the other, better known JC. This has made for some interesting conversations. When my 7th graders learned about evolution vs. creationism, I was literally shocked. It was like "HEY Toto I guess we are back in Kansas after all." Evolution has always been so obviously the truth for me & it's been a long time since I've interacted with people who explicitly and unequivocally believe in creationism). One of my kids asked me, "So you really believe you came from monkeys?!" and then burst out laughing as though it was the most absurd idea she has ever heard.

I was kinda offended by her blatant intolerance for my beliefs but then I was forced to think about my own intolerance toward her beliefs. What do I know about how the world started?! I choose to believe in science and she chooses to believe in faith and in the end it's just like Jack vs. Locke and if you don't know what that refers to then why are we friends? The point is, if I'm going to go around spouting my beliefs about loving and accepting everyone, then I better walk the walk.

We've also chatted about same sex marriage. Now I know little to nothing about the origin of species but I do know that same sex marriage is literally hurting zero people. I've had one convo that gave me hope for the future generations because it was so clear to them that love is love. They were all, "Everyone should be happy and who cares who it's with" and I was all "YES! YOU GET IT!" It was so 21st century. But I had another convo where I got a Bible verse dropped on me about men lying with men being a sin. I get enough of that from my brother quoting Leviticus for the pure shock value (one time we went through the Bible together looking for the most hateful parts). Our tutorial was meant to be about multiplying decimals, but then I remembered that after middle school everyone uses calculators anyway so I decided to steer the lesson to civil rights. When they've been told their whole life by everyone they trust that gay marriage is wrong, it's completely understandable that they believe it. But they had to stop and think when I asked them what they would do if their best friend told them she was gay. Would they stay friends? Would they attend her wedding? One of my kids decided she would definitely go because she loves weddings. The other one was more conflicted but I at least feel like I presented a viewpoint she'd never considered. When's my No H8 campaign starting up?!

I've even seen kids using the Bible as their DEAR book. Yeah you remember dropping everything and reading. More mixed feelings. Lots of buzzwords come to mind: separation of church and state?! Freedom of religion?! Freedom of speech?! Frankly I think it's strange to read the Bible at school, but I can't really verbalize why. And it's not hurting anyone. I get that. Man, why don't kids read the Babysitters Club series anymore?!?

If you can't relate to my interactions with religious middle schoolers, then surely you can talk Tebow. I mean, the reason we hate/are annoyed by/are perplexed by the guy is ...... ? Because he is religious? Because he gives all the glory to his god and not to himself? I roll my eyes at his verse-inscribed face paint and I just about vommed at his "if my mom had had an abortion, the world would not have benefited from my existence" commercial but we worship all sorts of people who do much worse things than talk about being Christian. Other athletes, musicians, even my beloved Kardashians - Tebow probably has them all beat in terms of being a role model. I just think it's fascinating that he's the controversial one in our society.

I don't really have a main point here. Religion is weird. Let's just all believe in friendship.