Juliebata's childish road to atheism...

[juliebata]

It started with my folks. Dad wasn't religious. Mom was way Lutheran. Dad was part African-American. Mom's family was appalled, and basically disowned her for a number of years. So we never set foot in a church, except for weddings and funerals.
When I was about 7, I was beat up by the school bully. He came from a family of bullies, there was a sibling in each grade at school. They all had this mean, inbred look about them...
Anyway, as I ran home bawling, I was thinking, if there was a god, he would have protected me. Later that same year, my friend Kelly invited me to join her at her Sunday school. She described lots of activities, and I thought it might be fun. I don't remember what kind of church it was. I went a few times, and we did have some fun, but I wasn't really getting into the religion part of it. I just couldn't make myself believe. The clincher came when I found out we were expected to go to church on Easter Sunday. Easter, the day when I'm supposed to search the house for eggs and EAT A WHOLE BASKET OF CANDY!! (That was the extent of my family's Easter celebrations.) What were these religious nuts thinking? Keeping me from eating my candy? This is how my 7 year old mind took in the situation. Candy was more important than god. I never went back to Sunday school with Kelly. And I never believed in god.

So I'm writing this instead of doing what I set out to do today. I need to send a mass e-mail to everybody who's going to bake for the Tiptree bakesale at Wiscon. I have a stack of addresses, I just need to type everything in, and figure out what I'm going to say. It's the hardest part of the whole thing for me. I've had all day to do it, but it hasn't happened yet. Maybe tomorrow...
The stomach is better, the underlying pain is still there, but the acid-blockers are doing their job, keeping things under control so I can sleep. Now all I have to do is get tired. Last night I stayed up with LJ, and didn't go to bed till 7am.
-Juliebata

Comments

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

I find it very weird that you encountered Important Christian Stories in public school (presumably grade school? junior high?).

I don't remember that bit of West Wing -- must have missed that episode. I must say, Madeleine Murray O'Hair* certainly had her uses: When someone objects to school prayers because they have a problem with it, it's much easier to understand than when a Presbyterian (for example) objects on principle.

* Noted atheist activist who was largely responsible for the banning of prayer in U.S. public schools back in the early '60s.

[crazysoph.livejournal.com]

Kindergarten. :{ And probably in the time before activism made a real dent on separating church/state in Wisconsin elementary schools. I remember forming opinions about the rightness/wrongness of Nativity displays on school grounds, based on my experience of seeing them on our own school grounds (but not for long). I'd forgotten a lot of it, so encountering that drawing of mine was a shocker, to say the least. :)

The West Wing ep was "Shibboleth" (http://www.westwingepguide.com/S2/Episodes/30_SHIBBOLETH.html), which combines Thanksgiving week ("Turkeys in CJ's office!") with the arrival of Christian refugees from China, thus giving Toby the opportunity to cross swords with a particularly ungracious CHINO ("Christian in name only") woman; at the same time, he's advocating the sister of McGarey for a government appointment, since she is famed for making an issue of enforcing the separation of church practice/education while in schools. A little too eager, as things turn out, but Toby explains the personal importance...

Crazy(tmi?)Soph

[crazysoph.livejournal.com]

Urgh, small factual error in my recounting of the CHINO thing, since I think Toby wasn't even in the room, *duh*

Crazy(I should just nevermind, eh?)Soph