In response to Laurie Berg’s March 31 letter, “Why can’t children learn about Christianity?”:
My family, as do many non-Christian families, realize that we live in a Christian nation. We are surrounded by the beliefs, teachings and sight of Christianity daily. My employer closes during the Christmas holiday; my children vacation from school during Christmas season; Christian movies, stories, articles, TV shows and celebrations abound. If we want to celebrate a religious holiday off, we must take off work without pay and pull our children out of school.
My family is of a faith that believes there are many true paths to spirituality; that messengers, who eventually became founders of world religions, were sent to the different cultures of the world with the same message. The message is consistently one of love and respect in a relationship with God, a relationship with humankind and a relationship with ourselves.
Please, don’t misunderstand, I am not complaining, just puzzled why followers of the beautiful Christian faith don’t seem to understand there is little separation between Christianity and American culture. What there does seem to be is a misunderstanding of the definition of tolerance. The public school system does not teach Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Bahaism, Judaism or atheism and does only a meager job of defining these philosophies. My children, as many non-Christian children, have a strong understanding of Christianity. They live in a Christian society, but most of their religious education comes from Mom and Dad. As do all parents, we teach values and views of our faith and our views of other religions.
It appears, for some, that unless Christianity is in all aspects of education, civil and state life, anything less is unacceptable. I want to assure my many Christian friends, there is no threat to Christianity, nor to its teachings in America. The message of Jesus is the same as all the prophets, a message of tolerance, love and understanding. Sometimes, this message seems to get lost in the politics of religion, which is a human condition.
Camano Island
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