Feri Godmother

[dr_pretentious]

It's not every day that I find myself publicly exhorted to renounce Satan and all his works. It's even weirder to be asked to do so as a proxy for someone else who is neurologically unable to process the question.

I'm just back from a quick trip to Rockville for my niece's baptism. Dan and I drove down Saturday night late-ish, were up for the service, were claimed by relatives all day, and then drove straight back home. It's been an exhausting time for everybody, not least my infant niece. Kate's turning into a gregarious, flirty baby, able to make eye contact across a room and track individual faces for several minutes at a stretch. I find her endlessly fascinating. Every time I see here, there's some enormous new developmental milestone she's passed.

I have, on previous occasions, described my brother-in-law in demographic terms, as a Catholic Republican from a Nebraska ranching dynasty, but that's only part of the truth. He and my sister compromised by joining an Episcopal church, and he expected his family to explode when he told them. Instead, they were already in such a tizzy over one of his female cousins having run off and got herself ordained by renegade Catholic priests, his infraction hardly registered. Perhaps he was counting on the ongoing distraction of his cousin's impending excommunication--I don't really know--but he went ahead and asked the only Wiccan of his acquaintance to be his daughter's godmother.

It was a little puzzling, but he explained that he wanted Kate to have godparents who had (1) a solid education in the Christian faith, and (2) an active spiritual life that is a source of joy to them. He wasn't all that concerned about how the two qualifications did or didn't fit together. He just wanted Kate to know, if she decided to stay Christian, that she'd chosen it for herself, having learned about her other options. The other options bit? That's my job. Apparently, the other options can't include Satanism, but since I find Satanism repellent, that one exclusion is just fine by me.

I imagine saying something like, "Jesus told you to love your neighbors. These are the neighbors." And then, I imagine, we might go on field trips. There's a Zoroastrian bookstore in Nutley that I've been wanting to go to, and it's past time I read the Zend-Avesta. The local Durga temple is open to guests. Down in DC, just about every religion you can name is represented somewhere on 16th Street. But why stop there? A pilgrimage to the Shrine of Ise might be edifying--a combo package of comfy Shinto animism and dubious divine-right-of-kings assertions, plus bonus Auntie-Mame-style international adventure. Well, maybe the Shrine of Ise's a bit of a stretch, but everything else is feasible.

Oh, and I suppose I ought to read the Bible again. And not just the greatest hits, the bits I agree with, and the obvious straw men this time. It's been a long while, and there are whole books I don't remember. How often is there call for the Book of Joel?

One of Kate's baptism gifts was a children's book, Touch and Feel Bible Stories. We all thought immediately of the bits of the Bible that ought not to be touch and feel for a young audience. The books of Ruth and Esther? Right out! And whole swaths of Genesis... But really, the touch and feel aspect consists mostly of bits of synthetic fuzziness glued onto pictures of camels. We speculated about a Scratch'n'Sniff New Testament, in which the scratch'n'sniff aspect would consist mostly of pictures of fish and sheep, but I think that might be a book even less salable than mine.

Comments

[dragonlaire.livejournal.com]

Reading the bible is a fine and noble idea, but it seems to be one of those frequent resolutions we make but manage to bravely ignore. Even with the best of intentions, though, a new problem arises as soon as we enter the religious bookstore or open the drawer next to our hotel beds. For which bible shall we read? The answer to that little puzzle is a complicated one, indeed. The purists among us would tell us to read the King James Version, as they should, for it's the monumental accomplishment of English prose, rivaled only by Shakespeare. I seem to vaguely recall one famous novelist--a woman but the name has escaped--describing her habit of beginning each writing day with thirty minutes of bible reading; the idea was to come into contact with good prose. But unless a person is a monster of comprehending antique English, the King James Version is frequently impenetrable. Look, it's beautiful, but who can understand this stuff? You could fairly consume a lifetime staring at the impassable obstacle of a single line. So, the next best thing is to consider alternative bibles, if only for comparison purposes. We have the NIV, LIT, RSV, and so on; and the neatest part of the whole process is that almost all of these translations have been produced to satisfy the theological demands of the various denominations who sponsored the work. I have it from reliable sources that the Oxford Annotated Bible is best; I believe it uses the NRSV (New Revised Standard Version) for text and adds scholarly annotations as things plow along through the scripture. Apparently, evangelical Christians have disowned it completely, and this may be the best recommendation of all. Happy reading!

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

I believe there's a direct translation of the NT from Greek that came out a few years ago and was highly praised for its attention to detail and lovely prose, but I'll be damned if I can remember the exact title and author. There's plenty of other cool stuff, though:

Differences Between Bible Versions compares versions and explains what they get right and wrong
Beyond Belief by Elaine Pagels is a really cool look at the Gospel of Thomas and its effect on the early Christians, and I remember her The Gnostic Gospels as being fascinating, though I ought to go back and read it. And then there's Lost Scriptures: Books That Did Not Make It Into the New Testament and Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew by Bart D Ehrman, which I covet, having given them to my in-laws and read parts of them - they took them to their church Bible classes and the group had a really good time learning all sorts of stuff about the early church. Also, I like ex-Bishop John Shelby Spong a lot. He was my in-laws' Bish, and he's an advocate for equality and a strong opponent of fundamentalism. He's written several books - I've read Why Christianity Must Change Or Die and Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture, and they were both great.

[dragonlaire.livejournal.com]

Well, I was being a little facetious, but this what writers do. The King James Version of the bible is extraordinarily beautiful, and there are many aids (Strong is very old and won't help much with comprehension) to help decipher the antiquated language. So, if your goal is either a literary or historical one, nothing can match the King James Version; and you may also have theological reasons why it is irreplaceable.

But if your goal is comprehension of the most accurate available translation, the King James Version just won't do. The New Testament contains numerous translation errors from the Greek texts; and those considerations are independent of latter discoveries like the Dead Sea Scrolls that were found long after the 1611 edition was published. At that point, picking the most objective compilation becomes a tricky business.

So, really it comes down to your objectives. No serious contemporary scholar would consult the King James Version for serious study of the biblical period; and no one concerned with producing beautiful prose would ever consider looking elsewhere.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Let translations abound. My personal preference is KJV, but whatever translation she's getting in Sunday School will have the advantage of early familiarity. By the time she's old enough to start wrapping her head around the difference between Greek and Aramaic, let alone the Nag Hammadi papyri, she'll already have opinions of her own about directions of study to pursue. In this kind of learning, more than any other, the student's interest should be the organizing principle.

[jeneralist.livejournal.com]

...and then ya got yer basic Leviticus Syndrome (LS) to look out for. Back in the days when I myself evangelized, LS was explained this way: Someone resolves to read the whole Bible. They start off with Genesis. "Hey, I know this stuff!" they exclaim. Creation, Adam & Eve, Tower of Babel, Abramham, Amazing Techicolor Dreamcoat... (Not mentioned: and their delight with the stories they know propels them over the messy stories, like Dinah and Joseph's half-sister-in-law.) Then they get to Exodus: Moses! Pharoah! Charlton Heston!

And then, Leviticus. Lists of foods you can't eat and clothes you can't wear. Well, food some people couldn't eat. At Leviticus, three things can happen. Either, "Um, do you have a different Bible I can read, without this boring stuff?" or, "Is it OK if I skip this stuff?" or (the much more dangerous, from my old point of view), "Um, WHY didn't God want them to eat pork? And why is it in the Bible for all time, part of the Holy Inerrant Word of God, if it doesn't apply now? Do the 10 Commandments still apply? What about the Sabbath -- aren't we remembering the 1st day, not the Sabbath, now? Is it a sin to go out for dinner after church on Sunday? Who decided which laws still apply and which don't?"

You're going to have fun in Leviticus.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

One of the most important things Kate will need to know is that the Bible disagrees with itself frequently, and that's okay. She'll get along better with some parts than others, and that's also okay. Every religion has its rough spots-- they're a standard hazard of human frailty. And she can have any opinion she wants about which bits are rough spots.

So, yeah, whether we're of one of the peoples of the book or not, we're stuck with the whole messy aggregate in our wider culture.

And it's only because some parodist bothered to read Leviticus that the homophobes who use Leviticus to justify gay-bashing now have their comeuppance in the form of the God Hates Shrimp website.

[methastra.livejournal.com]

> but he explained that he wanted Kate to have godparents who had (1) a solid education in the Christian faith, and (2) an active spiritual life that is a source of joy to them

I thought one of the responsibilities of a Godparent was to see that the child was properly brought up in the Christian faith, not exposed to the religious buffet and allowed to eat what they liked.

Did I miss something in CCD, or is your relative just being radical? :-)

[tigira.livejournal.com]

Actually, according to the Catholic Church, only one godparent needs to be Catholic. However, I think this little one was baptised in the Episcopal Church. I don't know what their rules are.

Heck, I'm Wiccan, and I am godmother to two children. It is up to me to make sure they are raised Catholic, even if I'm not one myself. Of course, having been raised Catholic myself, I do know how to do this.

As for the vows, there was nothing I said in those that I did not mean whole-heartedly. However, I do intend to also let them know that while this is how THEY are being raised, it is not the ONLY way out there. It's difficult to teach tolerance if everything other than what you do is treated as something the children shouldn't know about.

My $0.02

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

I don't think Z would use the word radical to describe himself--his leftward drift has been very gradual--but about this particular thing, radical might not be an inaccurate word. He just knew too many people who were Catholic not because they had heartfelt faith, but because they had been made afraid to be anything else, and it just doesn't have to be that way. I agree with him that Christiantiy has too many good things going for it for that kind of coercion and fear of difference to be necessary to a Christian uprbringing, or a Christian adulthood.

[red-haired-girl.livejournal.com]

OOH! Be my religious Auntie Mame, those places sound really interesting (especially the Durga Temple).

Also - now I'm imagining a Taste-test bible, which might be interesting during Leviticus, but perhaps impolite with Lot's wife :-)

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Oh, but think of all the recipes for lamb!

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing it depends on whether you've already paid your dues.

Anytime Ursula Le Guin writes a volume of meditations on writing, not only do people like me shell out the bucks for our own copies--some of us put the book on required reading lists for writing classes. But then, that's Le Guin. One of the SF magazines on the newsstands--Analog? Asimov's? I forget which--runs a regular column that seems to consist mostly of Robert Silverberg's reminiscences about the science fiction conventions he attended in his youth. Well, I went to some SF conventions in my youth, too, and I've been known to meditate on writing, but until I've written and sold some kickass novels, there's no reason yet for anybody to care. Not with their wallets, anyway.

[anthonyjaycee.livejournal.com]

I read Rockville, and I was like, "ah, this is probably a different Rockville that she's talking about, than where I live." Then I read about DC, and I realized that you must be relatively local.

I'm Catholic... kind of. My sister told me that I shouldn't go around telling people I'm Catholic any more, since "I don't believe what they believe." I appear to have somehow failed to grasp the concept of believing what someone else tells me to believe, rather than being open-minded and reasoning things out for myself. Who'd have thought??? :P

Among local Catholic Churches in Rockville, I was going to this St. Patrick's one for a while, but it's a bit on that Conservative Catholic side of things. I grew up with that, and I have a lot of problems with the hypocrisy of the religious right which seems to filter into there. They got better when the old pastor retired, but still. I switched over to this St. Elizabeth's church instead... that church feels a lot better to me, with priests who are more apt to say things like "vote your conscience" than "you have to vote pro-life, so vote Republican."

Anyway, I was just curious if your Catholic relatives in Rockville go to either of those two churches. Given their Republican background, maybe it'll give me a little more information on political demographics of churches around here...

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

My family lives in Rockville, and my husband's folks live in Silver Spring, so even though we live in central New Jersey, we often combine family visits and get down to Maryland every 3 months or so.

My sister and brother-in-law visited a bunch of Catholic churches (his background), a bunch of Congregationalist/UCC churces (her background), and a bunch of Episcopalian churches (my father's family's background, but not what my sister and I actually grew up with). I don't know what other churches they visited, but they settled on Christ Church, an Episcopal church on Connecticut Avenue south of Veirs Mill and University.

Z is one of those Republican-raised folks who keeps identifying as Republican even while drifting pretty far leftward. He's in mourning over the sorry state of his party these days. As far as I know, politics didn't play a big part in their choice of church.

I wish I could give you more useful information. Even over here in Pagandom, we know how hard it can be to find a congregation that fits comfortably.

[tokeiwakamidesu.livejournal.com]

Regarding the bibles... I took atheist Bible study for a year, and we used the Oxford Annotated... it really is a very good bible, as bibles go. As I understand it's also fairly expensive, but I could gift you mine? It even has all the stuff the priests wrote in to ensure their continuing theological supremacy highlighted! In green! Until I gave up!

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Big litgeek that I am, I'm inclined toward KJV, with a good stack of reference books, and maybe the OED installed on my laptop. It's never too early for reference books.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

But on second thought, is that a scenario that's about the interests of a person whose brain hasn't yet formed sufficiently to handle object permanence and whose thinking style won't be knowable for some years, or is that scenario about the aggrandizement of my own ego? I take it back. It is too early for reference books.

[kistha.livejournal.com]

I think that this is very nice - how wonderful for you....Having a family that accepts, and then utilizes your religious beliefs, is super cool to me.

While my family isn't really all that religious; they just pretend I'm like them or ignore it. Of course since that's how they all treat each other (I'd describe the family beliefs as: mostly Christian Tinted Agnosticy) it's not a slap in the face, but every couple of Christmases my Mom and I get into it, usually over religion in school.

Congratulations on your new role. Have fun!

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

I'm incredibly lucky.

Very early on, my folks were a little concerned, because the first time they really had to think about it was when Dan and I were planning our wedding. Planning a wedding is daunting enough by itself, but helping your daughter plan her wedding when you know nothing about her religion must be kind of overwhelming. So my father said, "Is there anything...dramatic I should prepare my parents for? Bonfires? Human sacrifice?"

"Only if we can get Rush Limbaugh," I said. And then I guess my folks knew I had enough of a sense of humor about it that they could ask me anything.

On holidays, my brother-in-law and I take turns saying grace. It's not something my family did when I was growing up, but it makes Z feel at home.

[reynaud.livejournal.com]

You say grace? I wonder, is it Christian grace, or a pagan version (if such a thing exists).

My aunt's family is alot more religious than mine. When we all get together, my aunt or my mother usually says grace. My brother and I (one of my brothers is a devout atheist, and I'm a deist) generally sit politely by but don't participate.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

After rituals, Wiccans in my denomination usually say a food blessing before the feast. The version I use when Z says it's my turn to say grace is actually adapted from the blessing of the wine and cakes from the middle of the ritual liturgy, though, because it's nice and short. It's sort of morphed into, "For the gifts of love and laughter, family and abundance, we give thanks." I figure, each person at the table can thank Whoever seems appropriate.

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

I wonder what's going to happen with my niece. My sister is resolutely Not Catholic, though spiritual in a broadly Christian But Pagan-Friendly way. Her husband's Catholicism comes out to play in interesting ways: He was happy to live with her, but they had to get married in the Catholic Church; he doesn't go to church regularly, and is fine with the major faiths, but he freaked when he discovered I'm Pagan and insisted that any children they have be brought up Catholic. My sister said, "You bring them up Catholic. I'll give them the agnostic view, and Karen can bang on about other religions." I have no idea how this will play out when it comes time for baptism. Will my sister balk? Will Paul insist? Will I be even considered as a godmother - especially as in the RC rite of baptism, godparents have to profess their faith in Christ. I might have a wee problem with:

Celebrant: Do you believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth?
Parents and godparents: I do.
Celebrant: Do you believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, died, and was buried, rose from the dead, an is now seated at the right hand of the Father?
Parents and godparents: I do.
Celebrant: Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting?
Parents and godparents: I do.
Celebrant: This is our faith. This is the faith of the Church. We are proud to profess it, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Now, I suppose I could say that I believe in it insofar as I believe that it exists, and that all that part of the world's mythology is as valid as any other, the way I believe in Santeria, or Sikhism, or that there are roads and planes, even if I don't worship that way. But still, it feels a bit weird.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

The Episcopalian rite is a little bit looser, but not much, and yeah, I felt I could say the I Do's because I also believe that Taliesin took the shape of a salmon, and Ganesha was accidentally beheaded by his father and was given the head of an elephant to remedy the loss, and Hecate is simultaneously Maiden, Mother, and Crone. My vows were truer to the letter than to the spirit of the liturgy, and I wish I'd had a chance to talk to the minister before the ceremony about that. My sister tells me I'm not the first Wiccan godparent he's welcomed at a baptism in their church, and that in his view the role P&Z envision is quite compatible with a Christian education, as long as Kate is equally encouraged to call on her other godparents, Z's brother and sister. (I am very glad Z's siblings are carrying the more orthodox part of the job. I wouldn't feel nearly as free to be the gadfly if I didn't know they'd be sticking to the spirit of the vows, for balance.)

[reynaud.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the new responsibility. I'd always thought that godparents were there to ensure the kids grew up believing in God (hence the "god" part of the term). But that was when I was studying medieval history; I was raised Congregationalist. I also seem to remember that godparents were NOT supposed to be related; something having to do with theology and incest taboos.

I suppose if the parents are going to ensure your niece gets a founding in Christianity, this can work.

Actually, I think everyone in America should grow up learning something about the Bible. Not necessarily so that they become Christians, but because so much of the society is based on Christianity, it helps in understanding the history and much of the older literature.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard that about the ideal godparents not being kin. My godparents were mostly aunt-and-uncle types. They're good Episcopalians all, and look where that got me.