We don't really go to church anymore. Years ago, right before my first son (Ryan) was born and somewhat after he was my wife made a concerted effort to get us to church every Sunday, going to a specific one most weeks. I was cool about it. I didn't really encourage it, but didn't discourage it, either, so's not to be an asshole or anything.
Making a long story short that fell by the wayside. By 2005 we weren't going to that church anymore. I don't think my wife was into it as much as she'd wanted everybody to believe - including herself.
Still, my god-fearing "pious" mother-in-law a few years ago started taking Ryan to church on Sundays (a different church than the one we'd taken him to... and to be honest, I think the people there might be nuttier than the previous church, but it's difficult to tell). Mainly it was for Sunday School but most Sundays she attends the actual service with him.
So here's where the dilemma comes in. And I knew I would have this problem, even before any of my kids were born. When he started out at this Sunday School he was in the class for Pre-K or Kindergartners and so everything they talked about was pretty milquetoast and they just talked about some of the nice Bible stories. I took him one Sunday (my mother-in-law does not come up every weekend - thank God) and I really didn't want to attend the adult Sunday School for fear of my mouth getting me into trouble - so I sat in his class with him and they let me. When pressed I just said "Well I'm just curious about what he's being taught." Which I was.
About a month ago I took him again. This time they moved him to the first-graders' class and he had a new teacher. I think the bad weather that day kept a lot of people home. He ended up being the only kid there. This nice lady decided to start off that first class at the beginning. Yes, the Beginning. She started off with the Creationism bull shit. Young Earth Creationism at that. Boy I had to really bite my tongue; I just sort of would nod every once in a while, whilst on my iPhone bitching about it on Facebook and Twitter. I thought it was awesome when Ryan said "What about the dinosaurs?" It tripped the teacher up for a second and she was forced to admit that they were made a "really really long time ago" and werent' around anymore. But what really got me, and where I really think she overstepped her bounds is when she made a comment something like "Don't listen to that 'Big Bang' stuff."
Now that shit fucking pisses me off. Excuse my fucking language. Just like I don't think science classes in school have any business discussing religion or religious beliefs, I don't think, by the same token, science should be treaded on in church classes. It's one thing to teach the Book of Genesis and the Garden of Eden and all that, it's quite another to actually tell the kids not to listen to science classes in real school. Well Ryan's not learning all that stuff yet, but he will. And what this shit does is driving a fucking wedge between kids and science, or kids and their faith. Now if he keeps going to any Sunday Schools, they're going to get more and more into the bull shit of religion that I don't like and I have to, on the drive home, do some immediate deprogramming, trying to somehow tell him they're wrong in terms he can understand. The problem is when they're six years old, it's a lot easier to explain the Biblical creation story than how the solar system and planet Earth really formed.
Hmmmm. That actually explains a LOT doesn't it?
In the last class he attended they started talking about how EVERYONE'S a sinner. Well, fine, if you mean, "nobody's perfect." But if they start getting into that Original Sin shit, and teach my son that he was born a dirty sinner, I will fucking lose my shit.
Ryan or my other kids going to church being taught crap I don't believe, and/or crap that is DEFINITELY not true, independent of Faith, is going to be a HUGE problem. What do I do about this? Most of my wife's family is religious. Stopping him from churching could alienate him from them. Or alienate my entire family from them.
A friend of mine suggested a Unitarian church. But the closest one is like 15 miles away. Maybe further, I haven't mapped it exactly, so we can't really go there every week. *Sigh* So anyway, that's where I'm at. I knew this day would come and it's here, where this religion bull shit would rear its ugly head. I have to get back to work so I'll have to end this here, lunch break over.