Religion and politics. Polite people don't talk about those two subjects. Well, I've never claimed to be polite.

 

In my last update, I noted that we are not religious, or are at best dirty immoral pagans. I should also perhaps note, before I deeply offend and alienate the portion of my family that doesn't actually know me very well, that I was raised Catholic. My grandfather, Roger Neiss Senior, was a deeply religious man, and he did his best to provide a good religious education to all his progeny.

 

Dawn was also raised in a religious household...well, two religious households. Her mother is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (yes, Mormon, if 'merely' a jack Mormon), and her father was a devout Catholic. She was also a good christian girl of the Bible-believing sort for much of her adult life--that is, a member of a non-denomination fundamentalist Protestant church.

 

We have a lot (and I mean a LOT) of Bibles on our bookshelves. And yes, we read them. Even though I am not a christian, I have read the Bible, studied it, and can argue theology and religious philosophy quite well. Dawn can quote chapter and verse, and I'm not half bad myself. I personally have discussed theology with Jesuits, Dominicans, Baptists, Pentecostals, Lutherans, and Unitarians. I have studied Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and even Wicca. I've delved into biblical exegesis, biblical history, and the history of the church in Western Civilization.

 

And that's kind of the problem. Those who actually study their bibles tend to lose faith in it. Often, the first question I ask when someone asks if I've read the bible is "which one?" The King James Version or the Revised Standard Version? The Living Bible, The Good News Bible, the New International Version, the New Living Translation..?

 

They're all different. The so-called "plain meaning" is considerably different between versions, depending on the translator and the translator's biases and goals.

 

One's relationship with the spiritual is a very private, very personal thing. Dawn considers herself a Christian, though a rather pagan one, in my opinion. I usually tell people that I am atheistic on the subject of the christian diety and agnostic on the subject of pagan ones. We are members of the local Unitarian Universalist church, though half-assed members at best. We discuss religion with our children, and let them make up their own minds on the subject. We do not proselytize for atheism, paganism, or any other ism. Emily very much enjoys going to her father's Bible-based church. I personally find the place to be creepy and very non-christian, but since she enjoys it, we let her go.

 

So, if you who read this are offended and feel the need to 'save' us, keep in mind that Dawn has already been saved, and I'll ask what I need to be saved from. And you'd better have a good answer.

 

Use the Force, Luke. 

 

Oh, and one other thing: we're LIBERALS. And not the pussy kind.