Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Secular Vs. Inclusive
Yes, I’ve been gone for a while. I’d like to claim some sort of cosmic angst about not finding anything interesting enough to write about but that isn’t true. I’ve been spending much of my time getting a new group off of the ground.
Most responses (90%) are totally positive. Some of the other, more negative, responses have ranged from personal things (I was going to start a group like that!) to pedantic (Why secular and not inclusive? Do you hate Christians?)
I’m more fascinated with the latter negative responses as I think the former have more to do with personality disorders than actual thought. So I’d like to write a brief (HA!) post about inclusive vs. secular.
Secular according to the dictionary is simply an absence of religion. Secular is not pro-gay marriage, its not feminist, its not anti-God. It just means no religion. I will say that I think evolution might be part of a secular system due to its global acceptance by the world scientific community (now watch me get a bunch of ignorant morons telling me about some latest intelligent design insight!)
People here in Florida, even secular homeschoolers, seem to be enamored with the concept of inclusive. I’m baffled by it. Florida homeschoolers really seem to have the attitude that inclusive means that Christians (of the right wing variety) get to say whatever they want while atheists/non-Christians ‘respect’ Christian beliefs while avoiding topics such as evolution in order to not offend. I don’t feel that my worldview or homeschooling knowledge is advanced listening to a mom of seven extol the virtues of having a ‘quiverful’ of children that she keeps safe from the horrors of homosexuals by homeschooling.
The group I'm in is secular that means keep it at home. One person mentioned she didn’t like secular because she felt that meant she’d have to keep her spiritual side in check so she wouldn’t feel welcome. Has she ever thought that SHE made people uncomfortable by not keeping her spiritual side in check?
This post sounds really angry as I read over it. More than angry, I’m just bothered by the illogical nature of it. Secular homeschooling is what’s really inclusive. No one should be offended by being unable to talk about God for 50 minutes and instead having to focus on the actual process of homeschooling (flash cards or not kind of stuff)
Most responses (90%) are totally positive. Some of the other, more negative, responses have ranged from personal things (I was going to start a group like that!) to pedantic (Why secular and not inclusive? Do you hate Christians?)
I’m more fascinated with the latter negative responses as I think the former have more to do with personality disorders than actual thought. So I’d like to write a brief (HA!) post about inclusive vs. secular.
Secular according to the dictionary is simply an absence of religion. Secular is not pro-gay marriage, its not feminist, its not anti-God. It just means no religion. I will say that I think evolution might be part of a secular system due to its global acceptance by the world scientific community (now watch me get a bunch of ignorant morons telling me about some latest intelligent design insight!)
People here in Florida, even secular homeschoolers, seem to be enamored with the concept of inclusive. I’m baffled by it. Florida homeschoolers really seem to have the attitude that inclusive means that Christians (of the right wing variety) get to say whatever they want while atheists/non-Christians ‘respect’ Christian beliefs while avoiding topics such as evolution in order to not offend. I don’t feel that my worldview or homeschooling knowledge is advanced listening to a mom of seven extol the virtues of having a ‘quiverful’ of children that she keeps safe from the horrors of homosexuals by homeschooling.
The group I'm in is secular that means keep it at home. One person mentioned she didn’t like secular because she felt that meant she’d have to keep her spiritual side in check so she wouldn’t feel welcome. Has she ever thought that SHE made people uncomfortable by not keeping her spiritual side in check?
This post sounds really angry as I read over it. More than angry, I’m just bothered by the illogical nature of it. Secular homeschooling is what’s really inclusive. No one should be offended by being unable to talk about God for 50 minutes and instead having to focus on the actual process of homeschooling (flash cards or not kind of stuff)
