"Hey ZombieKid?"
"Yeah?"
"C'mere"
My best friend's ten year old reluctantly leaves his comic book behind and comes over to the couch where I'm lounging.
"Wha-at?" He says in that little kid way.
"Take a look at this," I say, and thrust the now-infamous UU world ad under his nose.
He reads it carefully. I love this child.
"Do you see why people might have a problem with that ad?" I ask.
"Because it makes people who believe in God sound stupid."
"Is that wrong?"
"Yes"
"Why?"
"I dunno. Because it is. People should be able to believe what they want without other people being mean about it."
"Why?"
ZombieKid is a bit lost for an answer as he senses that answering "because being mean to other people because of what they believe is wrong" will just lead to another "why?" and that's the best he can do. His mother intervenes on his behalf with a speech about how our values state that we're supposed to be respectful of people who believe things that are different and that UUs try our best to live with those values. Then she uses the seven principles as a creed. But I love her anyway.
We went into a discussion of the quotes that we thought were OK (Katharine Hepburn is pretty clearly just speaking for herself) and the ones that were problems (Primarily Darrow's and Dawkins').
So yeah, this kid is ten and he might not be able to explain his issues with that ad with the eloquance that Berry's Mom has, but he still gets it.
Sigh.
CC
7 comments:
That made me smile! Out of the mouths of babes... and a little child shall lead them...
I know your friend's 10 year old wouldn't want to be called a babe or a little child, so adjust the language as needed. :)
Smart kid!
Do let us know what ZombieKid thinks of this send up of the ads CC. ;-)
He's not even allowed to read MY blog, Robin. But when his parents decide that he is, I'm sure the first thing he will do is search for everything I've written about him, and I assume he will find your link then.
CC
Is this infamous ad available online, so that us non-UUW subscribers can see what you're talking about?
Here's the whole campaign.
CC
I was mostly offended by their using an Emily Dickinson quote. Dickinson was almost certainly not an atheist; she was part of a religious revival at one time and wrote many poems about religion. She had doubts, but so did Mother Teresa; if all doubters are to be classified as atheists, that's a good way to get all the thoughtful people but it's not very accurate.
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