Wednesday, May 09, 2007

On the polarization of stuff

I apologize for any times I have taken the "kid in church" discussion to polarizing levels. I never intended to imply that anybody's kids should be banned from church. Obviously different people's kids react to the service in different ways. if your kids like church, sure, take them.

While I don't think this is enough of a discrimination issue to find the comparisons to other forms of discrimination useful, I get that they come from people who honestly feel that their small child is no less able to get things out of the service than a handicapped person or lesbian or African American. And I get where they were going with the idea.

To my thinking, my current church's model, where there's kid-friendly content for the first fifteen minutes of the service then everybody troops off to Sunday school, is about the ideal.

The kids of UUs I know and adore do happen to be above average in intelligence, but I mostly got to know them from their parents and their parents are above average in intelligence like most of my friends, so I guess that's not surprising.

The UU age group at my own church that I know best are the teens and while I would say we have a normal range of intelligences, (and a very hyperactivity-friendly program, I might add) I will say that I honestly do think UU kids are unusually decent and sensitive, though.

Thoughtful, too.

And yeah, if I knew that my church's nursery was yucky, I would take steps to fix it up. I've been a nursery volunteer and it wasn't my favorite thing, but it's better than folks feeling that the nursury is too yucky to keep their kids in.

Anyway, so that's where I am on this discussion.

CC

1 comment:

PeaceBang said...

You just reminded me of a recent rehearsal I was at for Sweet the Sound, my old-timey sacred music ensemble. We were getting ready for a gig and our director, Matt, wanted to sing "Early On One Christmas Morn (Jesus Christ the Son Was Born)" -- for which I sing lead vocals. It was a COLD April day and everyone in the group was up for it. I said, "Well, I think that's dumb 'cause it's a Christmas song, but if you all want to do it, I'll go along."

And Sarah, our fiddler, said totally deadpan, "Vicki, why do you hate Jesus?"

And we all died laughing.

CC, WHY DO YOU HATE THE CHILDREN?