["My Family is 1/2 Christian, 1/2 Atheist. Holidays are awful!"]
I would love to just not invite the non-Christians and have a pleasant day that is dedicated to Jesus, family and spending quality time with the people I love.
61 comments
My family is also half-Christian and half-atheist, but we have a good time on holidays because - with the exception of Christmas - religious affiliations with most holidays are pretty superficial at best to begin with. As for Christmas, anyone on either side of the fence who gets stiff over religious hangups and obsessive about Jesus has missed the point in the holiday.
I notice that it's only the poster, their spouse, and their offspring who're Christians, and that their siblings and mother aren't. So it wouldn't be too much of a family split if the Christian "half" didn't get together with the non-Christian "half", although I expect some of the non-Christians enjoy seeing their nephews, nieces and grandchildren...
So, it's not Chritsmas you're talking abour or Easter, since those are actually pagan holidays and have nothing to do with Jesus, right?
They want to spend a pleasant day with family, but not invite half of them? Even the 'unbelievers' enjoy Christmas for family-time. I know this may be hard to believe... But, hell, they'd probably be happier not being invited to this ass's Christmas.
Translation from fundie to english:
My nonreligious family doesn't like to listen to me go on about God the whole time. Instead of converting on the spot they tell me they don't want to listen to it and I don't like that. But of course I don't cause the fights, they do because they don't like being preached to.
Christian family values at it's best.
Well, it depends on how the two halves are. Is the Christian half composed of Rapturites like you who take every and any opportunity to preach about how it's the end times, or are they able to appreciate spending time with family without bringing religion into it? Is the atheist half composed of people who sneer at every trapping of Christmas while taking every opportunity to expound their believes, or can they appreciate the spirit of the holiday without believing the message? The two halves of my family fall into the latter two categories, and we get along fine.
It doesn't sound like the family actually has any Christians. Christians are supposed to love their neighbor as themselves.
"A certain man went down from Charlotte to Birmingham, and was attacked by thieves, who stripped him of his coat, wallet and cell phone, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain fundamentalist Baptist that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side of the street. And likewise a Rapture Ready fanatic, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain genuine Christian, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds and took him in his own car, and brought him to the emergency room and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out a stack of c-notes and gave them to the admissions clerk and said unto her "take care of him; and whatsoever you spend more, when I come again, I will repay you".
Which now of these three, do you think, was neighbor to him that was mugged by the thieves?
I'm an atheist. My parents know this. I still celebrate Christmas with them. Why? Because we like to eat, we like to spend time with family, and we all freakin' love presents!
Anyone who gets butthurt over atheists celebrating Christmas needs to take a step back and look at the big picture.
Yep, lets pretend that a Roman pagan holiday is the real birthday of our make believe god. Then ban anyone who disagrees with us.
Damn it, I'm ordering Happy Saturnalia cards this year. Screw the happy holidays shit.
So you can only love Christians?
Congratulations, fundie. You are officially going to Hell when you die.
Way to have that Christmas spirit! Seriously, given the fact that this poster is from Rapture Ready and their hideously bigoted view of Christianity, for all we know the "non-Christians" might actually be Catholic or Lutheran.
Any bets it's the christians in the family who make the holidays awful.
"Uncle Bob I just want to tell you what a horrible satan worshiping bastard you are and that you're going to spend eternity roasting in hell." Who wouldn't want to experience those little pleasantries.
If you're talking about Christmas, many atheist families celebrate it by decorating a tree, giving gifts, and spending time with family.
My family is about a third culturally Jewish, a third culturally Christian, a third neither, and 80% apatheist. We get to throw family events for the Jewish holidays and the Christian holidays and the secular holidays (or any time multiple people have a break from work). Hooray for effectively-agnostic families!
Feel free.
You could do the non-douchebag thing and invite them, then talk about the things you DO have in common while avoiding extremely controversial subjects. And who knows? You could accidentally find out that you have more in common than you thought, and actually enjoy yourself, your respective religions notwithstanding.
But, if you don't regard your relationships with non-Christian (perhaps by your definition alone) family as being as important as your faith, don't care about finding common ground and don't wish to be yoked with the "unbeliever" in any way, shape, form or fashion, then I suppose you could snub them by refusing to invite them to any family function, or by refusing to attend any family event where they're also in attendance.
They'll get the message that you don't like them and want as little to do with them as possible and start staying away from you very quickly. You could even speed the process up considerably by telling them straight out that you will not associate with them, which saves a lot of time. A little honesty can even be refreshing.
Of course, there will be an incredible number of hurt feelings all around. But if you were actually seriously considering it at the time you made this post, I sincerely doubt you care.
So...do whatever makes you happy, I guess.
My family is mostly Christian and Christmas is just fine. Mostly because most normal people don't dedicate Christians to Jesus as such, you freak. It's about family, and you should love your family regardless of their beliefs or lack thereof.
My families mostly Atheist with anyone who thinks there is a God knowing there's not one church or book that represents such a possible being.
In fact, from what we've seen here over the years you Fundies spend all your Christmas holidays BITCHIN about other people not being full of angry dogmatic bullshit or whining about imagined persecution.
I actually avoid this site a bit around Mid December as y'all are buzzkillers. We have wonderful or mild holidays, never pissed at the world all through it. You could learn to be happy by relaxing a bit and getting off that idea you are better and favored and learn to be a human being for awhile.
I recall Jesus telling a parable about a wicked servant who was given a talent and hid it, rather than utilizing it. I remember Jesus also berating the Pharisees for making a show of their religion. Both of those passages seem very appropriate to recount.
Oh wait, you're True Christians (tm). True Christians (tm) don't care about what Jesus said or taught, only that he died. Sorry, my bad,
I'm sure they would love to just be not invited, too.
Religion- Dividing families, the world, and causing wars for the last 6000 years.
I think most of my family is sort of Christian, and some of us are atheists. As religion is something private to us all, this has never been a problem during holidays. I don't even know who believes in a deity and who doesn't. We just concentrate on family and spending quality time with people we love.
(I, as an agnostic and later atheist, had no problem participating in church funerals for my grandparents, as that is a culturally dignified way of taking leave, of saying good bye, and it was what the "dearly departed" would have wanted. If a friend or relative of mine wanted a church funeral, I'd fight for their right to have one when they can no longer fight, as it was important to THEM.)
“["My Family is 1/2 Christian, 1/2 Atheist. Holidays are awful!"]”
“I would love to just not invite the non-Christians and have a pleasant day that is dedicated to Jesus, family and spending quality time with the people I love.”
My mom's sister married a Mormon and converted. Their kids are in their late 40s/50s and are still believers. In the 90s as a teen, I was in the goth scene, drapped in black, long hair and Christmas was great growing up, we talked, laughed, exchanged gifts, played games. Because we did not care what others believed, we're family and love each other. My other aunts were just as great, we did not see them as much but in college I'd visit another aunt who may or may not be Christian but she welcomed me everytime, never looked down ony tattoos, horror themed shirts, goth style, etc. If my fam was like you, not being invited would reinforce my Pagan beliefs as I see it as reward
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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