HaysooChreesto!

I hate committing a faux pas, I really do. But Christmas day, my wife's family was over and during the gift exchange, I was sitting next to my 13 year old daughter when she opened "Left Behind" and "Left Behind; Tribulation Force". Without thinking, my mouth popped open and exclaimed frustradedly "aw shit". I then received a lot of surprised looks and tried to blame it on the dog being in the house. But the cat (or is it dog?) was out of the bag.

The thing is, my wife is an Xtian and she's brought up our 11 and 13 year daughters to believe in the Xtian god. And about a year and half ago, my oldest daughter saw the first "Left Behind" movie and was near hysterical at the prospect that daddy is to be one of those left behind (post Tribulation) to be one of Satan's hapless playthings.

So now, when no one is home, I will have to vid both of these fundie b flicks in an attempt to defuse my kids future concerns about my soon to be hellish demise.
Woe is the atheist on Christmas day!

Ab_Normal

Duuude, that sucks. We got a tract in the Xmas box from my in-laws; I passed to my husband (snickering), he took a look at it and handed it to our daughter, saying, "It's for you." Ahh, nothing says love like mental programming.

No concrete suggestions, just sympathy... yeah, I'm about useless today.

Gregg

Purchase several copies of Carl Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World" and "Cosmos" or Earl Doherty's "Challenging the Verdict: A Cross-examination of Lee Strobel's 'The Case for Christ'" (maybe getting them cheap through used bookstores) and have them on hand at all times. Then when you catch'em reading something stupid, hand them one of these books and say, "Here's something much better!"

Gregg

ksagnostic

Hey Lamma, even if your wife is a Christian, is she a LaHaye type of Christian? Is there a way you can talk to her about the kind of psychological terrorism that believing in bunk such as the rapture and tribulation does to children who have a parent who doesn't believe?

HaysooChreesto!

My wife calls herself a Christian, but I honestly can't remember the last time she went to church. Obviously, in our time together, we've been to religious funerals and weddings, but I don't think she's ever gone to church since we first met!
We debated the atheist/religious issue many a time in our first few years together but due to the ugliness it caused we've pretty much dropped the whole thing and developed a pretty good live and let live attitude in regards to each others opinions.

But her family are good people, even though they're mostly fundie, and they surely didn't mean any harm by giving those wretched videos to my kids, so I'll just provide my kids with the light of reason should they seek it from me.
I've had my moments of being a smarmy bore with both my wife and kids and it's been counterproductive-to say the least. If I can provide enough of a spark at some point that will cause them to critically evaluate their beliefs then that's good enough for me.

At this point, I don't see any of my kids becoming crazed fundies.