Raising Pagans
When Daddy is Catholic and Mommy is a Witch, what's a couple to teach their children?
By Kathleen Richards
Published: March 28, 2007


At first glance, you'd never know that little Elizabeth Nettleton is Pagan. The vivacious four-year-old cuddles in her mother's lap, floppy blond bangs dangling in her eyes as she clutches her green stuffed alligator and a red teddy-bear blanket. Then the girl reaches underneath her pink sweater and pulls out a long silver chain bearing a dime-size pentacle.


"Why do you wear the pentacle?" asks Tina, who would pass as a typical San Leandro mom were it not for the tiny silver stud in her nose.

"Because mommy wears hers!" Lizzie exclaims.

"Do you remember what the pentacle stands for?" Tina, 37, asks tenderly.

Sean, her brown-haired six-year-old, sits playing with dominoes at a small table nearby. "The earth, the air, the fire, and the water," he rattles off, neglecting "spirit," the star's fifth point.

Last summer, Tina, a Wiccan, bought pentacle pendants for her children. Sean had been pestering her for months, ever since she started wearing hers. But after only a couple of weeks, just before he was due to start kindergarten, he took his off.

According to his mom, Sean doesn't like to stand out, while Elizabeth is the "free thinker" and "wild girl" who proudly declares that her mother is a Witch. But Sean's apprehension to display his Pagan side also has to do with his father. (Continues)

The kids already seem like they have a good head on their shoulders. I think the parents have doen a good job in letting the kids believe what they want out of the two religions and hopefully if they fall into another or no religion the parents will be supportive of them.

That was an interesting read, my mother is a Wiccan who believes in Jesus Christ and the Christian God, along with many core Native American beliefs.

Thank you for this article, GW... It made me feel all nice nice inside. X)

I think the parents are doing a great thing by not indoctrinating the children, but telling them their beliefs. Religious tolerance is a beautiful thing.

I agree, we need more of this in the world.

It's a long article, (5 pages at the Host site), and yet well worth the read. I love the closing. Wisdom from the mouths of babes.
"....While Lizzie is still too young to really comprehend the subject, Sean is starting to join the conversations. "Sometimes I get kinda mad, like, can't you just talk about this another day?" he says of his parents' religious debates. He doesn't go so far as to say he wants them to believe the same thing. Even at six, he seems okay with their differences. "Because I get to pick," the boy says.

Spoken like a true Pagan. "

Open hearts and open minds, in a family where catholicism and witchcraft love each other.

Ewww I like the way that sounds.

I guess since I grew up in a family where mom is an Eastern Mystic and dad is a non-practicing Catholic this article explains exactly how my sister and I were raised.

One of my best friends a Jew and she married a Catholic man. She and her husband managed to agree to raise their 5 boys in the Jewish tradition. I guess it just depends on how you and your partner decide to work things out. Hopefully whatever you choose takes the children into consideration as to their spiritual needs.

Whats the difference between a catholic and a pagan? not much, except a catholic tries to hide behind a Christian guise....

Considering that catholisim is the first christian church after the gnostics... And they were evolving away from the pagan gods and ways... ;P

Christianity as a whole has deep pagan roots...

<.<



Teh hell did the pagans or catholics do to you?

Not be in his brand of religion...?

I don't think it was the pagans or the catholics that inspired them to enter into a beautiful thread and attempt to turn it ugly. It's just who they are.

Thesis
There are two goals that need to be achieved in this essay. The first goal is to give the historical/Catholic understanding of what St. Paul wrote in the third chapter of Galatians. The second goal is to explain the Lutheran/Reformed understanding of Galatians. The purpose is to demonstrate that those who hold Catholics to be outside the Christian religion, are mistaken. (Link)

Anyone who thinks Catholics aren't Christian is sorely mistaken. They are Christian. My former father in law used to be a Priest in the late 60's. He's one of the best, funniest, kindest, smartest, coolest strongest Christians I know.

Does that mean I ran out and became a Catholic? Nuh-uh... I actually chose the denomination of Christianity that is the polar opposite of Catholism, he always supported that decision, more than his step-son ever did (my ex-husband). My sister and father are also Catholic, they're also among the very coolest most awesome Christians I know.

I think the parents are doing a good job, tell them about both beliefs then let them decide when they are old enough to understand. You never know they might go up to Buddhists.



Nephilim, I take you don't know much about either religion.

I'd say teach them to be Atheists...just so it can be ironic.

Yo!
Was Darren Catholic?......both of them?.......B