Any Practicing Christians?

[Anonymous]

I get it. "Christians" rock, and I need to put down the wine glass. DCUM B.S. " never, ever ends.

[Anonymous]

The OP has been nice. A bunch of you have not been. I didn't read anywhere that OP said that born-again was the only way one could be a true Christian, and she certainly never said anything anti-Semitic that would warrant the "Oh, but Freud was a Jew" comment. It is not that strange to wonder whether people who share your particular faith are around.

Love,
Not the OP, Not a Born Again Christian

[Anonymous]

OP, thanks for your post. I am not an orthodox Christian, but very spiritual. My child is at one of the big private schools, and I am from this area. It seems that in the DC area, it is not the "culture" to discuss Christianity. It would be nice if I knew the other like minded parents only for the occasional chat about life's events. That's all, no big to do. But I see your point, it is difficult to bring it up.

[Anonymous]

OP, thank you for your post. I grew up Catholic and have, for better or worse, drifted away from the church since college. I'm starting to return to it, and I've found that friends and acquaintances (to the extent I've had any reason to talk about it, which isn't often) are relatively surprised and unsupportive. My kids aren't in school yet, but a fair number of the people who seem surprised and somewhat put off are parents of kids applying to the "Big Three" or who are already at one of those schools. Oddly, my friends who actually attended two of the Big Three years ago are quite supportive.

[Anonymous]

My feeling as an agnostic who is currently not practicing (oh, and I have a child at a DC private) is that as long as you don't preach to my kid or me about Jesus and being saved or openly judge me for not going to church every Sunday, I could care less about what you do and I will support you in your choices as I expect you to support me in my choices.

We all make choices in life and even though I may not agree with yours or you may not agree with mine as long as no one is getting hurt, who cares?

Se la vie!

[Anonymous]

I think the main reason for the hostility and negative reactions are that DC, as a whole, tends to be a very intellectual, upper socio-economic, and well-educated population. Typically, well-educated intellectuals are extremely skeptical of any religion, or organization, that tells its followers to blindly believe and reverently follow something/one that can not be proven or explained (i.e. evangelical Christianity). The evangelical Christian movement thrives in mostly rural, lower socio-economic, and less-educated, populations of the United States. Given that the Washington, D.C. metro area already is, by definiton, neither rural, un-educated or majority lower-middle class, and then reducing that demographic even further by coinsidering only the self-selecting population that chooses the uber-expensive, uber-academically challenging, competitive and elite area private/preparatory schools, one would naturally find a decided dearth of "born-again Christians" such as OP. One might also then instinctually comprehend why the hackels go up in the rest of that small population who are confronted by the question as posed by OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the main reason for the hostility and negative reactions are that DC, as a whole, tends to be a very intellectual, upper socio-economic, and well-educated population. Typically, well-educated intellectuals are extremely skeptical of any religion, or organization, that tells its followers to blindly believe and reverently follow something/one that can not be proven or explained (i.e. evangelical Christianity). The evangelical Christian movement thrives in mostly rural, lower socio-economic, and less-educated, populations of the United States. Given that the Washington, D.C. metro area already is, by definiton, neither rural, un-educated or majority lower-middle class, and then reducing that demographic even further by coinsidering only the self-selecting population that chooses the uber-expensive, uber-academically challenging, competitive and elite area private/preparatory schools, one would naturally find a decided dearth of "born-again Christians" such as OP. One might also then instinctually comprehend why the hackels go up in the rest of that small population who are confronted by the question as posed by OP.

PP, You're intellectualizing this way too much.

We may be "uber"-achievers in the DC area, but that doesn't mean we're questioning the beliefs of Evangelicals. I don't care what a person believes. I do, however, have issues with religion being thrown in my face, which is what I've experienced with many who categorize themselves as Born Again Christians. So perhaps many of us "ubers" cringe at this post b/c we, too, have felt their wrath.

Each year my cousin (a former Catholic, now reborn) sends her yearly newsletter around Christmas and ends it with "Jesus is the reason for the season." (I must assume that there are no Jews or Muslims on her mailing list.) It's actually good for a laugh or two before it hits the recycling container (b/c being uber means we're also green).

Furthermore, the religious right has an entire network - from religiously-based businesses (my cousin's husband began such a consulting firm and guess what? His clients are all reborn!) to insurance companies and healthcare programs that supports these beliefs. With this in mind, I can't see how the OP is having difficulty finding others who share her views.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I get it. "Christians" rock, and I need to put down the wine glass. DCUM B.S. " never, ever ends.

Only put down the wine glass if you need a refill! Jesus turned water into wine, PP!

[Anonymous]

"Jesus is the reason for the season" simply means that Christmas is celebrating his birth. What's offensive about that? I'd not be offended if a Jew said "Attonement is the purpose of this season" during their "day of attonement" time.

[Anonymous]

Christmas occurs on the winter solstice ... the original reason for the season is to mark the shortest day of the year and the coming days of more light. Christians co-opted the date ... this is fine with me, of course, but the reason for season in our home is still Santa, a beautiful tree, and sharing love and warmth with family and friends.

All persons should feel free to share their views regarding religion with anyone they choose, however, politics and religion are not the best topics for discussion on school grounds and/or with people you don't know well enough to know what might or might not be offensive. It's not an issue of tolerance, but rather politeness.

[Anonymous]

I have seen so much anti-semitism on this board, that I think that this OP is not getting it so bad. I agree that some of the responses to her have been a little judgmental of her and her beliefs (or that she is curious about others' beliefs) but I don't think it's an anti-Christian thing. Perhaps, as others have suggested, there is just a lot of anti-religion in this area, or at least on DCUM?

[Anonymous]

Agreed, 9:19 PP--DCUM is VERY anti-religion from my perspective...or at least there is a very vocal anti-religion membership.

[Anonymous]

" the original reason for the season is to mark the shortest day of the year and the coming days of more light"

Originally celebrated by pagans, morphed into a Christian holiday. BTW, not all Christians today celebrate Christmas and the wacky Puritans outlawed Christmas in Boston.

[Anonymous]

Poster Boy for active Christians:

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090222/NEWS01/902230303/1008

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My feeling as an agnostic who is currently not practicing (oh, and I have a child at a DC private) is that as long as you don't preach to my kid or me about Jesus and being saved or openly judge me for not going to church every Sunday, I could care less about what you do and I will support you in your choices as I expect you to support me in my choices.

Good of you, but OP is not asking to be tolerated. She's not asking for permission to believe what she believes. She's asking if there are others in the private school community who share her beliefs.