You know when you suddenly become aware of what you are doing, and freak yourself out a little?

[ciroccoj]

We're almost done Volume II of The Story of the World. Amazon has sent too many of our orders to Swaziland, so I'm looking around elsewhere to order Volume III. Chapters doesn't have it, and the other sites it's on all have the word "Christian" in there somewhere, so I'm rooting about trying to--

Wait... what?

Am I seriously avoiding ordering a book from a site purely on the basis of the fact that it is Christian, with no other information about its ethics, politics, efficiency, or... anything?

Not sure what this says about me, but I'm not terribly pleased :(

Comments

[sweet-adelheid.livejournal.com]

Yes, give us a *little* bit of a chance, please. (If I had my pleading Lucy Pevensive on this account, I'd use her.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Yes, give us a *little* bit of a chance, please.
See, that's what was so disturbing: I do think of myself as giving Christians - and people of all faiths - a chance, despite being decidedly of no faith myself. I mean... Story of the World is written by & for Christian home educators, and has been labelled as "too Christian" by some parents (which I don't understand at all), but it's good so we use it, and we use the Bible in our schooling far more frequently than you'd think, and I automatically step in and try to balance out Chris' cynicism when he makes anti-Christian generalisations to the kids, and my parents said they tried to be "Good Christians, though we don't believe in Christ" and that's how I want to raise the boys too, and and and--

...and yet. I had no other information on these sites other than they called themselves Christian. I could've been on the Metropolitan Community Church's site for all I knew.

My subconscious hypocrisy, let me show you it :(


(If I had my pleading Lucy Pevensive on this account, I'd use her.
Also, random Heh - just finished reading The Silver Chair to the boys tonight :)

[bast2.livejournal.com]

The MCC church? Is that still in existence?! I went to an MCC church service in Dallas when on honeymoon with husband #2. He thought I wanted to observe the service to contast it with our straight ones. Turns out it was very nice--he even admitted so. God--the closet days! forced marriages, threats of family dis-ownment.

Sorry, didn't mean to go on so....

[lizzie-omalley.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Points up, what she said.

With that said, because I tend to be a rather liberal christian in all my leanings, I might have had the same response you did. So what ever it says about you, you at least have company.

[bast2.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm...this is interesting. The fact that you question yourself is hopeful.

No, I totally get it. Read on

[tudorlady.livejournal.com]

I'm into modest dressing. Just the reasonable stuff, i.e., look and behave like a lady, don't dress like a skank. Not the full burqua thing. Womens ready-to-wear these days is just crap - I can't imagine what someone with limited imagination/no sewing skills/way out in the middle of nowhere would do. Worse, the stuff marketed for young girls is so slutty-looking it scares the crap out of me. I am SO glad I'm old and cranky and am not trying to dress a daughter. She would hate me.

Anyhow. I have some companions in the 'dress/act like a lady' thing -- conservative Christians. (As well as perfectly reasonable Quakers, Mennonites and other folks, but that's not what we're talking about just now.) And so far, I've definitely blown a few minds in that sector, because apparently it's never really occurred some people to have manners and not dress like a skank just because it's a good thing to DO, rather than because it's some scriptural deal. (Also, I have a really subversive interest in homemaking skills. I'm just cleverly disguised as a professional woman.)

Okay, my point here? Sewing patterns and modest clothing sites - sometimes really good sewing patterns - are sold by people whose affiliations are a mite backward. So far, none of them has asked me to show membership in the First Church Jesus Christ God Almighty, and they've taken my money, and I get a pattern (or a homemaking book) I want. I felt a little funny about it at first, but you know? If one of them wanted to hire me for whatever, I certainly wouldn't say no. I feel like I'm beating them at their own game - not to mention having contact with some of the women allows me to be an example inasmuch as I can show that non-Christian women are by no means Jezebels and maybe... well. You know. They might start seeing us as people. Like I've started seeing some of those women as people.

I'd say, buy it if you want it. If it turns out to be horrible, you can laugh at it. I'll leave you with this:
====
1 Say proper good stuffs,

2 Like old menz should stay off teh catnipz an be patient an other good stuffz

3 Old womnz too, should be gud, stay off teh catnipz an be sayin good stuffs

4 To teh young womnz, like stay off teh catnipz, an luv their husbandz an kidz. kthx.

5 Or not get caught, anywayz, so no bad secks, stay home and be doin wot husbandz say, otherwise Ceiling Cat wud be p1ssed off. Srsly.

6 Teh young menz, just stay off teh catnipz,k?

7 Oh, an be gud.

8 Oh an dont sez teh silly stuffs, so that other kittehs cant say LMAO k?

9 Oh an do what teh bosses sez an dont be cheeky,

10 An not steeling bukkits or cookies cos is white collar crime an this looks bad on Ceiling Cat, kthx?

11 Cos Ceiling Cat's pwr is savin us an everyone knows it, so tehre.

12 So dont do bad stuffs or has teh bad secks, and stay off teh catnipz for now

13 Cos then Baby Jesus might turn up on his invisible bike an bring cheezburgrs!

14 An you know he dedded for us, so we owez him, kthxbye.

15 So tehre.

(LolCat translation of Titus 2, which the homemaking types love to cite. ::ducks, runs away giggling madly:: )

[nonniemous.livejournal.com]

The only "Christian" websites I avoided entirely when I was homeschooling were sites like "Timberdoodle," and that after they had so totally offended me with their proselytizing and their dogma that I couldn't bear to support them. Yeah, I would hunt around for a secular source, but I usually wound up ordering from the folks who had what I needed, regardless of their religious orientation. That said, I so totally get what you're saying here. I think that becuase we are the minority in homeschooling still that maybe we're a bit more sensitized to the Christian curriculum dominating the market? Not to mention that we are often, by default, dealing with some of the more extreme examples of the religion.

I didn't use SOTW because I found it too Christian and its format didn't appeal to me. But I have a lot of friends who are very secular who do use it.

Have you checked out Classical Home Education (http://www.classicalhomeeducation.com/)'s website? They've got some great material, and their history curriculum is similar in method to SOTW but they offer several grade levels. I was very impressed with their material when I used it.

ETA to add link. Argh.

[snarkhunter.livejournal.com]

I *am* a Christian...and I do the same thing.

So...yeah.