Interesting Visit With My Parents This Weekend

[ChoppinBroccoli]

This weekend, I had a very interesting visit with my parents. They live about an hour from me, so they always enjoy it when we drop off the kids with them for a Saturday and just them have fun. Well, when we came back Saturday afternoon, I was having a conversation with them and they told me something very interesting. They asked me if I knew the date when we were planning on having our youngest son baptized. I told them it would probably be in the Fall, and then they told me that they had stopped going to church altogether.

My parents have been members of, and have attended a Lutheran church for as long as I can remember. Apparently, the ELCA (the official governing body of Lutheran Churches) just had a conference and a vote on whether or not to allow monogamous gays to be ministers in the Lutheran Church. The ELCA voted to allow them to be ministers. I guess the church my parents attend(ed), lobbied hard AGAINST this proposal, and was so upset that it passed that they dropped out of the ELCA altogether. When my parents heard that, they decided they wouldn't be attending that church anymore.

My dad even has a friend who is a former Lutheran minister, and when he heard that news, he was outraged and said, "Whatever happened to 'love your neighbor as yourself'?" I told my parents I agreed and was proud that they took a stand. I also told them that this was exactly the kind of crap that soured me on religion way back when I first started to think for myself.

The funny thing is, when I first went away to college (when I really started to have an "awakening" and opened my mind and started thinking for myself), my parents were right-wing conservatives who listened to Rush Limbaugh and criticized pretty much everything I stood for. Now, as I get older, rather than me becoming more and more like my parents, my parents are becoming more and more like me. My dad has always been a Democrat (our family has a long history of being staunch Democrats--there was a time when you were not allowed to utter the name William Howard Taft at the dining table), but he was always a right-wing Democrat. He voted for Reagan twice and H.W. Bush twice. Since then, he's completely abandoned the right-wing, and I even know for a fact that he voted for Kerry and Obama. My mom, who was always a registered Republican, got so upset at the Republican Party during the Bush years that she changed her registration and is now a registered Democrat.

So, not only is it funny that as I get older, my parents become more like me, but it's also interesting because MY parents stand in stark contrast to my wife's parents, who are avid church-going, Faux News-viewing, Rush Limbaugh-listening, Bush-can-do-no-wrong-and-Obama-is-the-devil right-wingers. They probably would have applauded their church's decision to drop out after the governing body officially declared that gays might actually bear some slight resemblance to human beings. Another interesting contrast: my family can openly discuss politics without the debate turning ugly, whereas I am strictly forbidden (mostly by myself) to talk politics with my Bush-can-do-no-wrong father-in-law, because if you say one word that clashes with his ultra-right-wing worldview, he'll fly off the handle and start spewing obscenities at you. Why is it that the Republican Party is so attractive to people who anger easily and have no ability to conduct an intelligent conversation on a topic with which they disagree? Hmmmmmmm.

[Angry Dragon]

1. I am glad that you have a good relationship with your parents

It seems that relationship would be good even if they were not becoming more like you.

As far as your in-laws are concerned, the reason they can discuss it is because the thoughts are not theirs'.
They are just repeating what they heard and have not put any thought into what they really believe.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. repukes tolerate no questions or doubts. It is simply not allowed.

You adhere to, and follow the doctrine..or you are the enemy.

Fundamentalism.....it sucks no matter who espouses it.

[RKP5637]

3. Thanks for your post. You know we were talking the other day about that, that

republicans tend to be loud hot heads and bullies. Radish heads I've heard them called. I think it's a common personality trait in republicans.

I've also noticed the party attracts a lot of closed minded types, that only they are right, and then layer onto that a lot of religions nuts. It makes for a group of people that have really locked minds even when intelligent and educated. They seem to be blusterous individuals/groups when you try to discuss anything with them.

It's nice to see the changes you discussed! To me, a locked mind is a terrible thing to have...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. Controlling people (like your father-in-law)are fearful...

He cannot abide (and is afraid of) folks who disagree with him, and therefore he strikes out at you.

[scheming daemons]

5. Great email... but the funniest part is this:

"you were not allowed to utter the name 'William Howard Taft' at the dinner table"

Is this really something that you had a desire to bring up at the dinner table?


("Damn, I'm so pissed that Dad won't let be talk about William Howard Taft at dinner...")

[NBachers]

6. Yeah, what's with that?

And was there a similar reaction to Chester A. Arthur?

[ChoppinBroccoli]

8. This Is An Actual Anecdote

My cousin is very into genealogy, and has spent his life researching our family history. Apparently, that is an actual story passed down from my Grandma when she was younger. In our family, if anybody ever mentioned Taft's name at the dinner table, they were forced to leave. I wonder what those same folks would have thought had they ever lived to know just how much of a moron Bob Taft (former Ohio Governor who as the George W. Bush of Governors--by the time he left office, his approval rating was something like 19%, the lowest of all 50 State Governors) was. If anyone ever asks you why Ohio is so bad off economically, you need only answer them with one word: Taft.

[Tunkamerica]

7. As I became more politically aware my mom did as well

she had always voted conservative (except for Ross Perot?) but voted for Obama in the last election. My dad has toned down his Republican leanings as well. We used to have long arguments; now he sees where I was coming from.