Last month, the Ethical Society of St. Louis had as our Sunday-morning speaker Dale McGowan, editor of a book called Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids without Religion, and co-author of an upcoming related practical guide called Raising Freethinkers. The talk was excellent, personal, and open-minded. Despite his book’s title, McGowan’s main interest seems to be to raise his children with knowledge of as many religious traditions as possible and the understanding that, although their dad doesn’t believe in any of them, his kids have the right to believe whatever they want and to change their minds about their beliefs as many times as they want. So for those interested, here is an MP3 of the half-hour talk:

Dale McGowan

Our Sunday School is planning to have McGowan back in the fall for a parenting workshop; anyone interested in attending is welcome to contact the Ethical Society for more information.…

I really liked Pamela’s last post. Not only do I love to hear a story like that about tolerance and commitment, but what great parenting! At 33, with 2 young children, a lot of my thoughts about religion, or life in general, have to do with being a good mother.

And I have an opinion on how to breed tolerance or better yet, acceptance.

When my nephew was 3, my niece was born. My sister-in-law had our Rabbi come out to their house for a baby naming. While he was there, he also hung a mezuzah for them. Later that night, while my sister-in-law was putting my nephew to bed he says, “Mommy, God was here today.” Well then. So of course she asks him what he is referring to and he replies, “You know, God? The guy who put the mezuzah up”.

Cute story, right? That’s been told a few dozen times – always…