from Sheri's last interview question.  I thought I would bring it over here.  Sheri asked me, on my other blog, http://rosesandtea.blogdrive.com, what were some of the differences in culture in the US and England.  I gave some more general ones on the other page, but when I hit things more specific about Christianity, I decided to put them here.

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There are much fewer church goers/committed Christians here as a percentage of the population. This has effects on the culture, I think.  And the Christians here, are not as open about it as far as more trivial things are concerned - i.e. bumper stickers, identifying one's shop or business as belonging to a Christian (no signs on the door saying "Closed Sunday - See you in church" for example).  I'm not trying to be positive or negative about this as I'm not sure what I think completely, although I do think I find it encouraging when I see evidences of Christians in the community.

I did use to think, when I was in my 20's  that things like all these Christian businesses, Christian bookshops, Christian radio stations, made it easier to be a Christian or at least be a nominal one (the culture allowing more weeds to grow up with the tares maybe) , and that the absence of these things (or their rarity) would cause Christians here to have to work more to be stronger or to keep up a greater level of commitment.  They'd be more sincere, I thought.   But after 15 years I don't think that anymore.  There are many fine Christians here but easily the same level of nominal-ness that there is in the US and perhaps because there are fewer Christians there seems to be much less vigorous dialogue and action about various things - much less willingness to step out into the deep waters or new things.  I'm not sure if that is good or bad.  The number of Christians in each country certainly means that in the US you can have greater number of churches and although fragmentation is bad in one sense, being able to choose a group a little more in line with your beliefs means you can participate a little more freely and perhaps move more in the direction you feel God is calling you, instead of having to constantly hide what you feel God is speaking to you about because you are the only one who has the belief about ____________  (insert some non-heretical, but secondary belief here, like modest dressing, gifts of the Spirit, homeschooling, whatever).

The fact that there are fewer churches here, mean that in the non-denomination evangelical churches at least (where most people go if they do not feel they match the few other churches available to them in their area), you have groups of people of various backgrounds and beliefs.   This is a strength in one way, as it keeps the focus on the main things - Jesus, salvation, witnessing, etc.   But it is a weakness in that everyone has to stay at or near the lowest common denominator and it is hard to find ways of sharpening your iron if everyone else dismisses the idea of 6-day creation (not a problem in our church) or the idea that one should be active in __________ (again, fill in the blank).   One can't get real deep sometimes, because the fellowship has to stay on the main 10 beliefs level.

Just some thoughts. 

 

 

 

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 My little children like to paint.  I'm not too keen on it, simply because of the mess and the feeling that I have to stand over them the whole time.  But today, when my 4 year old son asked to paint,  I got to thinking, a la' "Flylady" that I can do anything for 15 minutes.  Or in this case, 30 minutes.    So I told him they could paint for 30 minutes.  We got the stuff out: aprons, plastic tablecloth, and paints.  I was able to get him to agree to the paints that come in bottles with sponge tips - you use them straight from the bottle with the sponge instead of using a brush. 

Bear with me, I'll probably do several (short) posts on this topic, as I'm thinking about it in anticipation of my sharing my life/work with the youth group.

I realized that I had time, because I am at home to make my voice heard in ways I probably couldn't do if I were out working and had children.  (Now, other mothers might, but I probably could not.)

I had time, in between assigning and checking work, caring for the little children, doing household tasks,  etc, to read up on an issue (I'll leave it unnamed for the talk, but for you here it was the Terri Schindler Schiavo situation) and learn more than I would have by just seeing the TV news or reading the BBC website.    I was then able to get involved a little -  not a lot, but more than I would have - by blogging and by emailing the FL governor.

I also recently was on the radio - OK, it was a call-in show, but still - and only intended to give a brief comment about somthing, but the host, on hearing I was a home-educator, commenced to ask me a lot of questions about our home education, and I was able to talk a little about it.  Perhaps someone will now know that it is legal here, or have hope that they can do it, after hearing me.  I hope I did some influencing for the good, anyway, either about home-education or creationism (or at least Intelligent Design which is a good step in the right direction) as I spoke about my husband and other scientists' rejection of macro-evolution.

Had I been at work, or rushing around trying to get things done after being at work during the school hours, I would not have been able to make that phone call, which turned out to give more opportunity to speak out about things than I had planned.

So, there are two recent things I have been able to do. That may be small potatoes to some of you, but it's a nice start for me, and fitting for my life, which seems to be about many small things.

God bless you today.

How I hope to meet you in heaven.    I hope you are enjoying God's presence as I type this.

Rest in peace, Terri.

... you heard from a stay-at-home mother (plus homeschooling one) during youth group meeting (for part of a series about faith and people's jobs), what would you have liked to have learned about?

Now before I begin with anything else, let me state that I know that Rosesandteax2 is a really dumb name.  It's just that Blogdrive insists that you put in numbers as well as letters.  I wanted to keep my main name in it, and just couldn't think of something with numbers that didn't overrun the limit.

This blog is for my more serious, controversial, or just more specifically Christian blog entries.  Or even just everyday homeschooling life, that I don't want to journal about on my main blog. 

I hope I will occasionally come up with intelligent entries.    Please stay tuned!