Friday, March 11, 2005

Let's hear it for Dr. Laura!

On Dr. Laura Schlessinger's radio show this hour, a woman called in with a little problem. Her daughter is a Wiccan, and doesn't want her discussing religion or telling Bible stories to her grand daughter. Indeed, the caller had recently been chewed out for telling the story of Moses to her grand daughter.

Dr. Laura told the woman that she didn't have the right to push her religious teachings into her daughter's family, and that if she didn't respect her daughter's wishes, she could wind up not seeing her grand daughter at all.

Her advice: shut up about it. Refer any questions the grand daughter asks back to her mom. Be a good example.

Yup. I agree. And not just because I share the daughter's religion.

As long as a person, even a relative isn't bringing her child up in something evil (and granted, you may need another person's perspective to know what is or what is not evil), people have the right to raise their kids as they see fit. We may not like their choices, but we have to think carefully about whether any given choice is really awful enough to justify taking away someone else's freedom of choice.

Letting people follow a course you don't think is the best course, or one you don't really like, isn't easy. But it is the grown-up thing to do. I've written about this before – it's called tolerance. Many people don't really understand what tolerance is really about.

Anyway, there are many in the Pagan community who are vigilent and ready to pounce any time Dr. Laura says anything bad about Pagans or Paganism. She deserves credit for taking the right stand, especially when she doesn't like it.

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