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 A CNN iReport essay on raising kids without God draws record-breaking number of comments.
January 18th, 2013
06:32 PM ET
Godless mom strikes a chord with parentsBy Daphne Sashin, CNN Deborah Mitchell remembers the time, when her boys were younger, and another mom asked her about her religious beliefs. Mitchell was raised Catholic but moved away from religion in her early 20s. She told the other mother that she didn’t go to church and didn’t even really believe in God. Then, she says, the recruiting started. “She used to call my house and tell me she was praying for me. She’d leave me messages and leave cards in my mailbox with scripture,” Mitchell says. “I do realize that she meant well, but at the same time, I know my views were seen as wrong. I needed to be ‘saved.’” Mitchell, a mother of two teenagers in Texas who feels “immersed in Christianity,” started a blog about raising her children without religion because she felt frustrated and marginalized. She didn’t want to feel so alone, she says. This week, she gained a whole new audience and the reassurance that she's not alone. Her essay on CNN iReport, “Why I Raise My Children Without God,” drew 650,000 page views, the second highest for an iReport, and the most comments of any submission on the citizen journalism platform. It starts:
Mitchell posted the essay detailing her seven reasons for raising her children without God on CNN iReport because she felt there wasn’t anyone else speaking for women or moms like her. As she sees it, children should learn to do the right things because they will feel better about themselves, not because God is watching. She asks questions like: If there was a good, all-knowing, all-powerful God, why would he allow murders, child abuse and torture? Lots of people disagreed with her. Tons. They flagged her iReport as inappropriate and criticized CNN for linking to her essay on the CNN.com homepage. But there were plenty of others who wrote thoughtful rebuttals, respectfully disagreeing with Mitchell while not foisting their own beliefs on her. Take, for instance, a Methodist dad, who said faith can be hard to nail down, but “not to avail ourselves of the power of something we don't completely understand is silly.” Others said Mitchell presented a simplistic view of religion. “Presentations such as these seem to ignore a substantial percentage of believers - well-educated, compassionate, liberal folk, Christian and non-Christian alike - who, I feel, are able to worship without being blind to the realities of the world, or without lying to their children about their understanding of these complexities,” wrote commenter RMooradian. “I'll be raising my children with God, but I understand those who cannot!” But Mitchell’s essay also struck a chord with hundreds of like-minded parents raising children in a world where lack of belief puts them in the minority, often even in their own family. “Thank you for writing this. I agree with everything you say, but I’m not brave enough to tell everyone I know this is how I feel,” a woman who called herself an “agnostic mommy of two in Alabama” posted in the comments. “Thank you for your bravery and letting me know I’m not alone.” It’s a growing group. One in five Americans is not affiliated with any religion, and that number has grown by 25% in the past five years, according to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Of that group, 88% said they were not looking for religion, although 68% of the unaffiliated said they believe in God. Brittany Branyon, an American graduate student and substitute teacher living in Germany, was also compelled to express her thanks to Mitchell. Branyon was raised Southern Baptist in Georgia and Alabama. In high school, when she began to question the theory of creation and befriended gay and lesbian students, she says her mother tried to perform an exorcism. “She opened all the windows and doors in the house, brought me to the door, held my shoulders and shook me while screaming, ‘Satan, get out of this child!’, ‘Satan, leave this child alone!’.” After moving away from the South, she and her husband “became more comfortable in our secular ways,” but still take criticism from family members. They are now expecting their first child. “Though we are elated to welcome our child into the world, we can’t help but dread the religious uproar that is to come from our families,” she wrote in an e-mail. Such an uproar is familiar to Carol Phillips, a stay-at-home mother in northern Virginia. When she gave birth to her first child, she said her family was shocked that the baby wasn’t baptized. She said her mother-in-law cried and told her the little girl’s soul would not go to heaven. Then there are the comments from strangers. Last year, Phillips said she and her daughter were at a birthday party when a tornado warning sounded. “We were all in the basement keeping safe. A little girl was saying baby Jesus will keep us safe. My daughter asked who Jesus was. The rest of the time was spent hearing ‘I'll pray for you sweetie, we can take you to church with us if you want,’” Phillips told CNN. Commenting on Mitchell’s iReport, Phillips said, “To live out loud and to speak freely about my beliefs brings many clucking tongues. I would think it’s easier to come out as gay than atheist.” Mitchell said she spent years studying the history of religion and does believe it has “an important place in our community.” She has told her children that she’ll be fine if they decide to join a church when they are older. She ended her essay:
After her post ran on CNN, Mitchell said she was encouraged by the number of people who agreed with her, or who disagreed but wanted to have a respectful discussion. “I’m not saying that everybody should think how I do. I’m saying the people that do should have a place in our society and have acceptance and respect,” she said. “I just want to have children grow up and be able to not be afraid to say ‘I don’t believe that,’ or ‘I’m not part of that.’” soundoff (15,081 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 Next »
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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What ever happened to the freedom to have one's own opinion? Who cares if she is atheist? It's her right? Why push religion down her throat and make her mover further away from it? My belief, To each their own.
No one is forcing religion on her. It's just that we Americans are pretty stodgy about our comfort zones. We get bent out of shape about the silliest issues.
And why write an ungodly and unholy article like this, to push her own "unbelief" down our throats. We don't want to hear it. Unfortunately, CNN just keeps the anti-God and pro-Devil articles coming...
If you dont conform to religion you have no opinion, they fear opinions that are not their own. because it makes them think "what if"
What If – praying does nothing
What If – talking animals is silly as it sounds
What If – rituals and robes are meaningless
Theo... And what if you died and went to hell. How would you get out?...
it only makes sense that logic reason or science will come up with the proof of the existence of God cause emotions or religion don't concern themselve with providen answers only by damanding answer cause – Religon can only bring forth in humans the need for answers to all the question Religion provides....Science or logic or reason attempts to provide answers to all that is unknown in order to give confort to our emotions and answers to our question...
My grandma can weave a better quilt
You write like a second-grader... and you think like one, too.
Wow, did you miss taking your medication. Proof of something that doesn't exist....crazy.
Some people are quite comfortable with admitting that they do not know all of the answers.
If you don't know you don't have to make something up to explain it all.
Virginia has the writing skills of a typical religie; about third grade at best.
Please write “because” instead of “cause”.
Grammar fix rewrite:
“It only makes sense that logic, reason, or science will come up with the proof of the existence of God. Emotions and religion don't concern themselves with providing answers, only with demanding answers. Religion can only bring forth in humans the need for answers. Science, or logic, or reason attempts to provide answers to all that is unknown in order to give comfort to our emotions and answers to our questions.”
@Athy, She may have serious writing difficulties, but if you look at the rewite the thoughts are reasonably developed so I think there's a written language disability. Just be nice, OK?
Possibly. But it can be hard to dig out the intent.
The banana is an atheist's nightmare. It's peanut butter jelly time!
Not true... Gay atheists LOVE bananas.
Oh RAY COMFORT!!
You're the hero of the stupids. Can everyone be more of an idiot than you? XD
For the time being I've run out of puns. I will give it a rest.
What's peanut butter jelly?
@Angelo,
you do know that monkeys don't open a banana by the 'handle' as Ray Comfort describes it don't you?
Molesting the minds of children with religion is a terrible thing to do.
Don't question.
Just pick one before you go to hell and hope you win the roulette game and pick the one that gets you into heaven.
yeah,, don't use reasoning and follow the voodoo,, fear will get you.
You're suggesting something called 'Pascal's Wager', which has been proven to be a logical fallacy... Sorry.
there technically is no teaching of actual hell in the teachings of bible...that was invented a few centuries after Christianity came to be in an effort to control people
What does proof or even reasoning have to do with it?
Her lack of belief in our Dark Lord Satan disturbs the god of darkness!
Are you referring to Donald Trump?
I know each side will not agree, but there are actually intelligent people on both sides of this debate. This is not just an issue of IQ but very emotional. Christians are stereotyped as uneducated, narrow minded, bigots while agnostics/atheists are considered hateful, immoral naturalists with no appreciation for the spiritual. What makes me sad is all of the inflammatory rhetoric making it impossible to have a productive dialogue. Everyone wants to think that they're in the right group and then feel superior to others who just "don't get it". We see the less intelligent folks on the other side of the argument and think that's the best expression of that side. I don't believe that all ideas about truth are equally valid, but it's tough to try to figure out ultimate truth and we need to give each other a break.
Of course there are some on both sides... But studies have proven that the more education a person has, and the higher IQ a person has, the more likely they are to be atheists... And other studies have proven that children with low IQs tend to grow up to be conservative.
the vast majority of the most intelligent don't believe in religious nonsense.
Scientist seeks 'adventurous woman' to have Neanderthal baby
Where’s Fred Flintstone when you need him?
A professor of genetics at Harvard’s Medical School believes he’s capable of bringing the long-extinct Neanderthal back to life – all he’s lacking is the right mother.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/01/21/scientist-seeks-adventurous-woman-to-have-neanderthal-baby/?intcmp=features#ixzz2IdrhQbpJ
You are in error. There are no intelligent people on the other side. If they were so intelligent they'd believe in God. The fact that they don't believe only illustrates their extreme ignorance...
just, you are an idiot
To "God's honest truth"… You mean like you? I don't think so…
When not believing is the ultimate sin the whole faith starts to smell of bull pucky.
atheist say we don't have emotions we don't need religion we are though as a rock unbreakable by feeling of any kind....let us be now that emotions have given us life we want to supress all notion that emotions ever existed...one thing is ironic though with our religion or emotion there be no logic or reason answers or science cause emotion damand and come up with question to which logic reason and science desparate want to give answers too....to give confort the need to answer that emotions demand from science or logic or reason.
"atheist say we don't have emotions" what????
why would an atheist say something like that? what does that have to do with the belief in a god?
Virginia, do you ever proof read your comments before posting them?
virginia, don't you have school tomorrow? Better get cracking on that report, dear.
To the amoeba under a microscope slide, the scientist does not exist.
The amoeba cannot see the scientist, but that doesn't mean the scientist does not exist.
I suggest you read Flatland by Abbott.
It will open-up your mind to the possibility of beings in other dimensions.
Amoebas are not humans... Although they are smarter than most conservatives.
It's an analogy. Do you know what an analogy is?
"To the amoeba under a microscope slide, the scientist does not exist."
To the amoeba under a microscope, the microscope and slide to not exist which has nothing to do with atheism.
"It's an analogy. Do you know what an analogy is?"
It's a very, very poor analogy, hence, my response... Try coming up with something relevant instead of comparing the human perception to that of a one-celled organism.
Beings in other dimensions may exist, great.
A creator may exist, great.
A pink polka-dotted elephant named Elephus may have pinched her snout and farted us into existence, great.
Now either find some empirical evidence for any of these. Until then maybe consider that a life of fevered devotion to any imaginary creature is absurd.
To you religious who insist on pushing this God thing on people.... The author of the blog has EVERY right to express her views without judgement, every right to live life without religion.. but yet you all leap on the religious bandwagon and condemn, judge her and practically banish her ideals... ask yourselves something... How do you know there is a God? How do you know there was a Jesus? Do you have proof? I don't mean proof in a man made book (bible), but actual proof? And , if you have proof, does it still give you the right to judge? The author doesn't want your prayers. She doesn't want your mercy. She wants to live in a world where she isn't confronted and harassed by those who are religious. She doesn't go out of her way to belittle those who are, she respects them. Why can't you religious folks do the same? Oh yea.. because you would rather believe in a system that tells you how to think rather than you develop one on your own... herded... like sheep... hence the word "sheeple" folks.
I am not taking sides in this debate, but it is very, very clear that the religiously minded have judged her, trying to save her soul...... do yourselves a favour. Open your mind, work on yourself, rather than trying to save those who don't share your religious views. Can't open your mind? Then there lies YOUR problem.
Religious people do not like it when other people dismiss their silly mythical belief.
Relax nobody is dragging you off to church against your will or forcing you to read religious texts.
GAW: but you do try to force your beliefs into our government all the time..
Torque… I hate to tell you this, but you "are" and "have" taken sides. It is obvious in your post. You're just as anti-God and pro-Devil as the author of this article is. And if you're not careful, you'll both end up in hell…
Articles like this is not as innocent as they look. We believers don't even want to see or read such articles that are pro-Devil. We'd much rather read articles giving honor to God. But CNN just keeps the pro-Devil and anti-God articles coming? And why is that? Answer: If you support the devil, then it only means you're of the devil. And it cannot be otherwise…
just, you are an idiot
To "God's honest truth"... You mean like you? I don't think so...
Atheists are the ones who are clueless, Sad Very Sad,
how so? can you support your claim in any way?
Who's clueless?? The one who believes in talking snakes and pregnant virgins, or the one who dismisses them as mindless fairy tales??
All those atheists that brought more comfort to mankind than anyone...those atheists?
i can support his claim because the Holy spirit testifies of Himself, in a person who yeilds him/herself as a living sacrifice to God. The spirit sustains His own ministry of truth.
@austin
Oh you can support his claims. So who supports your claim? And who supports that further claimant? It's looking pretty circular. LOL
You'll write down that the bible supports you. I guarantee it.
$5 says that Big Al wont respond to his comment.
So... The Bible is true because God says it is, and God exists because the Bible says He does. Did I sum up your beliefs, @austin?
Given the number of gods man has worshipped, what makes you think you have a clue BigAl?
@austin
are you telling me that you suffer from a form of schizophrenia?
Atheists spend all of their time trying to get us to "prove" that which they don't believe in. Yet, when you ask those atheists for "proof" to support why they don't believe in it, they can't do it to save their life. LOL!...
said the clueless one.
just, you are an idiot
baconlazer… To an atheist, yes Wisdom does seem clueless…
Proverbs 24:7 – Wisdom is too high for a fool:
To "God's honest truth"... You mean like you? I don't think so...
To "God's honest truth"... You mean like you? I don't think so....
Accusations of hypocrisy are so easy to make, even a child can make them, so I'm not that impressed.
no idea what you're talking about....
Hey Mom/Dad trying find that place you told me I was going to the other day, hell wasn't it ?
Well guess what Mom/Dad can't seem to locate it (hell) with the gps on my phone.. Can you please tell me where it is.
"Well guess what Mom/Dad can't seem to locate it (hell) with the gps on my phone.. Can you please tell me where it is."
Yes, I can... It's known to Americans as 'Texas'
I been there the dame earth cracks wide open in August so just maybe . (ankle breakers)
I thought we evolved from bananas.
That may sound appealing to some.
*groan*
HA!
No groan and then the facepalm
Of course some scholars are split on this issue.
Angelo + GAW..........what a pear!
And one more....We need to avoid the slippery slope argument when addressing this possibility.
The pundits will be all over this one....
I experience God's mercy and Love- Maybe we haven't experienced that in our life yet. But keep believing in what you want- it's great that we live a life of free-will. It'll be over just like those days in Noah and Sodom and Gomorrah.
When you have a basket of bad and good apples don't you throw away the bad ones so that good ones don't get spoiled? Well GOD and ONLY GOD (not us) will judge those bad-evil people. It's not up to us to say "this person is evil" or "this person doesn't deserve god's love" “Who are you to be judging your neighbor?” James 4:11 teaches us that. And If we appreciate the merciful nature of God’s justice, we will not be quick to judge others in matters that really do not concern us or that are of lesser importance. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warned: “Stop judging that you may not be judged.” (Matthew 7:1) According to Luke’s account, Jesus added: “Stop condemning, and you will by no means be condemned.”* (Luke 6:37. So respect on another and we should live in harmony!
You've been fed a load of crap. Now you spew the same load of crap.
i assure you that you have never been a serious atheist and i know this by how you talk
I got some quotes too, as we all know quoting books proves everything!
Han Solo: There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny.
Luke Skywalker : Red five standing by
Arnold: Hasta La Vista Baby
Darth Vader: WHAT ?
Acts chapter 7 we see what non believers are capable of when they hear the truth as when Stephen told them about Christ: 57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him.
Right on schedule. A babble quote.
Cornfirmed. Pathetic person posting their babble post.
Now you need to give more of them.
darling that was the jews at the time who tried to stone him. so they in your little mind are "non-believers" too?
wow, fred....a quote......how impressive
Iff CNN Doesnt like you responsce They zapp it, Talk about Censorship, Losers
No it's all about word filters. Nobody at CNN has the time to waste to read most of these comments.
From the looks of it, I don't think we really wanted to see more from you anyway.
Equal opportunity for all... even BigAl:
Bad letter combinations / words to avoid if you want to get past the CNN automatic filter:
Many, if not most, are buried within other words, so use your imagination.
You can use dashes, spaces, or other characters or some html tricks to modify the "offending" letter combinations.
---
ar-se.....as in ar-senic.
co-ck.....as in co-ckatiel, co-ckatrice, co-ckleshell, co-ckles, etc.
co-on.....as in racc-oon, coc-oon, etc.
crac-ker…
cu-m......as in doc-ument, accu-mulate, circu-mnavigate, circu-mstances, cu-mbersome, cuc-umber, etc.
ef-fing...as in ef-fing filter
ft-w......as in soft-ware, delft-ware, swift-water, drift-wood, etc.
ho-mo.....as in ho-mo sapiens or ho-mose-xual, ho-mogenous, sopho-more, etc.
ho-oters…as in sho-oters
ho-rny....as in tho-rny, etc.
inf-orms us…
hu-mp… as in th-ump, th-umper, th-umping
jacka-ss...yet "ass" is allowed by itself.....
ja-p......as in j-apanese, ja-pan, j-ape, etc.
koo-ch....as in koo-chie koo..!
nip-ple
o-rgy….as in po-rgy, zo-rgy, etc.
pi-s......as in pi-stol, lapi-s, pi-ssed, therapi-st, etc.
p-oon… as in sp-oon, lamp-oon, harp-oon
p-orn… as in p-ornography
pr-ick....as in pri-ckling, pri-ckles, etc.
que-er
ra-pe.....as in scra-pe, tra-peze, gr-ape, thera-peutic, sara-pe, etc.
se-x......as in Ess-ex, s-exual, etc.
sl-ut
sm-ut…..as in transm-utation
sn-atch
sp-ank
sp-ic.....as in desp-icable, hosp-ice, consp-icuous, susp-icious, sp-icule, sp-ice, etc.
sp-ook… as in sp-ooky, sp-ooked
strip-per
ti-t......as in const-itution, att-itude, t-itle, ent-ity, alt-itude, beat-itude, etc.
tw-at.....as in wristw-atch, nightw-atchman, salt-water, etc.
va-g......as in extrava-gant, va-gina, va-grant, va-gue, sava-ge, etc.
who-re....as in who're you kidding / don't forget to put in that apostrophe!
wt-f....also!!!!!!!
x.xx…
There's another phrase that someone found, "wo-nderful us" (have no idea what sets that one off).
–
There are more, some of them considered "racist", so do not assume that this list is complete.
OK CNN it's time to take this story off the front page and make room for more news stories.
More clicks = more money.
Don't like it?? Go elsewhere... Stories like this are big moneymakers... And they help spread logic and common sense by letting people know they can be atheists without a backlash from the delusional Christians.
We've got a major demographic change – people are more willing to openly consider themselves non religious, agnostic, atheist – it is news, and how they are treated by those Christians who are intolerant, figuring out how to deal with the prejudice around this is indeed relevant – and, as can be seen by the busy comment sections – hot news.
the Christ told us roughly 2000 years ago...God is love...love is willing the good for the other...(not willing the good for the self)...if one loves their neighbor as themselves then love is willing the good of all....anything else comes from the evil one...
Well, love unless they disobey. Then they get THE LAKE.
Tell me, who made the 'evil one'?
Telling someone to feel love is nonsense.
Love me – or else I'll torture you forever in the worst way possible. Oh yeah, and I'll do that if you disobey me too.
Sounds like a Lifetime movie about some horrendeously abusive boyfriend.