More fake-Jewishness...

[Daenerys]

The twins over at One Bright Corner just did a post about their younger brother's 13th Birthday. Apparently this was his 'entrance into manhood' so they had a big celebration where all the men who had influenced this boy came and made speeches about how the Lord has/would influence his life. The women, of course, stayed mute in the kitchen with 'a servant's heart'

 

It just strikes me as having massive Jewish undertones; I don't know of any other culture where 13 specifically is the age of adulthood beginning and yet these people will of course claim to be completely and utterly 100% Christian. Why on earth do they do this?

 

onebrightcorner.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/three-generations-one-big-adventure.html

 

Plenty of other snarkability in this post as well, including how Mt St Helens proves Biblical Creation and some horrendous matching dresses!

[Julie B]

I thought it was interesting that her mom was "relieved" when the eruption of Mt. St. Helens turned out to not be the return of the Lord. Shouldn't she be happy if the Lord returns?

[bananacat]

That is some really snarkable fabric for those dresses. Not only is it matching floral, it looks like a couch pattern right out of the 80s. We actually had a couch with a very similar pattern when I was growing up, but it was the ugly couch that we kept in the playroom. I also thought it was kinda funny to see such a manly man standing right between the legs of a giant statue. Also, why the picture of a bunch of chopped carrots? Why do fundies think anyone cares about chopping a bunch of vegetables or doing other completely mundane? Are their lives so boring that this is the only excitement they get, or are they just so self-absorbed that they believe everyone is dying to know the details of their daily lives?

[saraelise]

In Scandinavia boys and girls are usually confirmed in the church around age 14 and introduced into the grown up ranks. It doesn't seem that weird to me.

[holothuroidea]

That is some really snarkable fabric for those dresses. Not only is it matching floral, it looks like a couch pattern right out of the 80s. We actually had a couch with a very similar pattern when I was growing up, but it was the ugly couch that we kept in the playroom. I also thought it was kinda funny to see such a manly man standing right between the legs of a giant statue. Also, why the picture of a bunch of chopped carrots? Why do fundies think anyone cares about chopping a bunch of vegetables or doing other completely mundane? Are their lives so boring that this is the only excitement they get, or are they just so self-absorbed that they believe everyone is dying to know the details of their daily lives?

As a SAHM, my daily life does basically boil down to things like chopping carrots. The audience for this blog is probably other SAHM's (and D's :(), and I think posting the carrots is worthwhile and helpful. It's like saying "the work you do is worthy of recognition." And it is, even if it's not glamorous, those damn carrots (and all the other food, and the work that goes into it) are important.

I also appreciated the juxtaposition of the people enjoying the food, and the picture of the work that goes into the food (the ladies in the kitchen).

I don't care who does the work. Moms, daughters, dads, uncles, cats, whatever, it's worth recognizing.

I didn't appreciate the pretentiousness of the party. I especially didn't appreciate that the only people given credit for helping this boy reach manhood, or contributing to his life in a meaningful way, were the men. That is just absolutely horrible. I also don't like the division of labor. When it comes to throwing a party, you need all the help you can get. I think about how the work would have been at least cut in half if the men had bothered to stop preaching and chop some fucking carrots themselves.

[xDreamerx]

I'll have to check this out but I have to agree with saraelise, in churches that do confirmation 13 or thereabouts is usually the age. When I was confirmed I think I was 12 or maybe 13.

[Conuly]

I thought it was interesting that her mom was "relieved" when the eruption of Mt. St. Helens turned out to not be the return of the Lord. Shouldn't she be happy if the Lord returns?

Depends. Do they believe in Rapture? If she was still here on Earth after the eruption of Mt. St. Helens and believes in Rapture, well, that's got to have been quite a blow to her pride! (Whoops, that's what's keeping her from heaven, that blasted pride! Better work on that!)

[julie paradox]

I thought it was interesting that her mom was "relieved" when the eruption of Mt. St. Helens turned out to not be the return of the Lord. Shouldn't she be happy if the Lord returns?

I expect she'd just been worried that she wouldn't get to make babies first.

[ophelia]

In Germany you are confirmed with 13 or 14. From this moment on you can choose your religion, leave church or, if you stay, you are a grown up member of the church-community and you can vote the church elders etc.

[Soldevi]

Confirmation age in Finland is 14-15, meaning that this year teens born in 1997 go through confirmation. In congregational level they are allowed to be godparents, participate in the holy supper, are allowed to get married in a church (when in age) and have right to stand as a candidate in parish elections when 18 years old. 15-year-old is allowed to resign church membership IF parents/legal guardians allow (stupid thing). Going to through confirmation and a special camp before it is part of local youth culture but very rare thinks it has any kind of spiritual meaning. It is just something you go through to get money and gifts and "because everyone else does it, too". As a nation Finns are habitual believers, for the sake of tradition (2011 survey: 27 % of Finns believe in christian god yet 78,2 % are members of the church).

The age of criminal responsibility is 15.

There is a wordplay referring to confirmation. In Finnish language the verb 'to marry' is naida which means both to marry and to fuck. After confirmation they are said to have license to marry/fuck. This license was important in history because you weren't allowed to marry without it (hence not allowed to...) not that it stopped Finns ;)

[Daenerys]

It's interesting to compare this with the post on their sister's 13th birthday from a couple of years ago... there are no men involved or helping and she doesn't appear to have any 'friends' over, only cousins/aunts/grandmas unlike her brother who has many boys around his age at the celebration. There is no mention of her becoming in any way an adult or taking on any greater level of responsibility. It seems to be less of an occasion, as if she is 'only' a girl.

onebrightcorner.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/good-bye-twelve.html

[Daenerys]

bumpity bump

[FlorenceHamilton]

The Zoaroastrian religion started many of the rituals that are so similar in monotheistic religions...you know...being that they are the first known monotheistic religion and all. They have a ceremony much like a Bar Mitzvah at age 15. The reasoning is that at this age, a boy is old enough to make the decision to fiully participate in the responsibilites of the religion. The Jewish Bar mitzvah is at or above 13 years of age. As discussed upthread, the 12-15 year old range seems to be pretty consistent.

The one notable exception is the evangelical Christians who seem to accept the "decision" of chldren as young as 4 or 5 to be born in Christ. I understand the big rush to get the child his free ticket to heaven at a young age. I does seem to be (another) habit that Jesus would not approve. His own tradition was the Jewish faith and I would think that his sensibilities would tell him that a child needs to be approaching physical maturity to assume he has the emotional maturity to make such a choice.

[alba]

Did anyone else read the "About Me" sections of the website? One of the contributors, Lauren, is "passionate about ... Being a feminine woman in a feminist culture", as though the two are mutually exclusive :roll:

[Muriel]

In France, confirmation in Catholic Church is at about 15, my daughter did it at 14 1/2 and my son will did at 15 next year.

I think the problem with this people is that they don't follow a tradition, but pick and choose which suit their beliefs in several religions traditions, the result is often weird...

[holothuroidea]

Did anyone else read the "About Me" sections of the website? One of the contributors, Lauren, is "passionate about ... Being a feminine woman in a feminist culture", as though the two are mutually exclusive :roll:

Well you know the ONLY way to be feminine is to have long hair and wear a skirt every day for the rest of your life. Otherwise your lady parts DISAPPEAR!!!!

[Conuly]

Well you know the ONLY way to be feminine is to have long hair and wear a skirt every day for the rest of your life. Otherwise your lady parts DISAPPEAR!!!!

And it's all null and void if you CHOOSE to do it and don't care what other people do. It only counts if you have (or feel you have, same diff) no choice and judge everybody else who acts like they DO have a choice.

[Daenerys]

And it's all null and void if you CHOOSE to do it and don't care what other people do. It only counts if you have (or feel you have, same diff) no choice and judge everybody else who acts like they DO have a choice.

Oh no, they're CHOOSING to stay at home under their father's authority and to not go to a real college even though (IMO) they both seem smart and in another life would be doing fantastically in English/Music degrees. What they don't seem to realise is that if they are truly choosing to do this and taking charge of their own destiny then that is a feminist action - the point of feminism is not to denigrate stay at home mothers or any other group, but to respect their choice and to encourage them to be able to make such a choice for themselves rather than having it imposed by patriarchal authority. I'm tempted to write to them to explain why they actually are feminists, but I'm afraid their heads might explode.

Also, the girls don't wear skirts all the time, they seem happy to wear shorts for exercise purposes: see their younger sister in this post but there's photos of the twins as well.

[ilovetchotchkes]

Did anyone else read the "About Me" sections of the website? One of the contributors, Lauren, is "passionate about ... Being a feminine woman in a feminist culture", as though the two are mutually exclusive :roll:

*snort* I'm a feminist, and i'm uh, quite feminine...

[Daenerys]

In Scandinavia boys and girls are usually confirmed in the church around age 14 and introduced into the grown up ranks. It doesn't seem that weird to me.

It just seems weird to me that they do it for the boys, but the girls remain among the ranks of 'children' under authority until they get married and are never fully seen or treated as independent adults. It's such bullshit but who can be surprised since they're VF/ATI... I just haven't heard of it being a particular tradition in those circles, either.

[Mountain Girl]

I happen to be a feminist wearing a dress today. My knees are showing, though, so I might be smited to death before the end of the day. My biggest problem with this family's birthday festivities is that a boy enters manhood while a girl just turns another year older. A boy gains status while a girl just keeps nurturing those ovaries. Regardless of their age, it's a sad difference. And why do these people insist on pontificating at their poor kids' parties? Just have some damn junk food and games, or whatever else your kid happens to like.

[saraelise]

It just seems weird to me that they do it for the boys, but the girls remain among the ranks of 'children' under authority until they get married and are never fully seen or treated as independent adults. It's such bullshit but who can be surprised since they're VF/ATI... I just haven't heard of it being a particular tradition in those circles, either.

ok, but how is that fake Jewish-ness? I read the original entry as the boy's age of 13 = bar mitzvah but the Scandinavian churches confirm members at the same age. It wasn't gender that was the issue. I think it's more likely that they're going back to the roots of the original Lutheran church of which the Scandinavian churches are very similar.