My nephew and god

I'm a pretty good uncle. I take my nephew Antonio skatingboarding. I don't freak out when he curses, I just tell him not to do it becuase it'll become habit and get him in trouble. And when he asks about god I try to be one of the few adults in his life that does not push their own dogma on him.

Once, when he was really asking about god a-lot, I took him on a tour of the areas chuches, temples, synagogues and mosques. We talked about Budhism, Catholicism, Islam, Judaism and Konko (Konko's a Japanese American religion. I learned something too.) And of course we talked about atheism, which I admited was where I fell, but I encouraged the kid to determine his beliefs on his own. He got all kinds of literature from each holy place we visited.

He was freaked out when Ali gave us a tour of the local mosque and we got to really feel what it's like to be in the minority. The mosque was packed with over a hundred kids studying and when we entered every eye was on us. My nephew hid behind me and begged to leave. Then he saw an adult swat a kid on the head for paying attention to us instead of his lessons.

My nephew doesn't get spanked so this had his eyes opening all the way. I didn't want him developing a prejudice again Muslims or Arabs but I also didn't want to pretend I was okay with people hitting each other.

Ali heard him say, "That guy hit that kid." on our way out and tried to explain.

"Oh yes. That childs mother has drive an hour to get him here. It is very difficult for her, but very important, so his teacher has to make sure he does his studies." We nodded and thanked Ali for the tour. When we got outside I did my best.

"It's not okay for an adult to hit a kid, but don' t think that's a Muslim thing. My dad used to get swatted at Chatholic school." I don't know what I was thinking. If he's going to be prejudice against Muslims he might as well not like Catholics either? Oh well, I was doing my best.

I'm not always so successful at letting him make up his own mind. Like the time he told me he believed in God. He in fact spent some time telling me how cool god was and I began to get impatient.

"That's cool." I replied. "You believe in God then eh?"

"Yep. I do."

"Great. How about Santa Clause, is he real too?"

"Yes. Duh!"

"Okay, what about the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy."

"Yeah."

"Okay. That's cool. Santa Clause, The Easter Bunny and The Tooth Fairy... Oh, and God. Sounds good."

I was torn between thinking myself an asshole and congratulating myself on being so clever.