Odd Coincidence
I was raised Presbyterian. But when I was little I decided that I was going to become Jewish and grow up to be a Rabbi. My aunt even sent me a newspaper clipping about a female Rabbi, since the only Rabbi we knew was a guy, and in retrospect he must have been from the Conservative tradition. (At the time I wasn't even particularly clear on the divisions within Presbyterianism, except to know that in my cousin's Presbyterian church women couldn't be pastors, and that was strange since there was no such problem with women leaders in the churches we attended in my family.)
I figured out I was agnostic long before I'd ever reach the point of converting, so there was no Judaism for me. When Mike and I had a kid, once she was a preschooler, I took her to several different churches. I'd found value in being raised in a church family, and wanted that for her if it was something that fit. By the time she was 5, she was a confident atheist, and we stopped visiting churches.
Recently, she announced she's going to become a Rabbi when she grows up. This amuses me because she knew nothing about my plans regarding that. We've since had several discussions about how she can't convert because Judaism is a religion first, and unless she can find it in herself to believe in a god there's nothing there for her to convert to. Until she legitimately converts, she can't become culturally Jewish (not that that would be something she could do easily anyway, no matter how many Jewish friends she has, she is not being raised in a Jewish family and all culturally Jewish traditions she participates in she does so as an outsider). She's not likely to find it within herself to believe in a god.
I wonder if there's a gene that could be tagged "affinity for Judaism."
I figured out I was agnostic long before I'd ever reach the point of converting, so there was no Judaism for me. When Mike and I had a kid, once she was a preschooler, I took her to several different churches. I'd found value in being raised in a church family, and wanted that for her if it was something that fit. By the time she was 5, she was a confident atheist, and we stopped visiting churches.
Recently, she announced she's going to become a Rabbi when she grows up. This amuses me because she knew nothing about my plans regarding that. We've since had several discussions about how she can't convert because Judaism is a religion first, and unless she can find it in herself to believe in a god there's nothing there for her to convert to. Until she legitimately converts, she can't become culturally Jewish (not that that would be something she could do easily anyway, no matter how many Jewish friends she has, she is not being raised in a Jewish family and all culturally Jewish traditions she participates in she does so as an outsider). She's not likely to find it within herself to believe in a god.
I wonder if there's a gene that could be tagged "affinity for Judaism."