- Oct 8, 2016
- 309
- 366
- Country
- United States
- Gender
- Female
- Faith
- Christian
- Marital Status
- Married
Hello all,
Been a long time since I was here, and wasn't sure I'd ever look into the forums again -- but I'm running out of places to find broader Christian advice on things, so here I am again.
So anyway, my current situation is, I'm 35 weeks pregnant, and my husband and I are very excited about having our son soon!
However, I do have questions about raising my son in a largely non-Christian environment.
For some background information, my husband isn't theistic. I met him at a time in 2004 when I wasn't in the faith (went through an agnostic phase). We nonetheless have had a very stable, happy, and monogamous relationship despite that crucial difference. We married in 2016. He has a good job working with computers, and is very reliable. He's about as noble an unbeliever as I can think of, and lives by some fair and objective principles -- but again, is nonetheless an unbeliever. So I'll be the only major example of Christianity my son will see in the family. My husband's family isn't religious.
As for my family, my mom passed away in 2018, so it's just my dad left. He lives a few cities away. My dad is a believer, but his faith is very...unorthodox. He believes people can be saved after they die (which is why he was totally fine with me marrying an unbeliever, incidentally). He says we shouldn't ever judge people, not even in a context of right from wrong (he's very morally relativistic this way). He doesn't like to talk about sin. He doesn't believe in an eternal hell. He likes and refers mostly just to the Bible passages about love and generosity, because those are his strengths. He rarely goes to church. He also used to really be into End Times prophecy and (incorrectly) predicting the end dates of the world, but he no longer does that, at least publicly. He doesn't think in terms of morality, or right and wrong, or principles and laws. He lives a lot for the adoration and praise of women. He unofficially adopted another woman younger than me, lives alone with her, and took her as an adoptive daughter, along with that woman's son, whom he refers to as his grandson. He does still acknowledge me, and he has gotten my impending son gifts, financial contributions, and showed up at my virtual baby shower -- but his primary focus now is on his other adoptive daughter, other women he cares for, his online girlfriend, and all the other women admirers he has. Not surprisingly, he has no Christian male influences in his life; the only men he hangs around are his work, and golfing and drinking, buddies. So I can't rely on him to be any kind of strong male spiritual influence for my own son.
I was wondering, how to raise a son in a largely non-Christian environment like this? Again, he will have male influences, who have some good traits -- but none are strong Christians. I think the only person he may ever encounter who could be like that is the pastor of a church, if he decides to attend church as he gets older.
Been a long time since I was here, and wasn't sure I'd ever look into the forums again -- but I'm running out of places to find broader Christian advice on things, so here I am again.
So anyway, my current situation is, I'm 35 weeks pregnant, and my husband and I are very excited about having our son soon!
However, I do have questions about raising my son in a largely non-Christian environment.
For some background information, my husband isn't theistic. I met him at a time in 2004 when I wasn't in the faith (went through an agnostic phase). We nonetheless have had a very stable, happy, and monogamous relationship despite that crucial difference. We married in 2016. He has a good job working with computers, and is very reliable. He's about as noble an unbeliever as I can think of, and lives by some fair and objective principles -- but again, is nonetheless an unbeliever. So I'll be the only major example of Christianity my son will see in the family. My husband's family isn't religious.
As for my family, my mom passed away in 2018, so it's just my dad left. He lives a few cities away. My dad is a believer, but his faith is very...unorthodox. He believes people can be saved after they die (which is why he was totally fine with me marrying an unbeliever, incidentally). He says we shouldn't ever judge people, not even in a context of right from wrong (he's very morally relativistic this way). He doesn't like to talk about sin. He doesn't believe in an eternal hell. He likes and refers mostly just to the Bible passages about love and generosity, because those are his strengths. He rarely goes to church. He also used to really be into End Times prophecy and (incorrectly) predicting the end dates of the world, but he no longer does that, at least publicly. He doesn't think in terms of morality, or right and wrong, or principles and laws. He lives a lot for the adoration and praise of women. He unofficially adopted another woman younger than me, lives alone with her, and took her as an adoptive daughter, along with that woman's son, whom he refers to as his grandson. He does still acknowledge me, and he has gotten my impending son gifts, financial contributions, and showed up at my virtual baby shower -- but his primary focus now is on his other adoptive daughter, other women he cares for, his online girlfriend, and all the other women admirers he has. Not surprisingly, he has no Christian male influences in his life; the only men he hangs around are his work, and golfing and drinking, buddies. So I can't rely on him to be any kind of strong male spiritual influence for my own son.
I was wondering, how to raise a son in a largely non-Christian environment like this? Again, he will have male influences, who have some good traits -- but none are strong Christians. I think the only person he may ever encounter who could be like that is the pastor of a church, if he decides to attend church as he gets older.
