SF Bay: Something better than Sunday Assembly?

[Robin Lee Powell]

So RA takes the girls to her church (Lutheran, *SUPER* liberal, gay
pastor and everything; she's out there as poly, etc) every Sunday.
I'd like to inject a bit of something else into that mix.

When they get older I figured I'd do a tour of like every type of
religious, quasi-religious, and community activist group I can find,
just basically a tour of "this is how people community-ize". But
they're 4; there's not much point.

What I've been doing off and on up until now is Sunday Assembly East
Bay. Which is fine as far as it goes, but to describe it as "not
geared towards bringing your children" would be a pretty dramatic
understatement.

Can anyone around/near San Francisco suggest other options for this
sort of goal set?

Alternatively, is there enough local interest (from people on this
list and their friends and so on) to *put together* something to the
effect of "atheists with kids trying to build community" as a Sunday
sort-of-play-date-kinda-thing?

IIRC the intentional community meetings the Edens were having had
like 3(?) groups of parents, which seems like maybe enough?, I
dunno. Thoughts?

--
http://intelligence.org/ : Our last, best hope for a fantastic future.
.i ko na cpedu lo nu stidi vau loi jbopre .i dafsku lu na go'i li'u .e
lu go'i li'u .i ji'a go'i lu na'e go'i li'u .e lu go'i na'i li'u .e
lu no'e go'i li'u .e lu to'e go'i li'u .e lu lo mamta be do cu sofybakni li'u

[Tom Adams]

There is an Ethical Union society in SF Bay area:

http://aeu.org/who-we-are/member-societies/

And there are probably some Unitarian Universalist (UU) congregations around there somewhere, I think

it can fit the bill as a atheist church for some, and includes some exposure to other viewpoints.

My step-son's family is in a UU congregation.  They seem to have lots of youth programs.

UU membership in good standing include tithing and there is social pressure to pay. But I am sure you can get a free tour.

I never made any particular effort to expose my daughter to religion.  It tended to happen anyway mostly via peers.  She went to an

evangelical Christian summer camp with a friend and ironically she won a prize for being the most Christian ethical kid

or something like that.  Later she went to some after school Christian meetings because she had a crush on the drummer.

And my extended family are all Christians involved in churches.   We took her to the movie "Little Buddha" somewhere

in the tweens and she seemed to feel like it broadened her perspective on religion, but I just took her because I thought

it was a good family movie.

When my daughter was 15, her best friend's mom died of a brain tumor and she had a kind of existential crisis.  I gave her

my fav translation of Epictetus Handbook (Lebell's "Manual for Living") and it seemed to help, but some counseling might been

a good idea also.  If you are not familiar with Epictetus Handbook, here is a free online translation:

http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/epicench.html

[Tom Adams]

By the way, I only learned about the Christian meetings and the drummer crush recently.  She is over 30 now and wonder about how

to handle religion with her own two kids.

Heck, she got a tattoo in high school that I did not learn about till 10 years later while vacationing with her in the Caribbean where she

was wearing a bikini.  The tattoo is the x-ray diffraction image that Rosalind Franklin produced of DNA.

[Dave Orr]

Teenager secretly getting a tattoo in high school: bad

Tattoo of Franklin's x-ray diffraction image of DNA: awesome

I'm not sure how these things balance out here.

- Dave

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[William Eden]

We are certainly open to hosting more gatherings. The thing is, I want a *much* more restrictive filter than just atheists, TBH.

The folks we feel most kinship with (among parenting groups) are the SF unschooling families.

There has been talk in various parts of the rationality community about making a church-like thing, but it has yet to come together. As more and more of us have kids, such a thing would likely become more kid-friendly by necessity.

But yeah, in short, I think we're in a situation approximating "shit out of luck" for our goals and value set.

--
Will Eden
http://becomingeden.com
650-681-7990

[Tom Adams]

Just want to point out that the Ethical Union does have youth programs:

http://aeu.org/our-community/childrens-programming/

On Friday, August 28, 2015 at 11:21:21 AM UTC-4, Tom Adams wrote:

[Robin Lee Powell]

Unfortunately, the nearest one (which is an hour away) doesn't
appear to have any youth programs. :( It was a good idea.

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[Robin Lee Powell]

On Fri, Aug 28, 2015 at 04:43:51PM -0700, William Eden wrote:
> We are certainly open to hosting more gatherings. The thing is, I
> want a *much* more restrictive filter than just atheists, TBH.

Works for me; I'd love to be involved/host/help set up something on
a Sunday morning once a month for like-minded parents and kids, and
I'm perfectly fine with "the people who are welcome are the people
we invite". :) Is that something you'd feel comfortable actively
working with me on? I know I've been flaky in the past, but I just
exited $crazyjob, and I expect to do better in the future.

> The folks we feel most kinship with (among parenting groups) are
> the SF unschooling families.

Which I would also really like to have more (any) connections with.

> There has been talk in various parts of the rationality community
> about making a church-like thing, but it has yet to come together.
> As more and more of us have kids, such a thing would likely become
> more kid-friendly by necessity.

Yeah, I think if I'm going to be involved in constructing something,
I'd want to construct it as a kid tihng first and let the community
grow out of that. Like "let's get together and try to do things
with/for/to our kids that are both fun and involve at least some
learning" seems like a valid start.

[Robin Lee Powell]

On Fri, Aug 28, 2015 at 08:21:21AM -0700, Tom Adams wrote:
>
> UU membership in good standing include tithing and there is social
> pressure to pay. But I am sure you can get a free tour.

I don't mind paying if it is something I'm getting volue out of.

> I never made any particular effort to expose my daughter to
> religion. It tended to happen anyway mostly via peers. She went
> to an evangelical Christian summer camp with a friend and
> ironically she won a prize for being the most Christian ethical
> kid or something like that. Later she went to some after school
> Christian meetings because she had a crush on the drummer. And my
> extended family are all Christians involved in churches. We took
> her to the movie "Little Buddha" somewhere in the tweens and she
> seemed to feel like it broadened her perspective on religion, but
> I just took her because I thought it was a good family movie.
>
> When my daughter was 15, her best friend's mom died of a brain
> tumor and she had a kind of existential crisis. I gave her my fav
> translation of Epictetus Handbook (Lebell's "Manual for Living")
> and it seemed to help, but some counseling might been a good idea
> also. If you are not familiar with Epictetus Handbook, here is a
> free online translation:
>
> http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/epicench.html

Thanks for the stories, and the book; I'd never seen that before.