It's not really about religion. It's more about geography.

We have an editorial policy here at Melicious Details that precludes us from discussing religions or politics.

Except you also have to understand these three things:

1.  When it's your own blog, you can make statements like "we have..." to imply that a) you have a staff and b) you have a policy.
2. The post about Scientology did not count because we all agreed Scientology is not a religion, it is crazy talk.
3. This story is kind of funny so we overriding our own policy.

Our policy pretty much states that funny overrides most everything, including embarrassing our husband.

When recently asked by friends if he got to approve any Melicious Details posts about him, our husband Clyde replied:  No. Not at all.

But back to our story about religions.

When I grew up in San Jose it was abundantly Christian, because those were the olden days before the word silicon was ever attached to the word valley.  Maybe even before the word silicon was invented. In those days, everyone I knew was either Catholic or Protestant.  If you were something else, I did not know you. For example, in my neighborhood, if you were Catholic, you went to Saint Victor's.  If you were Protestant, you went any number of places because it was not that simple to be Protestant, you had to be a flavor.  Like Presbyterian.  Except to me it just seemed like being Protestant was an umbrella term meaning you weren't Catholic.

But I discovered that if you were a kid growing up on the East Coast, you had an entirely different view of religious options. On a business trip to New Jersey, I stayed over one night to visit our friends, Barbara and Jack, and their 7 year old daughter Farrah. The first morning I was there, we had this conversation:

Barbara: Would you like a toasted bagel for breakfast?

Me: Yes, I love bagels!

Farrah: Are you Jewish?

Me (smiling): No. And one of my friends who is Jewish told me I would be his mother's worst nightmare.

Farrah: Are you Catholic?

Me: No...

Farrah now looks really puzzled. 

Farrah: Greek Orthodox??

I burst out laughing because really.  Me?  The WASP from San Jose who barely knows that Greek Orthodox is a religion?

Me: No, not Greek Orthodox. I'm Protestant.

Farrah wrinkles up her little nose and says: What's that??

Comments

[Desiree]

I completely understand ... I've had similar conversations to the one you had with Farrah, only with Wince ... yes, that is scary on multiple levels ;-> Evidently, being Agnostic is not a recognized position on the East Coast ... you're Catholic, Jewish, or Greek Orthodox. So, when the conversation of religion comes up with friends, he tells them I'm Atheist, which he claims is just the same ... ummmm, because they both start with "A"?! But really, on the East Coast, is there any difference between being Catholic, Jewish, or Greek Orthodox ;->