A toolkit for secular parents looking to raise open-minded kids capable of making up their own minds about faith.
Featured on the PBS NewsHour! A step-by-step guide to raising confident, open-minded, tolerant kids
Relax, It's Just God delivers a refreshingly compassionate and light-hearted approach to addressing issues of faith in secular families. For anyone looking to raise critically thinking, religiously literate, and highly tolerant kids capable of making up their own minds about what to believe, Relax, It's Just God may well be considered the secular equivalent of a godsend.
A rapidly growing demographic cohort in America, secular parents are at the forefront of a major and unprecedented cultural shift. Unable to fall back on what they were taught as children, many of these parents are struggling, or simply failing, to address issues of God, religion and faith with their children in ways that promote honesty, curiosity, kindness and independence.
Author Wendy Thomas Russell sifts through hard data, including the results of a survey of 1,000 nonreligious parents, and delivers gentle but straightforward advice to both non-believers and open-minded believers. With a thoughtful voice infused with humor, Russell seamlessly merges scientific thought, scholarly research and everyday experience with respect for a full range of ways to view the world.
Relax, It's Just God goes beyond the numbers to assist parents (and grandparents) who may be struggling to find the right time, place, tone and language with which to talk about God, spirituality and organized religion. It encourages parents to promote religious literacy and understanding and to support kids as they explore religion on their own -- ensuring that each child makes up his or her own mind about what to believe (or not believe) and extends love and respect to those who may not agree with them.
Subjects covered include:
- Talking openly about our beliefs without indoctrinating kids
- Making religious literacy fun and engaging
- Talking about death without the comforts of heaven
- Navigating religious differences with extended family members
- What to do when kids get threatened with hell
“"Wendy is a strong, funny, articulate new voice in secular parenting." -- Dale McGowan, author and editor, Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion"If only we all could have a mother with the approach to religious literacy described in Relax Its Just God. Wendy Thomas Russell conducted a fascinating survey of parents for this important book, and the results deserve wide discussion... 'Relax It's Just God' is a friendly and wise and highly readable guide to teaching children about religion so they can respond with openness and intelligence." -- Robert Tulip, Booktalk.org"One of the best things I've read in years." -- Karen Loethen, co-host of The Secular Parents Broadcast”
"In this gem of a book, journalist Russell explores religion from a nonreligious perspective, helping parents guide their children in a healthy, exploration-oriented direction without guilt, dogma, or indifference.... This singular book with a clean style and respectful approach is recommended for all libraries."- Library Journal (starred review) "Written for secular parents from a nonreligious perspective, this guide explores methods of teaching youngsters about God, religion and spirituality... Contains a wealth of information for secular or mixed-religion families preparing for the God talk with kids." - Kirkus Reviews "Relax, It's Just God is a thought-provoking entry in the expanding category of secular parenting advice." - The Humanist Magazine"Wendy is a strong, funny, articulate new voice in secular parenting." - DALE MCGOWAN, author and editor, Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion "If only we all could have a mother with the approach to religious literacy described in Relax Its Just God. Wendy Thomas Russell conducted a fascinating survey of parents for this important book, and the results deserve wide discussion... 'Relax It's Just God' is a friendly and wise and highly readable guide to teaching children about religion so they can respond with openness and intelligence." - Robert Tulip, Booktalk.org "One of the best things I've read in years." - Karen Loethen, co-host of The Secular Parents Broadcast"'Relax: It's Just God' is valuable for so many reasons. The book offers helpful timelines for how to talk to kids about religion at every age and includes a handy appendix with the Cliffs Notes version of each major religion of the world, along with ways to observe their holidays in a secular way. The book's full of useful tools that you and your kids can use when confronted by religious peers and well-meaning family members. Best of all, it handles a potentially heavy topic with a lighthearted sense of humor, giving the reader the sense that we really can relax about it." - True Parent Magazine "Hers is a vital voice in the world today." - Chris Stedman, author of Faitheist: How and Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious
After an award-winning career in journalism that spanned more than a decade and brought her out to California from her native Missouri, Wendy Thomas Russell left newspapers and fell, as fate would have it, into the surprisingly fascinating world of secular parenting. Her groundbreaking blog, Relax, It's Just God, offered a thoughtful and often hilarious look inside her own life as she navigated the thornier sides of religion with her young daughter. Her no-nonsense yet compassionate approach to religion detailed in her book has been hailed as a breath of fresh air for progressive parents looking to raise well-informed, open-minded children who feel empowered to make up their own minds about what to believe. Russell is co-founder of Brown Paper Press, an independent book publishing company, and contributed an online parenting column to the PBS NewsHour. She also co-authored "ParentShift: Ten Universal Truths That Will Change the Way You Raise Your Kids" (2019). She lives in Long Beach with her husband and daughter.
Gold-medal winner of a Next Generation Book Award, silver-medal winner of the Independent Publishers Book Award. As featured on the PBS NewsHour A gem of a book. LIBRARY JOURNAL (STARRED REVIEW) A step-by-step guide to raising confident, open-minded kids in an age of religious intolerance. Relax, It's Just God offers parents fresh, practical and honest ways to address issues of God and faith with children while promoting curiosity and kindness.A rapidly growing demographic cohort in America, secular parents are at the forefront of a major and unprecedented cultural shift. Unable to fall back on what they were taught as children, many of these parents are struggling, or simply failing, to address issues of God, religion and faith with their children in ways that promote honesty, curiosity, kindness and independence.The author sifts through hard data, including the results of a survey of 1,000 nonreligious parents, and delivers gentle but straightforward advice to both non-believers and open-minded believers. With a thoughtful voice infused with humor, Russell seamlessly merges scientific thought, scholarly research and everyday experience with respect for a full range of ways to view the world. Relax, It's Just God goes beyond the numbers to assist parents (and grandparents) who may be struggling to find the right time place, tone and language with which to talk about God, spirituality and organized religion. It encourages parents to promote religious literacy and understanding and to support kids as they explore religion on their own -- ensuring that each child makes up his or her own mind about what to believe (or not believe) and extends love and respect to those who may not agree with them.Subjects covered include: Talking openly about our beliefs without indoctrinating kids Making religious literacy fun and engaging Talking about death without the comforts of heaven Navigating religious differences with extended family members What to do when kids get threatened with hell
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