Godmothering

Recently a friend of mine asked me to be her son’s godmother. I agreed happily, but I had one reservation.

“I…uh…they know I’m Catholic, right?” I asked. Her husband is Lutheran, and she converted when they got married.

“Yeah, they know,” she said. “They’re okay with it. They just wanted someone who was Christian and took Communion seriously, and I figured you would since Catholics take everything seriously.”

The whole thing made me happy. When I first met her in college we were sharing an apartment with another mutual friend. I can’t remember what flavor of Christian* she was, but she was slightly leery of Catholics, the way a lot of fundamentalist Christians are. People act like there’s a little bit of voodoo or mysticism mixed in with our religion, something that makes you want to stand back a bit. That’s okay. I did what I always do…not make a big deal out of it. Pretty soon she realized that I was normal and the questions started rolling in…what’s the deal with your services being so long? Why do you go to church on November 1st and New Year’s Day? What’s the deal with First Communion being so early and Confirmation being so late? Why do you do so much standing up and sitting down? I answered the best that I could and soon my religion seemed as normal as hers.

The whole thing validated my point of view, and reinforced the wisdom of St. Francis’ famous quote: “Always preach the gospel. If necessary, use words.” I’ve helped several people, from fundamentalist Christians to adamant atheists, see that there’s nothing wrong with religion. And I did it by being as kind, open, and helpful as I could. If I had yelled and threatened and said they were going to hell for not believing I don’t think I would have won anyone over.

I don’t know if my approach is the right one, but as my friend and I joked around before her son’s baptism it certainly seemed right.




* My husband seemed to think that referring to different types of Christianity as different “flavors” was offensive or flippant. But I use the term “flavor” to describe different types of the same thing, like “My favorite flavor of ‘Law & Order’ is SVU.” So I don’t just use it to describe religion.