I'm glad the BSC never took a religious route, it's a taboo subject for a reason.
Me too. Religion is a very sticky issue fraught with potential controversy.
Unlike some BSC fanfictions I see, I'm especially glad the books didn't make Christianity, especially Protestantism, the "established" religion like some storylines do.
I don't picture any of them as particularly religious anyway.
Me either.
I think in the books Mary Anne mentions she’s presbyterian...
I think partially so from some of her maternal granddad's side.
But I suspect Mary Anne's also part Jewish, non-practicing.
Spier is quite a common Jewish name.
....the Stevensons were Jewish.
That they were...I suspect the Thomases and the Brewers, the McGills, the Schafers as well as the Spiers were at least partially and non-practicing Jewish.
Many Jewish people
do celebrate the non-religious aspect of Christmas.
Contrary to popular misconception, Christmas is not really a strictly "Christian" holiday.
I guess we could come to the conclusion that the Kishi's were protestant since Lynn was baptized in a congregational church.
Agreed there...the Kishis, the Ramseys and probably the Pikes were non-Jewish.
Edit to mentioned the Dawes family.
I saw on the wiki that it's mentioned that they're pretty strict about their Judaism; they don't eat pork, holidays like Rosh Hashanah are mentioned and Nancy's been going to Hebrew School.
I don't know why this wasn't mentioned in Abby books, but I suppose Abby's stories are more to shown the cultural side of things and the Dawes the more religious side if I had to guess.
I think it's because religion is not a big deal in Stoneybrook.
Also, not all Jewish people are the same, no more than all Christians are the same.
I appreciate that the books do not make either Abby or Nancy as the "poster girl" for Judaism.
It's also the books don't stereotype Jews as all looking the same or all worshipping and observing in the same way.
Too many other books, especially those books with a Christian slant, marginalize Judaism and treat Jews as a "rare" unusual "minority."
Especially irksome are ignorant people who assume that because a person doesn't "look" a certain way or doesn't shun Christmas or who doesn't have a "Jewish-sounding" surname or who doesn't have the Star of David all over their home "can't" be Jewish at all.
Ann was great in not making that mistake in this series.
I'm also glad it didn't go there, but it does seem kind of strange when you think about it.
To me, it didn't seem "strange" at all. I think it may be because I grew up in New York City, have family in New England, New Jersey and DC.
I thankfully did not have to grow up with pro-Protestant or right-wing bias and today, I encounter few bigots, thank God.
The one time I visited the south, it seemed scary and alien to me and I was relieved to return to the safety of the north.
So to me, the freedom from conservative, pro-Protestant bias was normal to me reading the BSC books.
Jewsh and Muslim customs and observances are familiar to me.
To me, it's weird that some people are unaccustomed to diversity.
I remember being startled to learn that some people have grown up never meeting anyone of a different race and of a different religion.
I see that in the BSC books, the BSC are startled by people like the Lowells, which is illustrative of the freedom and openess of Stoneybrook.
That's why the fanfics that depict the BSC or Stoneybrook as narrow-minded or conservative-minded are weird and OOC to me.
I'm from the midwest so everybody was either vaguely Christian or very Christian.
While there is a strong current of pro-Protestantism in much of the midwest, it's a mistake to assume that "everybody" from or living in the midwest is Christian.
I've known several Jewish people raised in the midwest.
Also, if you're familiar with the 1990s sitcom
Roseanne, that show features a partially Jewish family in Illinois.
Also, don't forget about big midwestern cities like Chicago, Detroit, St Cloud and Minneapolis...lots of religious diversity there.
I grew up Catholic and even that was looked down on by some people I knew because it wasn't Christian enough/wasn't the right kind of Christian.
Yes, unfortunately there is lots of Protestant prejudice against Catholics.
I'm a mix of both Catholic and Jewish myself, so I know.
So maybe it's my experience talking but as a kid I was exposed to a lot of religious messaging - mostly positive or neutral, but definitely some negative too - and that's not at all the experience in the books.
So true...and I'm glad. Probably because Ann grew up in tolerant, open, free New Jersey.
Anytime there's religious-themed negativity, it's associated with bad people and rightly so.
True there.
But in the books everybody respects everybody else and minds their own business...
So true! There's none of that bigotry and none of the bible-thunking, homophobia or sex-shaming in Stoneybrook.
I would guess that more people had experiences closer to mine.
God, I hope not...from what I've seen, it's some swaths of the midwest that have that prejudice, but not places like Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis or Indianapolis.
Large swaths of the south...the "bible belt"...sadly have the strong pro-Protestant, conservative bias as well.
My granddad and my stepgrandmum, who are Jewish, lived in Alabama for a year or two and felt that bigotry, so to my relief, they moved out of there and live in Colorado now.
Colorado is far less biased and is more tolerant than most of the south.
This is why I cannot see Mary Anne or Mallory ever being happy living in the "bible belt" area of the States.
The pro-Protestant and pro-conservative bias would especially be too much for sensitive, caring Mary Anne.
Maybe it's different in New England, but in Missouri religion is everywhere.
It is quite different here in New York and New England.
We have far more freedom and more diversity.
Salem had the hysterical witch trials and wanted to avoid that again once it was over.
Then New York City, Washington, DC and Boston as well as the west coast had immigrants from hundreds of religions, including Catholicism, Judaism, Islam and Hinduism coming in, so religious bigotry was not an option, especially in the cities.
The west coast also has more religious tolerance, so thank goodness, that pro-Protestant bias doesn't dominate the entire United States.
Remember that also Stoneybrook is less than an hour from NYC by train.
I suspect many descendents from Ellis Island immigrants came to Stoneybrook and probably helped found Stoneybrook.