and Christianity.

A sign of recovery:

We live in the Bible belt. I am an atheist. I define myself as a humanist. My children have not been to an LDS church, or any other church, in over five years. Their mother, also a former Mormon, is agnostic. We continue to celebrate Christmas for various reasons, none of which are religious.

Each year a nativity scene is placed on the mantle during the season. It replaces vases and pictures and is apart of the traditional Christmas decorations just like the tree, ornaments, lights and presents.

My eight year old daughter picked up the Mary figurine from the mantle and moved it to another location. My son, eleven years old, told his little sister: "Put Mary back next to the baby Jesus doll where it belongs." Daughter replied: "How did you know that the lady doll's name was 'Mary'?"

It just shows that you have distanced yourself and your family from religion as far as you want to. Congratulations!

Thank you for giving your children the ability to choose the direction of their lives...

It sounds nice to say that I have "given" my children the ability to choose their own direction. I haven't. They have always had the ability. Some of my choices will certainly influence their ability to choose.

They will likely not be able to choose to believe the First Vision, and Book of Mormon historicity as told by the LDS church because they know too much about it from me. I doubt they can choose to be die-hard Chrisitians later because it wont be in their experience as youngsters.

I do hope, however, that the choices they can and do make, will come from a better selection menue than the one I was given at their ages.

Not sure what was so clever about your daughter's response. What's the harm in acknowledging the name of the mother of Jesus was Mary? It still doesn't mean you believe he is the son of God or you've accepted any of the tenets of Christianity.

That's the point. It wasn't clever at all. It was innocent.