Some have become very defensive on this subject.  I don't think the original
point was to blame any religion in general.  However, I don't think it can
be denied that there have been some individuals who have given very bad
advice in the name of their faith.  There have been some, more in the past
perhaps (hopefully) who have taken the stand that women should bear as many
children as possible and anything that was seen to lengthen the intervals
between children was therefore "not according to God's wishes"!  Of course,
I think most today would reject this interpretation.  Today, some propose
very strongly that their religion says the husband must be in total control
in the family and therefore, if he isn't comfortable with breastfeeding, too
bad.  Whatever he says is how it must be.  Again, this isn't a criticism of
religion as a whole, only those who distort the teachings of their
particular Faith to their own ideas.  Certainly there are other examples:
the KKK insists they have a religious basis for their bigotry and actions.
Islamic extremists distort their teachings to justify their horrific
actions.  In these cases, the blame isn't with the religion itself, but with
what individual followers have done to twist it to their own aims.

 

Surely in our forum, we can look critically at what individuals may say
about their religion and breastfeeding without either attacking the religion
as a whole or being so defensive that we don't see there is some truth is
what is being said about that viewpoint.  Hopefully, in this forum dedicated
to breastfeeding, we can find that whatever our beliefs, we can relate them
to our common goal of promoting, protecting and preserving breastfeeding.

 

Winnie

 

"(Just like a bird, mankind) cannot fly with one wing alone. If it tries to
fly with the wing of religion alone it will land in the slough of
superstition, and if it tries to fly with the wing of science alone it will
end in the dreary bog of materialism."

 

 


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