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I have lived here 50+ years and can count on one hand the number of times I have been asked what church I go to.
I don't go to church but I do sometimes regret that I didn't join a church for my children. The large churches and synagogues provide a number of activities and opportunities that would be a benefit to any kid.
Interesting. I don't think I've ever been asked. I have had the door knockers and half of them are from religions that mandate such things and are international and the other half tend to be Asians.
I pulled the census and NC State application forms. Fed says "white" for race, NC says "white" for "ethnic group".
Asians though are caucasian.
Asians are not caucasian. I worked as a poll taker for the census. There are categories for every possible ethnic group including Asian. As a matter of fact, Asians are further broken down by ethnicity, ie. Indian, Chinese, islanders, etc. Hispanics are also broken down by ethnicity, ie, white Hispanic, etc.
Seriously, if one is offended by someone being neighborly and inviting them to their community church, they need to live in secusion. People that do invite do not criticize others for their religion. They are simply attempting to welcome newcomers. It is very unlikely that one will even confront such a situation. Bottom line, who cares?? Big bloody deal!
LOL+1 to Bible belt. When we drive to the beach and are about two hours outside of Charlotte, I look at my surroundings and think "Bible Belt".
Well, as a matter of fact, 2 hours outside of Philly and New York (metros) in rural Penn or New York....I think Bible Belt or at a minimum New Testament Belt.
I don't get the bible belt thing as well... when I drive an hour or 2 outside of Charlotte I don't see tent revivals and jesus saves billboards. I see farms, tree's and think about eating seafood and chilling on the beach!!!
I've lived in Union County (Weddington/Marvin area) and now live in Charlotte proper.
This might stir up a hornets nest, but I did not enjoy living in Union County. The houses are beautiful, the schools are top rated, but I felt that there's a forced homogeneity there that I felt uncomfortable with.
All of my neighbors fit in to a certain type - mid to late 40s with at least 3 kids. Most were white. One had a hispanic last name (although the first thing he told me was that he didn't speak Spanish and his great-grandfather was Cuban - essentially telling me, ignore the last name). On the block there were 2 Asian families who I never got to meet.
The first sign of trouble was when I was invited to a tea-party event by my next door neighbor. I politely declined and in the ensuing conversation, it became very clear that he and I had very opposing views of politics. Apparently this was insulting to him. After that, his children were prohibited from playing with my kids (which they had done before) and even his wife did not greet my wife again. The second incident was in a conversation with our neighbors across the street. The wife mentioned to me that she homeschooled her 3 kids. Now this was the first parent I'd ever met who homeschooled their children, so I was curious and asked her some questions about it. I don't know if she felt intimidated by the questions or as if they were attacking type of questions, but I sensed her getting defensive about it and backed off. Same as the first neighbors, a virtual shunning where we wouldn't even get a response when either my wife or I waved hello.
My wife and I decided that the problem was us, not them. They were living there before us, they have created an insular, homogeneous neighborhood where the neighbors that socialize all share a similar political view, religious view and social view and those neighbors who don't share that view are basically not invited to share in the neighborhood aspect of living there. In our case, we like to be social with our neighbors, get involved with the HOA and planning events, participate in the kids events, etc. So we decided that a neighborhood closer to the actual city and with more diversity of thought and residents would be a better fit for us.
I've lived in Union County (Weddington/Marvin area) and now live in Charlotte proper.
This might stir up a hornets nest, but I did not enjoy living in Union County. The houses are beautiful, the schools are top rated, but I felt that there's a forced homogeneity there that I felt uncomfortable with.
All of my neighbors fit in to a certain type - mid to late 40s with at least 3 kids. Most were white. One had a hispanic last name (although the first thing he told me was that he didn't speak Spanish and his great-grandfather was Cuban - essentially telling me, ignore the last name). On the block there were 2 Asian families who I never got to meet.
The first sign of trouble was when I was invited to a tea-party event by my next door neighbor. I politely declined and in the ensuing conversation, it became very clear that he and I had very opposing views of politics. Apparently this was insulting to him. After that, his children were prohibited from playing with my kids (which they had done before) and even his wife did not greet my wife again. The second incident was in a conversation with our neighbors across the street. The wife mentioned to me that she homeschooled her 3 kids. Now this was the first parent I'd ever met who homeschooled their children, so I was curious and asked her some questions about it. I don't know if she felt intimidated by the questions or as if they were attacking type of questions, but I sensed her getting defensive about it and backed off. Same as the first neighbors, a virtual shunning where we wouldn't even get a response when either my wife or I waved hello.
My wife and I decided that the problem was us, not them. They were living there before us, they have created an insular, homogeneous neighborhood where the neighbors that socialize all share a similar political view, religious view and social view and those neighbors who don't share that view are basically not invited to share in the neighborhood aspect of living there. In our case, we like to be social with our neighbors, get involved with the HOA and planning events, participate in the kids events, etc. So we decided that a neighborhood closer to the actual city and with more diversity of thought and residents would be a better fit for us.
I hope no one will give you a hard time, b/c your experiences are as valid as anyone else's!
We live in Marvin. Yes, most of my neighbors are religious, but I have never been deliberately shunned because of our lack of church-going. I have never been pressured to go with them to church. On the other hand, the women are actively involved in certain church activities that can strengthen their bonds to the exclusion of those who aren't involved. But that happens normally when you aren't involved in something others are.
I work with a pastor and he sometimes gets a little preachy, but backs off when you tell him he's overstepping his bounds.
FYI....Marvin Elementary School has a Mandarin immersion program that begins in kindergarten, so I think there is definitely a respect for the Asian culture in the school.
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