#i also like. canon gives us secular xmas eps and thats. not my jam as someone for whom that’s a very religious holiday

[vanderwoodlings]

Consider this an open invitation to expand on the topic of Georgina and religion 👀

Well, see, it’s less Georgina and religion and more the Sparks family and religion.

(And a note before we begin: to be clear, I’m not talking shit about any of these denominations as a whole, or about conversion as a whole, or Christianity as a whole. I’m talking about the experiences of characters who are clearly having not great times, and so I don’t focus on the good stuff, but Christianity does have lots of very, very good stuff in it. Unfortunately, it’s also got stuff like this.)

So here’s the thing. For Georgina to end up in her special little cult experience, her parents had to send her there. Which, like, I know we only get one scene of them but just personally I honestly would have pegged them for more like. Terrible Episcopalians than terrible Baptists

(My guess on the group Georgina was with’s background comes without having watched those episodes again, but A) focus on dressed down style, B) ‘no alcohol’ rule, and C) the whole thing with the tambourines.)

So. Georgina’s parents. They’d actually sent her to various rehabs pre-series, and other such things, and one of the more unfortunate habits of certain Christian denominations (especially your terrible Baptists) is their habit of hardcore proselytizing. Usually this functions to get their members rejected and to create a more defined in-group that feels a sense of persecution, but sometimes—especially when it happens to people under stress—it works.

I’d guess that this is happens sometime during season one.

Georgina’s relationship to religion after ‘the bitch is back’ goes a little all over the place—“i haven’t been this bored since I believed in Jesus” comes in between “Jesus and I have redefined our relationship” and “Jesus owes me one.” Probably because she’s doing a lot of redefining—she’s questioning, and she’s not sure how she feels about any of this stuff

And the thing is that Georgina, more than anything, just wants someone she loves to stay. Of course, wanting to burn everything down until she stops being bored is a very close second, but it happens. Still, one of the premises of Christianity—especially the kind you get on a worship retreat full of teenagers—is that Jesus loves the whole of humanity, unconditionally. And I figure that that’s why, despite her trouble with the whole ‘morals’ thing (and, like, all the legitimately fucked up shamed-based overly restrictive shit she probably got fed), Georgina can’t just decide she’s done.

I think that Milo probably grows up attending irregularly—Christmas and Easter with his grandparents, every year, but anything else depends on his mom. He doesn’t have a lot of positive associations with holidays—they’re high stress and he gets yelled at a lot—and spending an hour or two sitting in a pew (or a folding chair, seeing as these are Baptists) listening to some guy talk about salvation… doesn’t really help.

Someone probably asked about him getting baptized once he turned twelve, and didn’t take his uncomfortable shrug well, so he’s probably technically done that in a haze of fire and brimstone fear and adult talking loudly and aggressively obedience.

I think Dan’s somewhere on the line between agnostic and atheist—he’s a pretentious fucker, and if he thought religion mattered much at all to his life experience, we’d have heard about it. Serena isn’t really into the whole organized religion thing but she is a believer in spiritual somethings.

Dan probably kind of awkwardly brings it up when Milo first moves in, and Milo just says no, no, he’s good, and then again in December, and Milo hesitates a little more this time before deciding that he’d rather not. He keeps feeling weird about it for a good long time, though. It is what it is.

#georgina sparks #milo humphrey #georgina and milo #serena van der woodsen #dan humphrey #the sparks family #towgd au #asks #strideofpride #i also like. canon gives us secular xmas eps and thats. not my jam as someone for whom that’s a very religious holiday #so yknow. other reasons we’re doing new years instead #this is a meta tag