It’s funny how Christians that claim “family values” are their top priorities often don’t really support family values, like gay marriage—which could really help families out—or the environment, where their families, you know, live and stuff. What’s just as funny is that once they hear that you are not a Christian, many of them automatically believe that you do not support family values, either.

I, however, would maintain that most pagan values are family values, and that such assumptions are ridiculous. Most pagans value both the masculine and the feminine in life—everything from people to elements to the very spirit we contain in our own hearts—which should be considered a family value (though not something that excludes androgyny; in fact, the presence of both, to some of us, supports androgyny better than the public in general already does, if at all). Most pagans support all marriages, all forms of love, and all of nature and the world itself—things that all families would also do well to support.

When I ran across this blog about pagan family values, I had to smile because it was so true. This family keeps their own set of family values, which is personal and unique—as family values should be. Wholesome movies and apple pie and whatever else is being toted as “family values” by the general masses feels rather hollow and meaningless when compared to your own family’s values or ethics system. (I prefer both of these words to “morals,” which implies a religious code to follow to me, but some may prefer that instead.)

So what are your pagan family values? This family’s included trust and honesty, togetherness, laughter, gratitude, forgiveness, and communication. These are fantastic values for any family to have, I think. One of the key values that we have in our home is autonomy and respecting everyone as they are without trying to change each other. We try to respect each other’s different needs and opinions, as is common among unschooling families. This can be extremely difficult, as many people know! Most parenting books, after all, exist to help you “make” your children do what you want them to do rather than to accept them as people with their own desires and personalities.

We also have a strong sense of social consciousness in our home. We try to “leave the campground a little tidier than it was before we got here,” so to speak, which is a pretty difficult task in today’s highly disposable world. Sure, we recycle and donate and volunteer, but one day we’d love to live in a self-sustaining hobbit home that we build out of recycled material or just discarded things—how cool would that be? With solar paneling, plenty of garden space, and being built inside a hill for temperature regulation, such a home would pretty much make all of my dreams come true.

Feel free to share your family’s manifesto, mission statement, or general values here at Pagan Journey.