Religious Etiquette Made Easy

In the upcoming Sept. 4 issue of Newsweek, Beliefwatch.net answers some readers' questions about proper religious etiquette. While the answers were well educated and informative, they were not as simplistic and wise as they ought to have been. Here are the better answers (my own answers(now I don't know where to place the colon and I ended up with a second set of paranthesis)):

I'm not that religious, but our baby is having a Roman Catholic baptism. We're friends with a very loving couple who are not Catholic. Can we ask them to be our baby's godparents? Of course you can. The title commonly referred to as "God Parents" has come to simply mean, "these are the people who I want to raise my child if my spouse and I meet some horrible fate and die." That person or persons should probably be most likely to make similar parental decisions to your own and be willing or already have developed a relationship with your child's extended family.

I'd like to wish my Jewish boss a "blessed" Rosh Hashana, but I'm not sure if that's the appropriate way to say it. Should I say, "Have a nice Rosh Hashana," or what? Rosh Hashana is one four of the Jewish "new years." The Torah (old testament people) refers to it as "The Day of the Blowing of the Shafar." Traditionally you could really impress your boss by blowing into a rams horn at work and wish him "ketiva ve-chatima tovah" (May You Be Written and Sealed for a Good Year.) Acknowledging this new year opens a flood gate to a miriad of other Traditional Jewish holidays. Just be sure you're ready to take on that kind of responibility.

I frequently receive forwarded e-mails that ask me to pass them along "if you love the Lord." The implication is that a good person would send the e-mail on. What should I do? Ask yourself this question, "Do you love the Lord?" Of so, you should know that He work through any means necessary to reach His lost children. As tacky as it sounds, this does also include spam chain letters. By forwarding on these emails you are evangelizing in the most simplist and time effective ways. Someday, someone may fall upon that email with the cute story and it may actually seriously touch them. Forward the email.

Sub-for-Santa, a nonprofit organization I work with, donates gifts to families in need every December. This year we're "adopting" a Jehovah's Witness family. I know Jehovah's Witnesses don't celebrate holidays, but is it OK to wrap the gifts we purchased in a nonholiday wrapping paper? Yes.