When I Cry Research Paper

In ninth grade, I told my mother I no longer believed in God. We were driving back to our house after bible study and she was chiding me for not acting more vocal and participating more during discussion. At some point in her lecture, she asked me if I even believed in God; I replied simply by saying no. The sound of the motor and the road filled the car for a few moments. We talked about it all the way home; she accused me of just trying to hurt her, and I cried, but I said the truth. I had not believed in God for quite some time.
At that point I had been actively thinking about my stance on religion and my own beliefs for about two years. Every Sunday while I bowed my head in prayer, sang, or listened to a sermon, I debated inside …show more content…
Even though I did not plan on confessing to my mom, and definitely did not plan on making my entire family cry, it’s better for it to have happened. I may have never told anyone in my family otherwise. I naively thought that it was just my mom who devoted herself to religion. I imagined my dad was more mellow and that my sister believed little, if at all. In reality, my father showed more outward hurt than my mother by asking me repeatedly in the following weeks if what I said was still true. My sister, though in college out of state, makes an effort to attend church at school and routinely comes to church when she is home.
I am glad my family knows that I am not Christian, but I am oddly grateful that I was raised in church, especially as a preacher’s kid. Despite what some very vocal atheists say, the majority of worshippers don’t believe in God just to follow tradition. Everyone has a story and oftentimes the ones with the strongest faiths have been through a hell that was only traversable by believing in a heaven. Christianity, and religion in general, will always have a degree of respect from me for the passion it inspires and the healing it brings. That doesn’t change that I don’t believe in any of