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There has been a spike in religious-related articles in the Times lately, so I thought I'd add my opinion in to the mix. Please take the things I say with a grain of salt; my opinion on this sort of thing has become rather slanted throughout the years.
All of my life, I was raised Catholic. I went to church every Sunday, where I sat in the front row and sat silently with my hands crossed on my lap, looking perfectly pristine in my Sunday best. I went to youth classes every Wednesday, meeting people who 'shared my religious views and were sure to become my lifelong friends'. While I was a child, I did all this without thought; it was simply what I was supposed to do. Then I reached adolescence, and things started changing. I actually started listening during church. I listened to what was being said, and found that I simply didn't agree with it.
I was shaken. Those things that I was questioning was what I had believed in my entire life. If I didn't believe in that, what did I believe in?
I, being rather dumb, brought this up with my parents. Asked them if I could look in to other religions, try to find something I could truly believe in. They didn't see things the same as I did. I was just being a teenager, they said, I would grow out of this phase. I half-heartedly agreed, not giving it much thought. I waited a few months. The phase didn't pass. I brought it up with my mother alone this time, for various reasons, and was this time flat-out turned down. I found it unfair.
So, this brings us to the present. Here I still am, stuck in a religion that I don't believe in. I fight with my mother every week about going to the teenage-church-group that I'm in. When I lose, I sit there, staring blankly at a wall, willing myself to not say anything, to not stand up for myself as people unknowingly label my opinions as stupid, or blasphemy, or whatever other three-point vocabulary word comes into their mind. TheRanter brought up finding a religion that makes you happy.
Some of us don't have that option.
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