WRITER.

Today’s WordPress prompt is “What’s something you do completely differently from how you were raised?”

I was raised Roman Catholic, and I no longer practice any faith. When I was Catholic, I took my faith extremely seriously. I listened to Catholic podcasts and other theology-based content. I went to Mass weekly. I prayed before meals. All of this was encouraged by my family, and lasted until about halfway through college.

When my brother came out as bisexual and transgender, it rocked my world. I loved him regardless, of course, but the Catholic church has very strict rules when it comes to the LGBTQ+ crowd.

Catholicism, like most religions, believes it has the answers to just about everything and that all that it teaches is 100% true. It rarely budges on theological matters, and is slow to change.

The more I researched and the more I talked with my brother, the more that I found my worldview was skewed by my supposedly “traditional” values. First I went along with the Catholic view – having homosexual desires was not a sin in itself; it was only a sin if one acted on those desires.

After that, I accepted the bisexual part of him. Part of it was because I was finally able to put words to my own experiences, having had what a crush on a woman for most of college. I had shoved that part of me down for so long because I thought it was inappropriate and sinful. I remained closeted longer than my brother, but I began to accept that this part of me was not evil.

Then I researched the transgender experience and learned more from my brother. At first, I only used they/them pronouns for him because he accepted that and it was more gender neutral. When I accepted who he truly was, I began to switch back and forth between his preferred pronouns.

After those two issues came up with my religion, which taught that homosexuals and transgender people were sinful and mentally ill, more building blocks began to fall. I stopped believing in transubstantiation, the teaching that the bread and wine in church literally turn into Christ’s body and blood. I stopped believing that a truly good God could have created the world. I stopped believing in Hell, and then in Heaven.

All this to say, I am now an atheist, though I occasionally veer onto more agnostic grounds. It is not how I was raised, but it is who I became and I am proud of myself for figuring out my worldview even though it is different from what I was taught.