Fearful of leaving your family's religion - read this

[RedRod]

Yes, honesty indeed comes at a high price and although I don't live in the US bible-belt, I was lucky enough to be born into one of the few remaining families of exclusive brethren still active in an otherwise secular country (Australia). Not only my immediate family, but every relation I knew and friend I had belonged to this cult. As a consequence, not only have lost everything, but I have nephews and nieces, brothers-in-law I'll never meet because I've been cast out and yes, there have been times when I asked myself if it was worth coming out. But I just couldn't bring myself to go through the empty ritual of belief any longer and in my late teens I realised I had two choices; accept the painful truth that my family are barking mad and move out, or be reconciled to becoming my parents - a blind, unthinking, guilt-ridden, fearful, ignorant slave to a toxic meme. I was charged with " breaking faith" by my angry parents and I responded with the same answer I gave in my original post that someone, sometime, decided to abandon their family faith to become a Christian thus establishing a precedent.