Thanks everyone for your replies.
Frodo, as the child of a non-practicing Catholic and an atheist, I've never belonged to any specific denomination, although the religious group I've been involved with in the past two years is from an Episcopalian church.
Kyu, thanks for the welcome.
Darwinian, wow what a powerful read. Thanks for the link; reading all that actually helped to put a lot of things I'm feeling into perspective, primarily that religious people claim to be your "friends" when they merely view it as their Christian "duty" to lead you to God. I've actually had a Christian "friend" tell me outright that they see it as their "duty to help" me find God. This was pretty devastating because it made me realize that everyone I've regarded as friends thus far have likewise only communicated with me because they view it as their Christian duty to help me build a healthy relationship with God; even my best friend, when they cut ties with me, said simply "I don't want you to feel like you're not welcome at bible study", which pretty much said to me: I don't view you as worthwhile enough to communicate or meet up with anymore, but I see it as my duty to keep you with the rest of the "flock" so to speak...
Frodo, as the child of a non-practicing Catholic and an atheist, I've never belonged to any specific denomination, although the religious group I've been involved with in the past two years is from an Episcopalian church.
Kyu, thanks for the welcome.
Darwinian, wow what a powerful read. Thanks for the link; reading all that actually helped to put a lot of things I'm feeling into perspective, primarily that religious people claim to be your "friends" when they merely view it as their Christian "duty" to lead you to God. I've actually had a Christian "friend" tell me outright that they see it as their "duty to help" me find God. This was pretty devastating because it made me realize that everyone I've regarded as friends thus far have likewise only communicated with me because they view it as their Christian duty to help me build a healthy relationship with God; even my best friend, when they cut ties with me, said simply "I don't want you to feel like you're not welcome at bible study", which pretty much said to me: I don't view you as worthwhile enough to communicate or meet up with anymore, but I see it as my duty to keep you with the rest of the "flock" so to speak...
