Hello!

[Brian]

Welcome to AF ! I hope read things about your deconversion except if you're a native Atheist.

My mom was raised a Lutheran with her 2 brothers and 2 sisters (they weren't all that religious growing up) but when I was born my mom converted to Catholicism and had me christened or baptized or whatever the hell it is (I'm very foggy as to why but whatever). The only times I had been in a church growing up was either when I was visiting Manhattan for the day and I stepped inside one of the old cathedrals for a few minutes (I've only done this about 3 times, and I've visited the city countless times and despite my dislike of religion I do love the architecture of older cathedrals), attending a funeral, or getting a fried chicken dinner from the local baptist church (it was damn good). I attended my great grandfathers funeral when I was very young and my aunt-by-marriage's mother's funeral when she passed. I told her a few weeks before the second funeral that kids talk about religion class and after the funeral I said I did not like the music (it was some lady playing hyms on a guitar) and she said I didn't have to go to religion classes if I didn't want to. My mother never spoke to me about god or religion unless I asked and even then she never liked talking about it much. I know she believes in some higher power but it has no part in her life what so ever.

My aunt is one of those reborn again whack job Christians, but she has had many health issues throughout her life and a few years back she got into a bad car accident and lost her short term memory so that may explain why. Anyway my cousins are also very religious but not to the extreme of her (still openly say religious things in letters or emails and my older cousin married a woman who's father is a pastor and he does missionary work in poor countries). I got into a fight with her about two months ago after my younger cousin wrote a status on Facebook about her talking to a kid about Jesus (in a public school mind you. However it's North Carolina so...) and I confronted her about it very nicely only saying that she should remove the status as she can lose her job. My aunt went on about how I'm a terrible person for being atheist and then edited bible verses to add how liberals and stuff are against god. Needless to say they are the only religious ones in my family but my aunt and I made up and they truly are nice people, although the religion aspect of it annoys me time to time. Also since my older cousin and his wife are expecting a baby boy I hope that he one day winds up being an atheist

So there's my story in a brief post.