JE#7

This journal prompt speaks to what I have been thinking and writing about most throughout this quarter, and to what I have been struggling with for a few years. After moving away from my family and community for graduate school in 2010, I was able to spend two years reading and writing about religion and my own upbringing in the Church in a space where I felt safe exploring these issues. This journey led me to finally be able to claim my atheism. Sharing my epiphanies with my family, especially my parents, however, has been the most difficult step to take. My rejection of what my parents raised me to believe has created a border within my family, but fortunately it is a border that we are able to discuss openly. Even though these discussions can quickly escalate into arguments and hurt feelings, I am still grateful that they can take place.  My reasons for rejecting Christianity are many, but the contradiction between the mandate to love all and unconditionally and the condemnation of homosexuality was a significant one. My family’s religious beliefs had indeed created a border between myself and my bisexuality, and this is something that I am still working through today. Our Border Consciousness class has been an important catalyst that made me feel empowered to confront my repression and deep-seated fears about my sexuality with which I was indoctrinated through my youth, though I know I still have a long way to go.