Assignment #4- Caroline Blitch- Sunday Mornings

For the most part, my beliefs closely align with my parents.’ However, a clear divergence emerged when I was in eighth grade and my parents signed me up for confirmation classes. 

When I was younger, my mom would drag my siblings and I to church every Sunday. We would whisper and make each other laugh as discreetly as we could in rebellion. Although my parents took me to church growing up, nothing was ever drilled into my brain. I found comfort in the idea that there was a nice man in the sky named God looking out for me but I honestly didn’t think much about religion. I was more interested in going home and playing outside with my brothers and my friends than listen anyways. 

Because the church I attended, as well as my parents, never strictly imposed religion on me, I never identified as Christian, or religious for that matter. Over the years, my family and I attended church less and less frequently, as my mother became tired of forcing us all out of bed each Sunday. I thought nothing of it. That is until my mom informed me I would be going to a weekly confirmation class that started at 9:00a.m. As I’m sure you can imagine, I was not happy. I thought church was out of the picture for me. But I “had to go because my older brother had to suffer through it, so I did too.”

The first class I attended was drastically different than any church service or Bible class I had ever attended. Thoughts and beliefs were shoved down our throats as fact without any consideration or questioning. The adults no longer danced around the beliefs that they were imposing on us. I began to see God and Christianity as a Santa for adults - a false reality to persuade people to be good. As soon as I got home from the first class, I told my mom I wasn’t going back. But there I was the next week, writing bullshit in my “prayer journal.” This continued for weeks until my mother finally told me I could quit going if I gave her a valid reason. And that is when I said “I don’t believe in God.” The next Sunday at 9:00a.m., I was sound asleep in bed.