Quote:
|
Originally Posted by rosiegirl
I have a Christian family, at least on my mother's side. My mom is Christian, but also believes in spiritual, hippie stuff. I don't know what to call it. My aunts are very open-minded with different beliefs, but my grandparents are conservative southern Baptists. Growing up, I went to church, was taught bible verses, I was a part of the church's GA (girls in action) program, which was basically like church girl scouts, and went to vacation bible school. Also at this time, I was learning about astrology and psychic stuff. It felt right and my parents facilitated it. At that age, though, I wasn't aware that many Christians condemned those beliefs.
This brings us to about 10 years later, where I am now. When I was almost 18 and starting college, I moved from North Carolina to Georgia, in the bible belt. I live in a pretty open-minded city, but it's still been hard to figure out my spirituality when I'm still surrounded by churches and bible verses everywhere I go. Ever since starting college, I've been exploring my spirituality more and more, which is great at helping me find substance in it. However, I feel like I'm being alienated from the people around me. I'm starting to not take parts of Christianity seriously and the cynical part of my mind keeps on shooting aspects of it as false or silly and pushing it away. It's not a great feeling inside. I'm becoming one of those "spiritual, but not religious" people, and I'm having a hard time with it. I hope I've explained my conflict well enough. Does anyone have advice on finding peace between the religion that I grew up with and my family still practices, the religious nods that I see out and about, and my inner spirituality? Has anyone else gone through a similar experience?
|
Hey
I have gone through something that's similarish, I suppose. I was a Charismatic Christian, but then my spirituality turned more vague, more individualistic sort, relying on personal experience rather than external authorities. I rejected the authority of the Bible, and stuff like that. My best guess would now be that any religion is just a language for spirituality. It's not truth in itself, but it can be useful.
As a result, I've been for years in what I call "religious identity crisis". The people I usually get along the best with, are still Christians (certain, open-minded type of Christians, that is), but I have been very conflicted as should I identify as a Christian myself or not for years.
It has become apparent to me that when I go through inner changes, that will have an impact on my social life and identity too. I no longer feel like I belong with the people I used to associate with etc. Sometimes, that can lead to conflicting feelings.