Are Families Defined By Faith?
- S.B. Lee
- Jul 21, 2016
- 2 min read
As far as I know, there are only three types of families in the world. There is the small and quaint family that struggles to keep in touch, the large and outlandish family that no one really talks about unless they are aiming to make their friends laugh, and then there are families like mine--the ones that are connected largely by faith more so than blood. A large part of my family holds all of their faith in Christianity, and have done so for several centuries, according to the elders in my family. Almost half of my cousins are preachers, bishops, deacons or missionaries in the Baptist or Church of God In Christ denominations. I was never very good at telling the difference between the two but I assumed both were trying to get people to "come to Jesus", which was fine by me. The only part I could not understand was why my family never spoke about any religions besides the one that they practiced. What if there were family members that did not have the same beliefs? But to my family, the elders more specifically, no one was planning on finding out. This would turn out to be quite ironic, because my mother told me about those related to us that did not claim Christianity as their faith.
This is not the part where I slam other peoples` religious beliefs and get cocky with my own personal thoughts, I understand that not everyone has love for The Big Guy In The Sky. The point of telling you all this is that my family never treated the "non-believing" family members any different or with any less amount of love. No one was banished for all of eternity to never return or shunned every time they come to a family social gathering. I know of several families that have not been nearly as forgiving and cut ties with loved ones even if it was just a rumor. Any family member that is willing to shove you away simply because of something you said or believe, must not love you as much as they claim they did. Now I am not saying that you have to go tell off your family, but I do encourage young women to speak out with their families about religion and what it means to themselves. Almost every religion in the world is based around the family and how families interact with the rest of the world. Each entity is equally important and cannot be weighed against the other, or else you end up living an unfulfilled life. Some families can be mean and judgmental, but you have to stand strong on your ground and assertive, calm and honest when making your point clear. Remember that people are often most aggressive towards the things that they don`t understand and that friends may come and go, but your family is forever.
Here are the big questions on this topic:
Do you think a religious belief is worth more than your family?
Do you think that families can be more prejudiced than society?
Do you have family members with different religious beliefs than you? How do you treat them?
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