My family (on my Dad's side, and my stepmother's side) is entirely made up of evangelical Christians. I would have considered myself among them until maybe a year and half ago. You see, I am very liberal. I am pro-gay marriage. I'm a staunch evolutionist, and I think creationism has no place in a school science course. I have numerous theological disagreements with them (specifically whether or not everyone who is not a Christian is going to or deserves to go to hell). I drink. I also have a mouth like a sailor at times. I am also fairly more widely traveled, open minded, free-spirited, and probably more intelligent than most of them (I'm not bragging, it's just probably true). Many of these are qualities and beliefs that evangelicals hate. I am going home for Christmas. I will be visiting pretty much all of them. I will have to go to church, and deal with a bunch of people who would think I'm evil and going to hell if I were to tell them my true beliefs. I can't keep living a life of lies. I want people to know what I think, without being made to feel ashamed by people with whom I grew up with and would normally be on good terms. I don't want to be afraid of my family disowning me, or telling me that Satan has my soul, or some like-minded bullshit. I don't want people looking down on me because I had the bravery, open-mindedness, and intelligence to question the religion and beliefs that I had been raised with from the cradle. I know there are many people among them who would quite possibly hate my guts for doing this. It's driving me mad. I try to show respect for other people whether they are Christian, Muslim, Atheist, gay, a pothead, etc... even though I could very well disagree with all of their beliefs. Everyone in my opinion should be treated as person from whom you can learn something, no matter who they are, even if they disagree with you. People in my opinion should not be discriminated against, nor told they are going to hell because they are homosexual, evolutionist, or an atheist or of another religion. One of the problems is that these people DO NOT question there own faith much, if at all, and they sometimes go absolutely wild if others bring up valid questions. I'm afraid to go home, and have to go to church, visit my very religious relatives, and have people ask me, "Oh how is your walk with God going?" or saying "How about those gays who want to get married? Disgusting, huh?" I don't want to lie, but I'm afraid to tell them that I don't agree with their beliefs, and that I am bucking the religion that they brought me up with. They will criticize me, disown me, never see or treat me the same again, or hate my guts just because I don't think homosexuals are evil, or that evolution is the work of the devil, etc... What do I do?
Religion/Family Problems
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