My parents won’t let me date you unless you become a member of my church

moses mom

This is what several of my girlfriends said to me growing up. I was a religious minority in a small town with the majority religion that told its members that all non-members were evil people and they shouldn’t get involved with them.

Which was fair to say, because that is exactly what my parents told me about other religions and dating outside of the faith I was raised in. The problem is that there wasn’t great attendance at church, so my pickings were mighty slim.

moses mom
Moses mom

Not to worry though, well-meaning people talked to me about their faith on several occasions and allowed me to know more if I was inspired. One teacher asked if I could talk to her after school which I thought was unusual but agreed. She explained how she thought that I was unique and gave me a Bible of her faith and said that if I prayed to a certain angel my heart would be inspired to the truth. I thanked her for her concern and told her I would do that. I prayed but nothing happened, just like every other time I ever prayed.

I had a few women who were interested in me during my school years and normally they were that majority religion. When they found out I wasn’t their faith they continued to date me until their family told them to either convert or drop me. I didn’t want to convert because I didn’t believe in the faith I grew up in, much less something that sounded even more crazy. Why am I sharing this with you? I have said before that well-meaning people may ask you to change who you are, but you have to consider the source and if you feel that is the right decision for you.

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Now what makes this even more amusing is that several years later I fell in love with a woman on the internet, and was inspired to join her religion. I was impressed with how kind and generous they were with me as a stranger and I wanted to be part of a community. A few years later I left that church and haven’t wanted to mess with religion since.

I think that religion appeals to people more for the community than the doctrine. As much as I cared for those women, I couldn’t accept the baggage that came with their religion. It made women submissive, it perpetuated a conservative mindset and it was against everything I stood for. Nothing would have convinced me to switch to a religion that I felt was hurting people.

Religion is probably best avoided but it takes people time to see past the illusion of their comfortable routine.