Unconditional Love

I believe that parents should supply their kids with unconditional love, regardless of what may change about them that they can't help. Children go through changes throughout their lives, be it sexuality, religion, or general views on societal issues. This can cause anarchy within a household who firmly believes in something that the child no longer believes. It can cause the child to feel abandoned and unloved. We all look for encouragement to be ourselves and confirmation from those we love. We all want to feel accepted.

All my life, I was brought up to believe in Christianity. It was just a general idea that everyone, on both my mother’s and my father’s side, believed in. In middle school, however, I began to question whether or not I truly believed in it. For the next couple of years following this phase, I would continue to identify as a Christian, so that I would continue to be accepted by my friends and family.

At the beginning of my sophomore year, my mother invited me to go to a Christian women’s convention. I agreed so that I would have something to do that weekend. We packed our bags and set out for St. Louis, Missouri, our destination. Everything was going well; our hotel was fancy and our dinner was splendid.  The first meeting we would attend was that night, though.

Everything went well. My grandmother and my mother had a wonderful time, singing gospel and listening to the sermon like everyone else. I, for one, did not have as good of a time. During the sermons, I began to question my belief further and further, until I had finally come to a verdict. I slept well, knowing now who I truly am. I would have to wake up early to make it to the next meeting with my family.

My grandmother left early that morning to save our seats. When we all arrived about an hour afterwards, though, someone had piled our things onto one chair and had taken our seats. After a few minutes of arguing with the women, who were adamant about their claim over the seats, we moved to some seats further away from the stage. Needless to say, my mother and grandmother were unhappy, while I felt indifferent.

When we got back to the hotel room, all I could hear from them was discussion on how “un-Christian” those women were to have taken our seats. I took this time to confess my new discovery about myself: I am an atheist.

They reacted like any family in a stereotypical "coming out" story would react. They were unnecessarily rude and, after a lot of arguing, told me that I should not call myself an atheist. It was like I wasn't the same person I was a few seconds before. I don't want anyone to go through what I did. Parents should love their children unconditionally, especially over things that they can't change.