One of my brothers
called a few hours ago, looking for our mother.
Mama was asleep, so they never got to talk.
I haven’t seen or
heard from him in around 3 years.
My brother just
asked how I was doing and asked about my “spiritual life.”
I matter-of-factly
told him I don’t have a spiritual life since I’m an atheist, a gay atheist.
“Who influenced
you to be an atheist? I would like to
have a word with them,” my brother coolly said.
He’s one of my two born-again brothers.
“Nobody influenced
me. I just woke up one day not
believing.”
“Ah okay,” was his
reply.
My brother did not
broach the issue (because there is none).
We grew up in a
syncretic household: Buddhist from our Chinese side, Catholic from our Filipino
side.
As Christians, we
were raised Catholic. But I went to a
born-again school (grade and high school), so I became a fundamentalist for a
long time while carrying the Catholic label (I was never baptized in any other
church or faith). The university I
attended is Catholic. I had my medical
internship in an Adventist hospital.
I read atheist
stuff after the fact, i.e., I was already an atheist before I read anything
about it.
Religion or faith
may be an issue, but not in our household.
We live and let live. We give and
take points of views.
Syncretism is not
exactly an ideal setup. I guess we’ve
just grown old enough to understand or respect our differences, our humanity.
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