Hi I am 20F and I have been in a spiritual/religious journey since my early teens. My Mom was extremely Christian but I attended many different churches which was confusing. (Protestant, Methodism & Pentecostal). I’ve never enjoyed or had morals that aligned with anything inside of Christianity. I have always had a belief that in there own way everything was accurate and I had more of a spiritual connection to beliefs. I just recently found this belief in UU and it so strongly resonates with me as I research but my issue is I’m very afraid of my family’s backlash and my fear to be able to be my authentic self.

I live in the Midwest and all my family is Extremist when it comes to religion and politics. They have always treated and acknowledged people differently in many ways I don’t agree with, I even have close friends that I have began drifting from due to this recent election in the way they think and speak about others. I want to be able to be my authentic self and talk about my own beliefs but am very afraid to have backlash and possibly shunned by my family. When I turned 18 I moved out so I am living on my own and being an adult is hard enough. I am afraid of loosing my support system as their beliefs are strongly routed but I don’t know how much longer I can hear disgusting things about others and have this atmosphere around me it feels awful.

I guess I don’t really know how to accept that fact or move forward in being my authentic self and holding strong in my beliefs. The only support I have is my boyfriend and his family feels the same as me but my partner is not close to his family in the way I am. I have only dropped hints of my feelings here and there and it is usually dismissed but I know if I came out as not being a Christian and that my views on religions, immigrant, LGBTQ issues and etc would be a complete and total shock to my family because it is the exact opposite in how they feel.