Do you ever feel "in the closet" about your atheism/agnostic views?

[merbex]

61. Interesting question and it touched a chord within me~ brought back memories

Being from MA and raised Catholic the true test for me was what was the response of my contemporaries to the priest pedophile coverup; I actually went to school with some of the boys who were molested.

My response was to stop going and giving to a corrupt system.

When my husband and I stopped going to Mass and when we refused to allow our children to attend CCD ( they went to public school) I actually was confronted by a woman whose husband grew up with me( she was from a neighboring community). She directly asked me why she never saw my daughter in the local CCD program or was it because we were going to a different parish?

It NEVER entered her head that our family had rejected Catholicism itself because of the priest pedophile coverup, which, BELIEVE ME, had occurred at our former parish.

After my amazement at her nerve in asking the question I told her directly that we had left the church, that I could not in all good conscience attend the church or participate in a system where such things had happened to my/our classmates - reminding her that her husband grew up in the same environment.

She never spoke to me again; she would turn away - I believe it is called giving one the cut direct - at all school functions.

The same thing goes for my husband's family: they kept going and actually implied not so subtly that WE were at fault for not bringing our children up Catholic.

Now that my children are grown I actually think we gave them a gift of letting them decide for themselves if they want religion in their lives.

It is very freeing to become spiritual rather than 'religious' I have found.