Soooo. There's some backstory here for you.

I discovered that I was gay when I was 10. I'm 19 now. I came out at 17 to my entire family. I'm from the South so you would think OMFG the world's about to end. I was expecting to get kicked out of my house for this...but no. It went smoothly and all that.

So fastforward to now. I am a college sophomore and since beginning college, I've rediscovered religion, and rediscovered the reason I severed myself from it in the first place. I am now non-religious and I respect everyone's beliefs.

BACKFLASH: Sitting in my mother's living room, we somehow get on the subject of religious beliefs and she says something about Christianity. I don't know what it was, I can't remember. But I said, "I don't believe that."

She asks me "What do you believe in?"

I say, "I'm unsure of what it's called, but I know it's not your God and the bible."

She immediately looks me in the face and says, "Well you're going to hell then."

SO longer story short, I've cut my Mom out of my life for good because of that. My 24 year old sister got into it and said some not so nice things to me. One particular thing along the lines of, "No one in the family really cares about you, they just feel sorry for you."
(No one has a reason to feel sorry for me, I'm making a future for myself and I'm independent)
SO my sister is OUT of my life for good.

I still don't know how this will affect me and my brother, or me and my aunts and grandparents..

Has anyone else had splits within their families for reasons similar?

You cut off ties with your mom for only that? ._.
no offence, but have some understanding, most Christians from the South in my dealings are very much like that and have been brought up that way and don't know any different than to act that way, so gotta be a bit patient with them, and maybe one day they'll start actually trying to focus more on what's in the Bible and less on what the preacher says >.<

of course if there's more to it then your mentioning, like if she continued with stuff like that, and seeing with what your sister did, there probably was more stuff that happened that you haven't mentioned, in which case I understand 100%

I apologize as a Christian for your mom saying that, it's not something you should say to someone in that manner.
Sadly, a lot of people approach things like that in a very harsh way, and don't understand the more abstract things about it, or the real meaning of it all, and its very unfortunate that a lot of people lose faith because of that, or never really know what it's all about >.<

-huggles- I hope your family will come around.

I myself haven't had a total split from my family, just with issues with my mom's bipolarness has caused me to try and avoid contact with them (particularly her) as much as I can ._.

though lately she's been being good, so it's been a bit better ^.^

oh hey, out of curiosity, what do you believe in? o=

I've split from most of my family.

My dad never payed child support, and wasn't there for me in any significant way. He owes me well over 100,000$

Frankly my life is better than it would have been with him in it. He was a bad influence, and had nothing good to teach me, except how not to act.

And I agree with wingless. I'm Christian. Very Christian. I have no problem with gay people and support gay rights completely. To be honest, what most people(including supposed Christians) think of as Christianity is, well... off. They don't know anything about the bible, except what they hear from preachers, who again only know what they've been told, or told to read. They perpetuate a load of crap, which is not even close to Christ's original message.

No true Christian, will ever hate, judge, or condemn you. It's against what we believe.

I'm not trying to recruit you, I just wanted you to know. :)

Aw, sweetheart... you shouldn't cut off ties just for that. :hug: If your mother can embrace your sexuality but not your religion, just give it time. Breaking ties with family will only feed the fire.

I was raised Dutch Reform Christian - one of the most strict Methodist Christianities out there. An incident happened in freshman year which made me see the corruption which has come to the Christian church - not all of them, but enough that I was ashamed to call myself Christian. Pair that with the doubts I'd been having, and... well, let's just say I talked to my father, and we began to go to a Buddhist temple to learn and listen every Saturday.

When my grandparents found out, they were horrified. When my mother found out, she cried and cried. The whole rest of the family is worried for my father and I's souls... but we've refused to let religion come in the way of our being a family. We still spend Christmas together. We still have respect for our Christian relatives, and they still love us - though many of us DO think we've damned ourselves.

Religion is so personal that no person should be able to bully or pressure another - family or not - into saying they believe in something they don't.

Sometimes people change, sometimes they don't. I had cut my mother out of my life as well for the way that she treated me, but long story short, things have changed for the better. We now have a pretty nice relationship because of the growth she's done as a person. It took many years after my leaving home for this change to occur, though.

I think that it was a healthy choice to cut ties with your mother and sister. The way they have treated you/spoken to you, is uncalled for and unforgettable; that's not how family treats each other. I commend you for sticking out for yourself. It's possible that they may come around, but you can't stick around, letting them continue to hurt you in the long run. Your mother may really love you, but she's stuck in her beliefs out of fear for the unknown, so don't do it out of anger toward them - do it for the sake of your own happiness. I wish you good luck. It's tough.

Edit: Bottom line: Give them the benefit of the doubt that they may change, and lessons will come to them that will teach them to broaden their reality and understanding. But, don't let anyone hurt you. You're still discovering yourself and are in a vulnerable place. Your family is still growing up too, so let them do the same, and give your relationship with them some time.

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