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Claire Lander

Pre-AP English 9

Ms. Wolke

23 August 2018

Religion vs. Feelings

The world is constantly evolving, and our minds are learning to evolve along with it.

Opinions, laws, and beliefs of people are much different now than they were in the past. We still

have many traditional beliefs, but our perspective on people has changed drastically from the

past. Although, there are still many of people who believe in certain beliefs from the past, when

many have newer opinions on the beliefs.

My friend and I had been inseparable for the whole summer. We told each other

everything and hung out constantly. One night, her and I were texting and she had asked me who

I had liked. I hadn’t told many people because it was a very personal secret to me. However, I

trusted her enough to tell her my fathomless secret. I told her I had liked a girl. She then became

quiet and started acting quite strange. I asked her if anything was wrong because when I told her

she had responded with “I thought you liked boys”, and “Oh”. I told her I still had feelings for

boys, yet, I also did for this one girl. A couple minutes passed and then I received three large

texts from her, they were absolutely disheartening.

She had sent numerous discriminating phrases, and described how her religious beliefs

made her feel about my feelings. She said that she is very strong with her religion and that in her

beliefs man and woman should be the ones to love each other. She added that it was not intended

for me to feel this way by god. She said she would always love me but she would not feel as
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comfortable anymore. I highly appreciated her saying that, but that did not take anything away

from the fact that she would feel differently. What she had told me made me rethink about my

feelings and made me feel like an outsider. I had felt very unaccepted and I felt my god would

hate me. This also made me feel like a complete stranger to her because she would see me the

same as she did before. Her and I have the same religion and it was very saddening for me

because I had never seen my religion in that perspective. I never thought my religion would be

discriminating towards me and it was hard for me to comprehend this because I did not know

which perspective of the religion was correct.

I was very confused and I did not know which opinion was correct according to my

religion. I had thought about it and I came to the conclusion of what I was raised to believe, that

god loves everyone no matter their race, gender, sexuality, etcetera. Even though she had seen

god in that way, it did not mean that I had to. In my opinion, I would not like to worship a god

who would not love people for feeling a certain way toward the opposite gender or otherwise.

In conclusion of this experience, I have realized what matters is my opinion, and I will

change it if I feel like it is the right decision. I am now confident in the fact that I can choose to

stick to my beliefs and not give into anyone’s opinions. This experience made me a much

stronger person and had me take time to think about how I felt regarding my beliefs. I am very

glad to have had this happen to me because I can look back on my experience and remember

how I stayed strong if I ever go through a similar situation. I respected my friend’s opinion and I

chose not to get mad at her about it, though I have to say it was saddening to hear, but I could not

give into the sadness and let it turn into anger. In no way was she intending to discriminate me
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but I had personally felt discriminated. Her and I are still friends to this day, but it has not been

the same since.