Echo #12 – Feb 18, 2012

Despite being raised to identify as United Church, I would be very hesitant to say I was raised with any religion at all. I was not baptized since my mother disagreed with that tradition. I was not taken to church; however my grandmother used to read from a children’s bible to put me to sleep at night. I always enjoyed the stories but can remember being as young as eight years old when I first became skeptical of religion and “God”. I now identify as secular. For me, the term “religion” conjures up images of the Judeo-Christian Church and its roots in tradition. It has been historically linked to many types of oppression related to gender, sexuality and race. The many negative connotations that I personally associate with such an institution makes it impossible for me to support organized religion and I feel that it is really unfortunate that both society and individuals take something and use it to create, or at least support, systems such as heterosexism, white supremacy, and misogyny to a point that these issues have become imbedded in our society.