Secret Life of a Buddhist

[XxMallyPrydexX]

Yeah, sooo.... My parents are these legitamate HARDCORE Christians. No dates, no driving, church three times a week, the whole freakin deal. Well I stopped believing in that stuff years ago. Mostly, because none of it makes any sense, half of it isn't explained, and the half that is doesn't seem right. God seems like one evil son of a *****. He has wayyy to high of an ego, and really? he created the human population for his own pleasure, to boss around like a bunch of slaves. So even if he is real, I would much rather spend eternity in hell chillin with the devil, who had the right idea all along.

For the longest time I have believed that if you do good, to the best of your knowledge, to every living creature and unto yourself, then you will reach a point of peace. Only later did I find out that many of my philosophical and religious ideas were based on an alreay existing religion.

So since then, I have converted to Buddhism. I am scared to death that somehow my parents are going to find out. They wouldn't be able to live with me anymore, they'd send me away for sure., and that's the last thing I want right now. I have my fiance, and I have every resource here I need to pursue my career with PETA, and I cannot risk being sent away. So all this time I have been attending church, winter retreats, mission trips, reading my bible, praying at dinner, everything, and it feels wrong. I don't know what to do...

So basically.... All I'm looking for from anyone who happens to be reading this is maybe some advice on what to do with my family, and some info from experienced Buddhists who may have other information for me as I am new to this whole deal

[Sythan]

As much as you don't like it, if you fear serious backlash, stick with it until you're able to move somewhere else.

[Gymnophoria]

I'm in a similar situation although my parents aren't quite as, shall we say, hardcore as yours. My parents are catholic and impose a strict "As long as you live under this roof, you will attend mass with us every Sunday" rule. I started questioning my belief in this at 15 and gave up on it entirely at 16. My parents know I don't believe in some aspects and we've talked about it. As far as they're concerned, I'm having a rebellious teenager phase and I'll get over it.
For the sake of keeping the peace, I'm just going along with what they want. Generally people who are *strictly* religious aren't going to listen to other people's opinions on the matter so speaking to your parents about how you feel would be, in my view, pretty pointless. Nevertheless, you are entitled to your own beliefs and it's not fair of them to expect you to go along with all this blindly.
It's really up to you how you deal with this, but as Nick said, hopefully you'll be able to move out soon anyway if you want to and then you won't have to deal with it anymore. If you don't think you can handle it that long, maybe you could talk to another family member or your local vicar/priest and see if they can help you talk to your parents about being a little bit more loose with you.

PM me if you ever want to talk about it.

[XxMallyPrydexX]

Thanks for the advice man
I think that during my next counseling appt. I'll talk to my counsler and see if there's anything she can do to help me out. Thanks again!

[Megan1]

Well I'm a Christian, so I'm not going to give you advice about how to become buddhist without your parents knowing. However, I wanted to tell you that your parents seem to be making up their own rules and just using God's name to do so. Nowhere in the bible does it say not to date and drive, and it doesn't say that you have to go to church a certain amount of times a week (it just says to have Christian fellowship and bible readings enough that your focus stays on God, however much that is for you). Your parents seem to be legalistic and adding their own rules to the bible.

I'm not telling you to rebel against your parents' rules, because they are still your parents and you need to do what they say....but I'm just telling you to remember that just because your parents push a strict rule on you, does not mean that rule is from God. Look in the bible for yourself and see what God has to say. He never said that we couldn't date and that women can't drive. Do you want to hear what God says in the bible? Here is what God says, and I can give you bible verses to back up any of this. God says: "I made you perfectly without sin and rules. I made you to love me AND be loved by me. It was going to be a perfect, happy, loving relationship. But love is a choice, so I had to give you a choice. I did this by telling Adam and Eve, the first two people ever, not to eat fruit from the tree. Doing this would be rebelling against Me and going against loving Me. I had to give them that choice, because if you force someone to love you, it isn't really love. They chose to go against Me. At that point, sin entered the world and everyone after them had sin. I still loved the human race and wanted to save them from their sins (which would send them to hell). So, I sent My Son Jesus who I love dearly. He came to Earth, took your sins upon Himself, and died on the cross to take the punishment for them Himself. The sins died with Him, but He didn't stay dead. I rose Him from the dead to defeat sin/death. Now, anyone who believes this, and turns from their sins to put their faith in Me instead will be saved once and for all. I know that everyone messes up and nobody is perfect. That's why Jesus took your sin for you. You can be saved once and for all."

That's what God says in the bible (not word for word, but all of those statements are true and have bible verses to back them up). What your parents seem to have not told you is that while yes you aren't perfect and mess up, that's why Jesus died for you....because He loves you anyways and wants to take the sin out of your soul so that you can spend foreverw with Him and go to Heaven! God isn't just "follow My rules or go to hell!". He's more like "Nobody has ever completely followed Me. You have all turned away at some point, so you all would go to hell....but I have a better plan if you'll allow me to take your sins".

Disclaimer for everyone else who reads this: I am simply trying to show the OP the difference between what her parents say and what the bible says. If you feel the need to try to debate with me or something, please at least do it in a private message so we don't take over her thread. Thanks.

[XxMallyPrydexX]

Thank you <3 I have no problem with Christians, I just don't agree with them... And perhaps that has something to do with my parents, but the problem is, they aren't the only ones. I feel like most Christians are just a bunch of hypocrites (no offense just haven't had good experiences with them). And believe me when I tell you I know all those verses almost word for word, and I'm just kind of sick of this whole Christian thing being forced into my head... when I think it's just a book a bunch of guys wrote that all had really good motives and needed something to back up their ideas... (and I'm speaking of the old testament here). I don't mean to offend you in any way.... I really appreciate you taking the time to help me

[Megan1]

You're welcome. And no, trust me, I completely understand that there are a bunch of hypocritical Christians out there. There's no denying that. But I think that probably goes for any religion, there are some hypocrites and some truthful followers. We just have to remember that just because a Christian does something, doesn't mean that our perspective of Christianity should be molded by that....because many people falsely represent Christianity. God is who the bible says He is, not always what the hypocritical Christians portray Him to be.

If you want some of the evidence to back up the bible's accuracy, please let me know. I don't want to keep rambling though....so send me a message if you want any of that.