Atheist: It's Not a Bad Word

    I know I said I would post about becoming godparents, so here we go. Chris and I aren’t what you would call “god-fearing” people. We don’t attend church and don’t believe in god or any religion. We’re atheists. Now, so many people hear the word ‘atheist’ and just cringe. It’s not a bad word, and it’s certainly not a bad thing to be.

 

  Chris and I were raised much differently when it comes to religion. My mother raised my brother, sister, and I to believe in whatever we felt was right for us. We were all baptized non-denominational, because she wanted us to make our own decision when it came to religion. My father, being a Catholic, didn’t like that too much, but I’m so happy my mother is open-minded enough to stand her ground and do that for us. So, never having really attended church, I didn’t really think about a god very often, and came to my own conclusion early in high school that I was definitely an atheist. This was after attending a church service with a friend and her family one mother’s day, and feeling awfully uncomfortable. I just sat there wanting to scream, “Give me some proof, and I won’t argue anymore!!” It frustrated me more than anything that all of these people were sitting in that church buying all of this stuff that didn’t sound even remotely sane to me. Chris, on the other hand, was raised in church. He would attend many different Christian churches and even attend church camp. He loved it when he was small, but he began to question it all at around the age of thirteen. He realized that a lot of what he had been blindly following didn’t make sense to him. That was his start to becoming an atheist.

   

    Then comes this year, when Chris younger sister approached me about becoming her daughter’s (our niece) godparents. I was struck with fear right away. How could I say no to my beautiful and perfect niece, but I feel so strongly in my stance against religion. What do I do? I had no clue what to say to her, so I said I would talk to Chris about it before we make a decision.

    He didn’t even think twice about it. He immediately said “Yes, I would do anything for that little girl…Anything.” This obviously made me feel like a crappy aunt because I didn’t respond the same way. I went ahead and agreed though. I really would do most anything for my niece, even make myself extremely uncomfortable.

    You’re probably wondering by now if Chris’s sister knew how we felt about religion. She did, one hundred percent. She says that’s the reason she chose us. She wants her daughter to have role models with all different opinions, and she wants us to teach her that there are options outside of religion as well as the many within. This reason is a huge part of why I agreed to go through with it.

    So, I would do anything for that gorgeous little girl, but let’s makes this situation a bit more uncomfortable for me now. The day of the baptism, Chris can’t get off work. Now, I’m in an unknown Lutheran church, full of people I’ve never met, and I think it’s safe to say I’m the only atheist in the place. Then I have to stand up there in front of everyone and repeat words back to the pastor that I completely disagree with. I was terrified to say the least, absolutely terrified. I’m normally an anxious person, but put me in front of a church full of people and make me say things I don’t believe, and I will shake like a leaf. Five minutes up there felt like five hours. But I did it, and I did it for my niece, no one else. I just hope that now that Chris and I are “godparents” or as I like to say “godlessparents,” that we can show our precious Olivia all of her options in life, religious or otherwise, as well as help mold her into a good person. After all, that’s all we really want for our children, nieces, nephews, etc., to grow into good and happy people. Whether that means they are religious or not is completely up to them. I want her to learn from me that you don’t HAVE to be religious or go to church in order to be a good person.

    I hope that this post has enlightened some of you, although the way I rambled, you may just finish and say….”What?!?”  I want more people to understand though what it’s like outside of religion; that it’s not a place full of hate at all. There’s so much love, I don’t need Jesus or The Bible to have and share that love.

xo

Mrs. Huyck