Religion

Every once in a while I come across a blog that inspires me to write something. I was raised Catholic, attended a Catholic grade school = church 4 times a week and went every Sunday until I graduated high school. My mom never forced me to attend church, well maybe when I was really little. After 6th grade we changed churches and started going to breakfast every Sunday after mass, we went with an old man who absolutely adored me (not in that creepy wanna touch you way) because he didn't have any daughters of his own, so I loved going to church to get breakfast. After I graduated I felt like I needed a break, I go to church probably once every 2 months and everytime I go I feel especially close to God but I don't feel like I need to go to church every week to be close to God. I've also never felt the need to pressure anyone about religion. In HS there was a family of 6 girls whose father was a baptist minister, his brother was a catholic priest though. The girls were invited everyone to attend their church every Sunday, which was slightly annoying, but after several weeks of telling them "no thank, I attend the Catholic church but thank you anyways" they started to get hateful. I accepted that they had different beliefs but they never seemed to feel the same way. I remember once joking about going to pergatory for an extra long time for eating meat on a Friday during lent, the girl flat out told me that there was no such thing as pergatory, nothing like having your beliefs shot down during english class. I have strong beliefs in my faith but do not feel like in the United States anyone should be felt threatened because of anothers Religious views.