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Inlaws

My wife is a Christian, albeit a liberal one, and we get along fine. The problem is her family. They are all Southern Baptist fundamentalists (YEC's, biblical inerrantists, etc.) and my wife's mom has told my wife that it makes her cry (often) to know that I'm not going to be in heaven with the rest of the family. I love my mother-in-law, but there's nothing I can do to make her feel better. I don't get in her face, but I have a feeling that other family members are telling her about my secularist activism. Things are made worse by the fact that my wife has stopped going to church, and her family is starting to doubt her salvation, even though the SBC believes in permanence of salvation. I'm not sure what is going on there. Plus, my wife is talking about converting to Catholicism. Talk about a mess.

Not any real question here. Just wanted to get it off my chest.

Tags: inlaws, mother-in-law

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Justin Bonaparte on March 21, 2011 at 9:52am

Wow, I feel for ya. Best of luck, hope everything works out.

Permalink Reply by The Big Blue Frog on March 22, 2011 at 12:45pm

Yeah, I have no doubt that everything will work out. My wife and I love each other dearly. We've been married for over 15 years, and when I met her she'd already left the SBChurch and was going to a Presbyterian church. She's always gone her own way. I told her I was an atheist on our second date, and her family all know that I'm an atheist. This situation is nothing new, it just came out recently that it's causing her mom a lot of grief.

Permalink Reply by Prog Rock Girl on April 30, 2011 at 11:50am

It's about the same for me. My husband is a liberal Catholic who believes general happy things like God answers prayers and protects him. I have no problem with that. Good thing my in-laws are across the planet. I like them but they are very religious. My story is I'm Jewish and they seem to think that is OK although they still like me to be in their prayer sessions (also in another language!) and pick out verses from the bible. My husband said if my mother-in-law ever found out I'm atheist she would chase me around the house reading bible verses.

Permalink Reply by sham on May 5, 2011 at 1:46pm

Sorry to hear about your struggles and I do understand the need for venting. I'm often angry because of religion all together and don't know if I would have the strength to hang in there with a devout theist. Be encouraged and vent when you need to. We are here to listen and build one another up.

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