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Have you come out about your faith to your friends or family? If so, how did it go? Do you plan to come out or to keep it secret, if you have not yet come out about it?

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[-] schmorpel@slrpnk.net 7 points 2 days ago

Most people don't want to know about one's religion, in my experience. Just like I wouldn't really want to know about my friend's transition to Islam, Protestantism or Hinduism or literally any other religion. Mentioning it to people is awkward and doesn't help anyone. I have been more open about my spirituality recently but make a conscious effort to keep it toned down, depending on who I'm talking to. I'm not here to proselytize, I'm here to live my faith and that is mostly a very, very personal thing.

Then again, if anyone asks and is open to listen I'm happy to talk about spirituality.

[-] thatheathenguy@piefed.social 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

In my experience, I find that talking about it can actually lead to a lot of good conversations and friends. One of my close friends I met during a discussion of religion, and I have another great friend who is Pagan and we have been able to bond over that, though I do also understand the wish to keep it private and respect that preference 100%.

Edit to add: community was also extremely important in a lot of pagan traditions and being open about it can help one find others to practise with.

[-] schmorpel@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 day ago

Yes to that as well, but only in an environment where there is openness and curiosity for talking about religion. There's very few people in my life where this openness exists.

Maybe it's from me being a foreigner in a rural area of a traditionally catholic country, so I tend to be careful to not offend anyone. That said, I was spending time with neighbours the other day and to my surprise they were really fed up with the church and the priest and called it a silly show! But then it's likely that they'll be at the next procession as well, because that's the tradition. People have their fields blessed by the priest. Also, there's so much appropriated pagan stuff in these rituals that I get more and more indifferent about the name I call to the entities I worship - which then again makes any coming out pointless because I'm like a pansexual of religion, and how do you explain that to people?

I think I have my problems with giving 'fixed' names to spiritual entities, it's like pressing them into a word form that they cannot fit into.

[-] thatheathenguy@piefed.social 2 points 1 day ago

That is completely fair and understandable

[-] nocturne@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I came out as a Norse pagan at age 6. Was told that those gods were not real, I countered with then no god is real.

[-] thatheathenguy@piefed.social 1 points 1 day ago

How did you even learn about it at that age?

[-] nocturne@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 day ago

A library book.

[-] Semester3383@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

I came out to my parents as a Satanist, oh, about a decade ago? They're conservative Christians, and I was sick of them constantly proselytizing to me. They've finally mostly quit.

[-] thatheathenguy@piefed.social 2 points 1 day ago

Glad they've stopped proselytising. I'm curious to hear their reactions ๐Ÿ˜‚

[-] Semester3383@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

It was a long argument about symbolism, and why Satan was the symbol that was used. My mom in particular had a hard time wrapping her head around the idea that god was actually the asshole of the bible, and that Satan acted in a largely humanist way. She also had a hard time accepting that Satan was purely symbolic, because she sees an adversarial figure as real.

[-] thatheathenguy@piefed.social 1 points 1 day ago

It sounds difficult to explain to conservative Christians the fact that other interpretations and perspectives exist. I can only imagine what that argument and others similar must be like.

this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2026
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