Rejecting Religion

Twelve years of age,

raised in a family of non-belief,

I began to attend a catholic school.

My mind was bright,

books book-ended each classroom.

Eager to please

and enamoured with the prospect

of academic excellence,

I submitted myself

to a slow burning 

Indoctrination.

I will preface this piece

- please don’t take my skepticism

for disrespect, as I reflect

I ponder all the good

that was grown

out of a humble godliness.

Grade ten,

I joined the extracurricular

classroom of deep catholicism

as a pathway

to dedicate my youth to those around me.

We fulfilled God's will.

Soup kitchens,

youth groups,

fundraisers,

community.

We travelled to our Sister School

in the Solomons

to teach English

and paint classrooms.

There were no hallway whispers,

or loners on lunch break.

These people were unshadowed light

when life was lonesome and dark.

Kind, patient, and forgiving.

But, I was sharp

and questioned the bounds of kindness

at a school built on the backbone of a book

of moral paradox, mutilation,

and death.

I know a blind eye was turned

to kisses under staircases

between periods,

but the moment my two

female friends held hands at recess

they were in the Principal's office

come lunch.

I know modesty was a virtue

that kept our skirts two inches

above the knee,

But when the non-binary student in homeroom

wanted to wear pants,

they didn’t even have it as an option.

I know that in eleventh grade English

we analysed literary essays about transformation;

Paragraph one touched on werewolves,

paragraph two?

Transvestites.

I questioned the comparison of course,

but the piece was quote end quote

‘subjective’ and the author

had creative liberty.

I truly believe

we shouldn’t care for those around us

based on the mere belief

that a higher power with he/him pronouns

commands that it is right and just,

or godly and charitable.

We should do it because we are human.

We should do it because we love each other.

It is the only emotion

that unites passion

and pain.

It is the reason we grieve

until we reach the grave.

So, if we are to be commanded

by anything in this universe,

let it be our ability to love.

Love is patient, love is kind.

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking,

it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

it always protects, always trusts

always hopes, always perseveres.