Dear Yostina:

I understand your concern about your parents’ distress, especially your mother’s, if and when you tell them.

There is another issue: what will your mother do once you tell her? She may chase you every day with her truth, she may (?) cry and go on and on to you, maybe beg you to go to church or see this or that clergy person. That will be a lot of distress to you.

I suppose children leaving religion is something her church leadership is aware of. Maybe they have instructions for parents, what to do in that case. Guidelines, a manual of sorts, a policy perhaps. Your mother may find emotional support and calm in those guidelines, in the church’s instructions and support.

There are support groups, I imagine, for adult children leaving their parents’ religions. People there may have valuable information to you, information from their own experiences.

anita