# @michigandaily on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DWrOqD9jc3D
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/62945180-michigandaily-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/42055b4a84.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-04-03T16:00:47.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** The Michigan Daily (@michigandaily) — https://gondola.cc/michigandaily

## Caption

#Statement: I didn’t grow up with a religion. 
Some people find this absolutely enviable. I understand the temptation — it can be incredibly difficult to love someone as much as you love your family and yet tear yourself away from a belief system that they uphold and you do not. If you’ve had to do that and your family (or place of worship) has made it difficult for you, I am truly sorry.
In a way, though, I’ve often felt like I’m doing exactly that when I seek faith. When I’ve expressed interest in religion in the past, it’s felt like a possible slight to my family. Do they think that I think they’re all going to hell? I don’t, for the record, but it’s a plausible assumption. I don’t want to completely air out my family’s dirty laundry, but my family has a pockmarked history with religion on both sides. Between my grandparents and great-grandparents, someone in my family has had just about every possible religious experience: leaving your home country to flee religious persecution, leaving a family to join a cult, disowning a child born out of wedlock to maintain your religious views. Those generations were Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Israelite. By the time my parents were adults, they were pretty burned out on the whole religion idea. I don’t blame them, either. I can’t believe in an all-powerful God who would allow such pain to exist in the world … but I still feel the pull toward something bigger than myself. I still yearn for religious community.

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✍️: Anna Whitney
🎨: Matthew Prock

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