u/noemurico

I come from a culture which heavily values ritual purity and I've always been against it. I posted in a different subreddit and everyone told me that the leper and the hemorrhaging woman were indeed impure.

Everyone says that ritual impurity doesn't mean someone is sinning. But then why is it treated as a sin? Back in the day, a leper or a hemorrhaging woman, who were already suffering due to reasons beyond their control, were deemed social outcasts, barred from praying at the temple, and faced heavy scrutiny. To put it simply, I can't worship a God that endorses innocent people suffering for reasons beyond their control. I was especially disheartened because I came looking for a reconciliation, for someone to prove me wrong, saying that no, Jesus did not endorse such archaic laws. But everyone simply supported ritual purity laws.

I have been miserable because this is a bridge I simply cannot cross. I cannot accept a God that endorses ritual purity laws that harm innocent people over conditions they have no control over.

I'm 17F. I come from an orthodox hindu family. I"ve been Christian for the last 5 months, so far no one is aware of my faith other than my sister (26F), she lives in a different state but is here to visit and is staying till the end of November.

In a nutshell, my family, including my sister is abusive. Both of my parents are alchoholics and very abusive. On top of severe psychological abuse, my parents routinely subject me to physical abuse as well. Throughout all the problems in my family, my parents and sister find a way to blame me for it. My mother never wanted to have me, and she has made that very evident throughout my childhood, very openly stating that she never wanted a 2nd child (me). My parents also don't get along together, their marriage is very toxic. My sister also endorses the abuse in a way, routinely finding justifications for my parents hitting me.

Ever since my sister got home, my mom has been sleeping in a spare bed in my room as she doesn't like sharing a room with my dad. There are 3 bedrooms in the house including mine, but my mother chooses to always sleep in my room despite my sister's room having sufficent space, and every single night I'm subjected to my mother's drunken insanity where she continually picks arguments without any logic or reason, ending every single night screaming at the top of her lungs. My sister never offers up her room either.

Because of the history of abuse. my emotions are very unstable, I frequently break down in tears without any trigger and if I'm not crying i spend my days shrouded in a fog of dread. For me, my room was a sanctuary, somewhere I could pray openly and be at peace. Now even my last place of peace has been taken from me.

Whenever there is an argument they swarm me just continuolly talking about how horrible I am and cuss at me.

I also have a hard time at school but none of those hard times have been met with any comfort. When I was 14 I got touched inappropriately at school, and when I came home and told my mom and sister they didn't even look bothered.

My whole family has led me to have a deep seated belief that I am truly the utterly horrible creature they describe me as, I can't even ask God for comfort because the only thought in my head is why God would comfort someone as horrible as me, I really wish he would free me of my pain now.

Repost to another community

I'm 17, born in a Hindu family. I'm very new to Christianity, I try to stay faithful to God in any way I can, but honestly that's quite hard to do without being able to determine which denomination you belong to. I'm torn between my heart and my mind. When it comes to theology and logic, my mind completely agrees with Catholicism. I have tried to argue against Catholicism, yet theologically it still is the most coherent position to me. Even after pressure testing my arguments for Catholicism, they still feel true and coherent. However, my heart seems to belong completely to Orthodoxy. I'm deeply enamored by the Orthodox approach to God, total surrender, theosis, hesychasm. I deeply admire Orthodox saints like St. Paisios and St. Iakovos. Especially St. Paisios, for me, he's the first man I think of when I picture humility and total surrender to God. My attraction to Orthodox isn't merely aesthetic or simply liking Orthodox saints, I genuinely feel like I experience God more closely in Orthodoxy, but my mind keeps tugging me towards Catholicism. I'm aware of Eastern Catholicism but it doesn't make sense to me how a church can be in perfect communion with Rome while not sharing many core practises.

I'm 17, born into a Hindu family. I'm very new to Christianity but in the little time I've known the religion I've tried to study as much as I can. I'm deeply enamored by Orthodoxy. I look at the life of Orthodox monks and the whole way Orthodoxy approaches having a relationship with Christ, and it all leaves me awestruck because it feels like exactly where I want to be. I deeply admire saints like Saint Paisios and Saint Nektarios or Saint Iakovos. Especially Saint Paisios, to me, in a way, he is the first man I think of when I think of humility and absolute surrender to Christ. I admire him so much. I want to be just like him. And especially Eastern monasticism, I feel like it really emphasizes absolute and total surrender to Christ, which is something I deeply admire. But then comes my intellect, and essentially, from what I've been told, I'm supposed to choose the denomination that feels true. But when I look at the Gospels, specifically Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7, and their allusions to Isaiah 22, about Shebna and Eliakim, Eliakim replacing Shebna, and the whole continuation of the office of the palace steward, the Papacy makes sense to me. But at the same time, I absolutely despise everything about the Papacy. Even though Catholicism emphasizes that the Pope's infallibility lies in a very small margin, that is, only when he is speaking Ex Cathedra. Even then, the concept of the papacy feels slightly odd to me, because even if the Pope is only infallible when it comes to doctrinal issues, we still have to agree with him on prudential decisions. Like the whole thing with Latin Mass, which, after the Vatican II council, led to quite a big insurgency of traditionalist Catholic movements that perform Latin rites without permission from the Pope, and by doing that, they are in an automatic position of excommunication. Essentially, the Pope's authority feels almost despotic to me. In fact, not too long ago, I wrote a whole 52-page document against Catholicism. Yet I keep being pulled back by Matthew 16:19, and the whole belief that Jesus truly intended the papacy. I'm extremely lost. I need help.

I'm 17. I was born Hindu, my family is Hindu. I'm only a month into practicing Catholicism. I know many people will disregard a month as nothing but I still feel somewhat certain so far.

Spiritual distance is genuinely unbearable for me though. I still pray, I still try to live in God's vision. I know spiritual distance is not an excuse for not praying, and I don't treat it as such. But my life genuinely feels miserable when I feel distant from God. I don't know how to describe it. I know he's real, I don't doubt that he exists, but he feels so far. It's like someone sucked the colors out of my life. I've tried reading about saints who went through similar spells of dryness, like St. John of the Cross, but nothing seems to be helping. Whenever I'm hit by a spell of dryness I feel like I'll never get the feeling of closeness back. I know God is not a vending machine of feelings, I don't think God abandoned me or anything, the distance simply hurts.

I wasn't born into Christianity and it's only been a month since I've started learning and practising this faith. It's very early to say but I feel somewhat certain. I just checked my mirror and there was a Star of David with a dot in the middle? Like this 🔯. It was properly drawn on and I'm certain I didn't draw it, not even by mistake. I was so freaked out that I wiped it before I could get a picture. My family is not Jewish and has no ties to the religion. I'm really freaked out, what do I do?

Edit: I'm not sleep deprived, I'm not on medication, I haven't been diagnosed with any medical conditions, I don't drink or do drugs, my house doesn't have mold, my room gets proper ventilation. I'm not claiming that it's anything supernatural, but the timing simply feels odd, especially because nothing like this has happened before.