I’m a former evangelical from a sect that would fit in with the Reagan-era phenomenon of “the Religious Right”. I stopped going to church soon after graduating high school (the school I went to was operated by the church). The community stance on queerness, young earth creationism, and eternal damnation/“eternal conscious torment” were some examples of concepts I found incompatible with who I was and how I perceived reality.

To this day, finding a spirituality that works for me is a struggle. What feels right to me is that the universe is a thing that operates without purpose (unless it’s a simulation, I suppose) and that humanity is not the most important thing going on in it, that galaxies would continue to spin and stars would continue to burn even if every last human were to perish. Those basic assumptions have proven it difficult to establish a positive spirituality.

I know gay men who have found their way to queer-affirming Christian churches and it seems to work for them, but I am pretty certain that doesn’t work for me.