Background:
The Jewish Guy – my boyfriend
The Christian Floater - me (raised in a Holiness and Baptist Church and also attended Catholic School)
The story:
(preface:I really don't like to get into religion and beliefs too much - I just believe people believe what they believe and it's your right to believe in whatever you believe in - so this will be brief. sort of)
It is my personal belief that religion plays or can play a factor in most relationships and a couples future. As my boyfriend and I are from different backgrounds, I believe it’s important that we find some sort of common ground – religion wise. I believe it will help our growth as a couple/family (sorry if I loose you here).
With that being said my boyfriend and I had discussed religion in our early stage of dating but not to a full extent until recently. So in a recent conversation, I again made it known that I would like to learn more about his religion and attend a service together whether it be a blue, red, or green church (I think you get my point). He agreed and off I went church shopping searching - It almost felt like I was shopping for a new home (ironic in some ways). In my search I came across two churches that looked interesting, both Unitarian (which he suggested). He checked them both out online. And so we headed to one of the churches last Sunday.
The service was nice and the people were friendly – we both enjoyed ourselves. We conversed with some of the members of the church afterwards. On the way out of the church we stopped to speak to the pastor as he was standing by the door greeting the congregation.
The pastor introduced himself, we each introduced ourselves.
The pastor then proceeds to ask where or what area we are from – I tell him where I am from.
He then tells me of his location/ neighborhood - of which I am very familiar with.
He then turns to me and says: “I live in the XYZ neighborhood, in a tiny apartment in the basement of a large house that was split up into units.”
[crickets, crickets]
I then attempted to look towards my boyfriend to see if he overheard this.
[crickets, crickets]
Thankfully a church member scooped in and spoke saved me from the awkwardness…
I quickly said, “Okay, have a good afternoon and slipped past the pastor out of the church”
[oh the thoughts that were going through my head at this moment - it was like the music stopped]
Nevertheless, I’ll probably attend services at this church next Sunday or go to the second church I found and then back to the pastor’s basement apartment this church…awkwardly.
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What experiences if any awkward or not have you had when visiting houses of worship, a church, synagogue, etc.?
