A little less religious discomfort

I wrote a few months ago about some religious discomfort I was having. Namely, I’m Buddhist and my mom is Christian; I’ve been taking her to church on Sunday, because I know it means a lot to her. She’s disabled and wouldn’t be able to go without me taking her, and she likes me to sit with her anyway. Being Buddhist, I felt a bit out of place in a Christian church. I also was having some issues with me perhaps giving the impression that I was Christian, when in fact I’m not.

Some of that religious pressure, so to speak, has been lifted. Apparently at one of my mom’s church group meetings, she told the two pastors that I’m Buddhist and that I was coming solely to bring her and sit with her. She told them about me being uncomfortable in general, and that I probably wasn’t too keen on things like communion and Christian youth groups. Since then the pastors seem to have backed off a little on the invitations to extracurricular things. They also offer to take my mom to the front of the sanctuary when communion is being given so I’m not put on the spot. (Before when I’d taken her up in her wheelchair, the communion givers assumed I wanted to take it as well, so I obliged; awkward, indeed! Furthermore, bread dipped in grape juice tastes quite horrible!)

As an aside, my mom was baptized this morning. While it doesn’t mean much to me religiously, for clear reasons, I’m happy for her anyway.
* A note about Christianity: I’d just like to make it clear that I’m not Christian-bashing here. There’s nothing wrong with the religion, and I know plenty of people who are Christians whom I considered good friends. The religion just isn’t my cup of tea. No hard feelings!