Reply To: advice for dealing w/ christian dad as an athiest

Go to choir only if you want to go. It doesn’t sound like you do.

It sounds like your mom would be a great support for you in this. Is there any chance you can enlist her in talking to your dad for you? Share with her what you’ve shared here – about the panic attacks, feeling out of place in church because you don’t believe, not wanting to go to choir – and ask her to ask him to lay off you?

You could also talk to him sometime when he’s in a good mood and say you know he wants to share his faith with you because he loves you, but right now you don’t believe and don’t want to be pressured to attend church or go to choir. Say something like if you ever start questioning, you know you can come to him for guidance.

What’s going on with this overwhelming friendship? That sounds like a bigger problem.