{"id":1520,"date":"2012-02-12T13:29:50","date_gmt":"2012-02-12T17:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freethoughtblogs.com\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=85"},"modified":"2012-08-10T00:37:03","modified_gmt":"2012-08-10T04:37:03","slug":"sunday-mornings-guilt-and-reconceptualization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/02\/sunday-mornings-guilt-and-reconceptualization.html","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Mornings, Guilt, and Reconceptualization"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Growing up, I attended church each and every Sunday. It was just . . . what we did. Sunday mornings was for church. Period. My parents used a Bible verse to back up the importance of church attendance:<\/p>\n

Hebrews 10:25<\/p>\n

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, going to church was commanded by God. It wasn\u2019t optional. And if you didn\u2019t go to church, you would be displeasing God. And so, off to church I went, every Sunday without fail.<\/p>\n

(On a related note, Catholics actually teach that not attending mass is a Mortal sin<\/a> \u2013 as in, it is a sin you will go to hell for unless you repent and make things right with God.)<\/p>\n

When I stopped attending church, which like for many came a while after my faith departed, it took me a long time to get over the guilt I felt. I no longer believed in God, but staying home on a Sunday morning still felt wrong. It felt . . .\u00a0sacrilegious, which is weird because I no longer believed in the sacred anyway, but it still did. And I\u2019m sure I\u2019m not the only atheist with a religious background who has dealt with the \u201cSunday morning guilt.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another reason Sundays felt odd when I stopped attending church. Church served a social function for me. It meant seeing my friends and being around people. Honestly, being homeschooled, church was probably the highlight of my week. In fact, that was the place I regularly saw a large number of people gathered together in one place. I loved the hum of activity, the greetings from friends, the chatting and donuts and making plans to get together with friends. Friends usually came over after church to have lunch with us, or sometimes spend the afternoon. Sundays \u2013 and church \u2013 were sort of the social highlight of the week.<\/p>\n

Without church, Sundays changed entirely. The social function of Sunday mornings disappeared. Sundays were just . . . there. And that was strange. What were you even supposed to do<\/em> with a Sunday?<\/p>\n

I have heard it jokingly said that the best thing about being an atheist is that you can sleep in on Sunday. This doesn\u2019t really apply to me \u2013 I\u2019m a mom, that whole sleeping in thing thing doesn\u2019t work out so well anymore. Another thing I\u2019ve heard said is that for the atheist Sunday is just a second Saturday. I found out the problem with this line the first time I tried taking my daughter to the mall on a Sunday morning (it was winter and I needed to get her out of the house) \u2013 it was closed. In fact, basically everything is closed on Sunday mornings, including stores, museums, and libraries. So no, Sunday isn\u2019t just another Saturday \u2013 at least not until after noon.<\/p>\n

Reframing Sundays for myself has been a process. It\u2019s been about creating my own traditions and inventing new patterns. It\u2019s been about thinking outside of how I grew up to conceptualize something different. It\u2019s about consciously deciding what I<\/em> want from Sundays, and making that happen.<\/p>\n

Yesterday I realized how far I had come. I was out about town and heard a girl cajoling her mother: \u201cPlease mom, I don\u2019t want to go to Sunday school tomorrow. Please don\u2019t make me, I just want to stay home!\u201d My mind went \u201cwait, what?<\/em> Oh yeah,<\/em> people go to church<\/em> on Sundays!\u201d I think that means I\u2019m starting to get a handle on Sundays, starting to truly reclaim them and make them mine.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Growing up, I attended church each and every Sunday. It was just . . . what we did. Sunday mornings was for church. Period. My parents used a Bible verse to back up the importance of church attendance: Hebrews 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[103],"class_list":["post-1520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism","tag-guilt-2"],"yoast_head":"\nSunday Mornings, Guilt, and Reconceptualization<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Growing up, I attended church each and every Sunday. It was just . . . what we did. Sunday mornings was for church. Period. My parents used a Bible verse\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/02\/sunday-mornings-guilt-and-reconceptualization.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sunday Mornings, Guilt, and Reconceptualization\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Growing up, I attended church each and every Sunday. It was just . . . what we did. Sunday mornings was for church. Period. My parents used a Bible verse\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/02\/sunday-mornings-guilt-and-reconceptualization.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Love, Joy, Feminism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-02-12T17:29:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-08-10T04:37:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/02\/sunday-mornings-guilt-and-reconceptualization.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/02\/sunday-mornings-guilt-and-reconceptualization.html\",\"name\":\"Sunday Mornings, Guilt, and Reconceptualization\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-02-12T17:29:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-08-10T04:37:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\"},\"description\":\"Growing up, I attended church each and every Sunday. It was just . . . what we did. Sunday mornings was for church. Period. My parents used a Bible verse\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/02\/sunday-mornings-guilt-and-reconceptualization.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/02\/sunday-mornings-guilt-and-reconceptualization.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/02\/sunday-mornings-guilt-and-reconceptualization.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sunday Mornings, Guilt, and Reconceptualization\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/\",\"name\":\"Love, Joy, Feminism\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\",\"name\":\"Libby Anne\",\"description\":\"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. College turned her world upside down, and she is today an atheist, a feminist, and a progressive. She blogs about leaving religion, her experience with the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements, the detrimental effects of the \\\"purity culture,\\\" the contradictions of conservative politics, and the importance of feminism.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/author\/libby\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sunday Mornings, Guilt, and Reconceptualization","description":"Growing up, I attended church each and every Sunday. It was just . . . what we did. Sunday mornings was for church. Period. My parents used a Bible verse","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/02\/sunday-mornings-guilt-and-reconceptualization.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sunday Mornings, Guilt, and Reconceptualization","og_description":"Growing up, I attended church each and every Sunday. It was just . . . what we did. Sunday mornings was for church. Period. My parents used a Bible verse","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/02\/sunday-mornings-guilt-and-reconceptualization.html","og_site_name":"Love, Joy, Feminism","article_published_time":"2012-02-12T17:29:50+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-08-10T04:37:03+00:00","author":"Libby Anne","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Libby Anne","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/02\/sunday-mornings-guilt-and-reconceptualization.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/02\/sunday-mornings-guilt-and-reconceptualization.html","name":"Sunday Mornings, Guilt, and Reconceptualization","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-02-12T17:29:50+00:00","dateModified":"2012-08-10T04:37:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2"},"description":"Growing up, I attended church each and every Sunday. It was just . . . what we did. Sunday mornings was for church. Period. My parents used a Bible verse","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/02\/sunday-mornings-guilt-and-reconceptualization.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/02\/sunday-mornings-guilt-and-reconceptualization.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/02\/sunday-mornings-guilt-and-reconceptualization.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sunday Mornings, Guilt, and Reconceptualization"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/","name":"Love, Joy, Feminism","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2","name":"Libby Anne","description":"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. College turned her world upside down, and she is today an atheist, a feminist, and a progressive. She blogs about leaving religion, her experience with the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements, the detrimental effects of the \"purity culture,\" the contradictions of conservative politics, and the importance of feminism.","sameAs":["http:\/\/patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/author\/libby"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/845"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}