Experiencing unconditional love can break the grip of conditional religious belonging

Evidence

A key moment for me was a conversation with my sister. I asked her, “Does it actually bother you that I’m in Jehovah’s Witnesses? Do you love me less because I’m a Witness?” And she answered, “No, I completely don’t care. I will always love you, you will always be my little sister, and it doesn’t matter what religion.” That’s when I realized that there is unconditional love. It wasn’t like that with the Witnesses. With the Witnesses, my whole value was dependent on being in the community, on doing what they wanted me to do. That was an important realization. My sister and me did cool things together like shopping and going to a coffee shop, which you don’t do in the Witnesses. I was able to talk to her about boys and learn about a different life. (Lisa L.) — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 373

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the family-debate theme of rejecting the reader’s worldview; parallels the sisterly solidarity dynamic in The Namesake’s immigrant-family tensions.