Leaving a strict religious environment often brings up a tough question: if you stop following the beliefs you grew up with, does that mean you have to give up your faith too?
For some people, the answer is no.
Religious belonging and personal faith often go hand in hand, especially when you’re young, but they aren’t always the same. As people grow up, they might start to question teachings, rules, or the ways religion shapes their daily lives. Asking these questions can change someone’s relationship with religion, but it doesn’t always mean they stop believing in God or spirituality.
This difference is clear in Amanda May Philp’s Love Child. In her story, faith remains, even as she struggles with the religious rules that shaped her childhood.
When Religion Shapes More Than Sunday Worship
Growing up in a strict religious setting can affect nearly every part of a child’s life.
Amanda shares what it was like to grow up as a Jehovah’s Witness, in which religious expectations shaped her school life, friendships, celebrations, personal choices, and family life. She remembers standing outside the classroom during the national anthem, missing out on celebrations, going to regular Bible study, spending time sharing her faith, and later feeling more and more pressure to get baptized.
For a child, these practices often feel like part of who they are. Religion can shape where you fit in, who your community is, and what people expect from you.
That’s why questioning religion later on can feel so unsettling. You’re not just rethinking beliefs—you’re also rethinking the world that taught you who you were supposed to be.
Questioning Beliefs Is Not Always the Same as Losing Faith
Some people think that if you question religious teachings, you’re turning your back on everything spiritual.
But real life is usually more complicated than that.
Someone might not agree with the rules of their religious group but still believe in God. Another person might leave their congregation but keep praying. Others might question ideas they learned as kids, yet hold on to the values or spiritual beliefs that still matter to them.
Amanda’s story shows how complicated this can be. In Love Child, she shares her frustration with organized religion and the pressure she felt, but she still uses spiritual language throughout her memoir. Words like God, grace, angels, destiny, love, forgiveness, and questions about creation are still part of how she sees her life.
Her experience shows that faith after leaving religion doesn’t always fit neatly into the categories of believer or nonbeliever.
What Happens When You Start Choosing What You Believe?
One of the biggest changes after leaving a strict religious environment is that your beliefs become your own.
When you’re a child, you usually inherit your religious beliefs. Parents, elders, teachers, and your community give you the answers. Questioning those answers can bring guilt, since doubt might have once felt like disobedience or spiritual failure.
As you get older, it becomes harder to avoid these questions.
What do I actually believe?
Which values still feel true to me?
Am I holding onto this belief because I chose it, or because I was afraid to question it?
There might not be quick answers. For some, faith grows stronger after asking these questions. For others, spirituality changes form. Some people eventually decide they no longer believe.
Everyone’s experience is personal.
Faith Can Change Without Disappearing
Faith doesn’t have to look the same as it did in childhood to still matter.
Faith can become quieter and less connected to institutions. It might feel more personal, thoughtful, or open to uncertainty. Someone who once needed every answer might become okay with not having them all.
Amanda’s journey in Love Child is full of this tension. She questions religion, religious authority, forgiveness, and the idea that only one group has the truth. Still, she keeps searching for meaning instead of giving up.
This makes her story especially relatable for anyone who feels stuck between belief and belonging.
Finding a Faith That Is Actually Yours
Leaving a strict religious environment can mean losing things. Relationships might change, routines can disappear, and family members may have a hard time understanding. Even if leaving feels right, it can be hard to replace the sense of community that comes with religion.
But questioning the beliefs you grew up with can also make space for something more personal.
Keeping faith after leaving religion might mean choosing which beliefs still matter to you, without feeling like you have to accept everything you were taught.
For Amanda May Philp, Love Child shows that spiritual questions don’t stop just because religious certainty changes. These questions keep going through love, loss, freedom, forgiveness, and the search for truth. Sometimes, leaving a religious environment isn’t the end of faith. It’s the moment when someone finally starts to decide what faith means to them.
