In my reading of the case study, The Spirit’s Tether: Family, Work, and Religion among American Catholics by Konieczny, it was really interesting to see the analysis of the religion to which I personally belong. It was definitely interesting to see the spectrum of communities within the broader community of the Catholic church. In my reading, I found that I related a lot to Konieczny’s description of Our Lady of Assumption. This church practiced more conservation values and operated under the organization of church as a family. In my personal experience, my family and I did not have the same interests of our church. As a result, we felt alienated from the Catholic church and thus left our religious community. While reading Konieczny, Assumption felt very familiar to me, but at the same time, uncomfortable, considering my conflict with a similar community.

Interestingly enough, reading about the second church, Saint Brigitta, was equally interesting in its espousal of egalitarian views and tension with the Catholic institution. In some ways, I feel like if my family had been involved with a Catholic church more similar to Saint Brigitta rather than Our Lady of Assumption, we may have not had a falling out with the church. Overall, it was really interesting to see how people’s attitude concerning religion can be vastly different depending on their church of memory, and how the church we attended played a major role in my family’s separation from Catholicism, rather than Catholicism itself.