Any Other Preacher's Kids Here?

My brothers and I are PKs and no longer Christian. One is still spiritual but more in a open to what makes sense to him. My other brother and I are atheist but he might be more agnostic.

Our parents hammered home the teachings of Christ and we were all so confused by the hatred of Christians.

My sister and I are PKs. Our father is a closeted gay man who for some unfathomable reason gravitated toward increasingly conservative megachurches during our childhoods. We’re both queer atheists now, and our childhoods left us damaged, angry, and sad. Now he’s retired and half-out while our mom is bemusedly waiting for the other shoe to drop. The relationship is emotionally exhausting so we both moved far away to minimize contact. I have a great relationship with my in-laws and would love something similar with my parents, but I feel there is likely too much baggage to unpack.

I'm a Pastor's son, grandson, and nephew. Also a Missionary's nephew. None of my siblings or I are "out" as ex-christian to anyone other than each other. We've all just moved far enough away from family that we can live our lives without family expectations, although we'll still attend services and participate outwardly when visiting family over the holidays. It's probably not the healthiest thing, but it still allows us to have at least somewhat of a relationship with family, that would cease to exist entirely if we let family know we no longer believe. My youngest brother is also gay, which would unfortunately be an even bigger deal for my family to accept. I think once the grandparents are gone, we won't bother keeping up the facade as much, but for now we've all independently concluded that after a lifetime of keeping up outward appearances, a few more years of faking for the sake of having a normal last few years with the grandparents is worth it.

PK here. Brother became an atheist before I did and over the years was there to give me direction as I found my way out of Christianity. My sister and her whole family still integrate church tightly into their lives. I think all in all my brother and I had a pretty easy experience getting out of the church while keeping relationships in tact, though his experience was more rough than mine. I think most people who were raised by church leaders have a much harder time keeping their relationships with their family while diverging their beliefs.

One of my main strategies to keep relationships happy was to redirect any conversation away from religion into the human experience, and to focus on shared joys and avoid any topic where there was disagreement. I got really good at this, though there have definitely been times where I've had to find an excuse to get up and leave the room. I don't expect that we will ever agree on everything, and I'd rather spend my family time in happy discussions rather than trying to resolve differences, so I just accept the differences and focus on the shared joys.