The characters have a variety of different views on religion and spirituality, from a wholehearted embrace to an outright rejection.
Jamie
Jamie was raised without religion by his parents, but he had Joe as a reference for religion. As a young man, he outright rejects religion in line with his father and, with it, spirituality. He scoffs at the idea of a higher power. He is also angry because he wonders why, if there is a higher power, why this higher power would allow so many bad things to happen to him. He avoids bringing it up around Joe, but this creates slight resentment toward Joe based on Joe’s beliefs.
When he comes home after his four year absence, he rejects NA and AA because he cannot relate to a higher power. He finds it to be hokey and can’t understand why it is so important in NA and AA. In rejecting AA and NA, he rejects also the community that they provide.
He continues this way for a while.
After his relapse, when he is in school and engaged to Nikhil, he is scared by Nikhil’s proclamation that he will leave if Jamie relapses again. Darcy has moved at this point so that he no longer has her support. He has Jack, who is helpful, but Jamie feels he is not enough. He longs for structure in his life and recovery and someone to lean on.
In lieu of rehab, he joins NA. Before he goes, he familiarizes himself with the 12 steps and promises himself he will work them to the best of his ability and give it a real chance to help him. He begins to contemplate how he might view a higher power.
Still, he struggles with that higher power and Jack is no help there. He gains a sponsor and once he connects with him, and speaks to him about his doubts, he is able to grasp a higher power.
He explores Christianity with Joe’s help but ultimately he decides he does not believe in Jesus or the God of the bible. He comes to believe in a benevolent creator who embodies the universe. He decides that this higher power is not in control of the universe, but does care for him and can offer emotional support.
Despite his rejection of the Christian God, he decides to go to church with Joe, believing that his higher power will receive the praise anyway, and he craves the structure of worship. He also begins to pray.
This interpretation of a higher power gives him strength. Through his higher power, he is able to truly access the community provided by NA and to genuinely work the 12 steps. This is tremendously helpful for him. This belief in a higher power stays with him for the rest of his life and he’s not afraid to tell others what he believes. Though Nikhil remains atheist, he is supportive of Jamie’s belief because he sees how much it helps him and means to him.
Jamie’s new spirituality shows in the way he interacts with animals, nature, yoga, meditation and prayer. He participates in these acts with an eye toward his higher power.
Jack
Jack was raised Catholic, including attending Catholic schools for his entire school years. Eileen was very strict Catholic but Jack had doubts from a very young age. When he was young he kept these doubts to himself. As a teenager, he grew vocal.
His views toward religion are harsh. Not only does he view it as untrue, he believes it is bad for humans. This caused a lot of conflict between him and Olivia, who is Christian, especially over how to raise Tatiana. He and Joe decided as teenagers not to discuss religion.
When Jamie finds a higher power, Jack thinks he has gone crazy. Jack rejects AA and NA as cults and refuses to get involved even when Jamie expresses how helpful it has been for him. Even though he can see the change in Jamie, Jack doubts this claim and feels he cannot make himself believe in any higher power.
He raises Louis and Henry to be atheist and doesn’t discuss religion with Tatiana.
Around the time that Jamie begins too pursue a higher power, Jack loosens up. He has been confronted by Tatiana’s, Joe’s, Isaac’s and now Jamie’s faith in a higher power. He relaxes about discussing it, reeling in his hateful language and trying to be more understanding
Still, some anger always lingers, and he believes, despite evidence to the contrary in his friends and family, that religion is bad for people.
Walter
Walter was raised baptist in a really small town in Kansas that only had one church. His mother is very doubt and took him to church every Sunday and Wednesday. His negative feelings toward religion began when he was shunned in Sunday school and church proper - the actions of the people did not match what Jesus taught. He did still believe in God.
He joined the military at 18, and after seeing more of the world he began to doubt that there was a God, because he was exposed to more religions. Instead of believing these other religions were false, he began to believe all religion was false. With the memory of how the church he grew up in did not practice what it preached, he began to harbor bitter feelings toward religion. By the time he got out of the military he was fully atheist and believed that religion stood in the way of moral actions. He was angry and it showed.
His feelings didn’t change until he adopted Joe. He wanted to support Joe’s Catholicism since it connected him to his dead mother and he had already experienced trauma in foster care. He does not express his feelings toward religion to Joe. As time passes, he’s delighted to see that Joe practices what he preaches and is still open to progressive social views. Walter’s anger cools. He sees how helpful Joe’s faith is to him and comes to appreciate the role that faith and the church play in Joe’s life.
He remains an atheist but learns to respect religion.
Isaac
Isaac is raised Protestant by his mother and father. After his father leaves when he is 12, his regular church attendance wanes until he is able to drive. Once he’s able to drive he goes to church and brings his sisters with him.
His mother is the conservative, hateful religious type. Isaac is able to escape this thinking for himself. he is actively religious and leans heavily on God throughout his extremely difficult childhood. He believes that God is loving and does not care that he is gay.
As he gets older, into his early 20s, this participation in church wanes. He still retains faith but moves away from the type of Christianity that he was raised in, while still believing in the christian God. As he grows, he keeps this faith. Julian is catholic, and when Isaac begins dating him, he integrates into the Catholic church. They are not always regular attendees, but stay active in church events and the community, and do take their kids to church. Julian and Isaac discuss religion regularly. They have slightly differing views but overall they agree and have no conflicts over religion.
Isaac does talk to Jack about religion. he is able to handle the attacks on his faith where Joe cannot He is also against proselytising whereas Joe wishes to bring Jack back to the Catholic church.
Isaac’s faith remains stable, despite Jack’s attacks, throughout the rest of his life. He prays every day and gains great comfort both from his faith and from the community the church offers. He is content in his beliefs.
Joe
Joe was raised Catholic by his mother from birth. He takes his faith very seriously and views all disagreements as personal attacks. He views them also as attacks against his mother, whom he is very sensitive about.
Lily is very accepting of Joe’s faith. Her conclusion is that she doesn’t know what is out there. She allows Joe to raise their kids Catholic.
Joe’s social and political views are progressive in spite of, or because of, his faith. The one thing he struggles with is abortion, which he and Lily do have conflict over. However, he still believes that it should be legal and votes accordingly.
Joe is able to express his faith to Lily and also talks about it to Isaac. He has a lot of church friends as well.
He is very excited when Jamie begins his search for a higher power. though Jamie doesn’t end up Catholic, they are now able to discuss religion and spirituality and Jamie sometimes attends church with Joe.
Joe nourishes his faith throughout his life and it never wavers.
Vivianne
Vivianne was raised Episcopalian. Her family attended church regularly but in a keeping up with their reputation kind of way. Vivianne took Christianity more to heart than did her family and held a deeper relationship with God than did her family. She did this because of a need to escape her family life and to assuage her loneliness because she was very shy. She leaned heavily on God during these difficult times.
When she moves in with and marries Walter, she continues to go to church and asks Walter to go with her. He refuses but she prays she will change his mind and holds out hope. Instead, under Walter’s influence, she begins to question her beliefs and eventually just stops going.
For a while she tries to just not think about God, since she know longer knows what she believes. She harbors guilt for this distance from God. Over time, her guilt wanes, and instead of avoiding thinking about God she simply doesn’t think about him much because she is at peace with not knowing what she believes.
When she begins going to church with Joe, her faith is somewhat rekindled. though she does not become Catholic or begin to go to church on her own again. She decides that she believes in a personal God, but doesn’t assign him a religion. She begins to pray again.
She and Walter continue to raise Christine and Jamie without religion. She believes they will find their own beliefs in the course of their lives.
When they find out about Jamie’s abuse and then his drug use, she ramps up the prayer. She doesn’t know if she believes that it works but she feels helpless and doesn’t know what else to do. She continues the habit of praying for her kids from there on out.
She and Walter have conversations about her renewed faith and while it caused arguments when they were young, they no longer argue. Walter continues to not believe but respects Vivianne’s beliefs and engages with her about them, even to the point of praying with her.
Vivianne’s faith is expressed mainly through prayer and reading of the bible. She doesn’t go to church, and she picks the parts of the bible that actively encourage her. She rarely speaks of it unless directly asked.
Her faith inspired Jamie’s interpretation of a higher power, though she retains faith in the Christian God and he does not choose that route.
Tatiana
Tatiana was raised with one atheist parent and one Christian. Olivia kept her in attendance at the church she grew up in, where her father was the pastor. Jack resisted when she was young, but after he left for 2 years, Olivia wasn’t about to listen to him. Jack let it go.
When she was about 7-8, she began to question if Jack was Christian. He explained to her gently that he wasn’t. This distressed her because she feared he would go to hell. Jack told her that God is loving and wouldn’t send anyone to hell. This was confusing because it was not what she was being taught.
When she was young she innocently talked to him about what she was learning in Sunday school. Jack would point out problems he thought there were in what she was learning. When she was around 10, she stopped talking to him about it, realizing at that point that it made him anger. Though he tried hard not to show it, not wanting her to think the anger was directed toward her, she did anyway.
Despite his opposition, she held onto her faith into adulthood. It transformed in this time from something chosen for her to something she chose for herself. She kept in mind what Jack said about God being loving and how he would not send anyone to hell. She began to believe this and it relieved her anxiety about Jack going to hell.
She goes on to try out different churches, curious about what is outside of her family church. She settles on one that fits her beliefs and community needs. Here, she meets her husband.
The church she grew up in was more conservative and she settles on a more progressive church. There were concerns for social and political issues, such as abortion and LGBTQIA+ rights.
She is engaged with studying the bible as well as reading texts from different theologians. She takes notes and revisits them to piece together what she believes.
Since she and her husband are both Christian, there is no question about whether they will raise their kids the same.
She and her husband do discuss what specifically they will teach them. They are engaged in discussing their faith together and putting together a unified stance so as not to confuse their children. These discussions also bring them closer together as husband and wife. They discussed their beliefs very early on in their dating, as they met in church and they both take their relationships with God very seriously. They are very involved in their church, where they raise their children, from small groups to serving to community service. It is very important to them that they have a community in their church and that their kids do as well.
She does receive pressure from her grandparents to return to their church. Olivia defends her right to go where she wants. Tatiana resists because she feels she wasn’t getting what she needed from their church. She is willing to change churches if it stops providing for her needs.
However, it continues to do well for her and she stays for the rest of her life.
Olivia
Olivia was raised protestant by her parents. Her father was a preacher when she was growing up. He stayed at the same church until retirement, meaning Olivia grew up there from infancy. She continues to go there into adulthood, feeling comfort from the familiarity.
There is a time during her teen years wherein she feels very disconnected. Jack felt exciting for being an atheist, and it intrigued her as much as it made her uncomfortable. However, when they marry she returns to church and their faith and lack of faith causes conflict because Jack is unwilling to compromise or see things from her perspective.
Her disconnection returns and deepens to anger and resentment when Jack abandons her. Her attendance at church lapses, although she doesn’t stop believing. She also feels shame and embarrassment, believing that somehow she deserved what Jack did and that God is punishing her.
Over the two years that Jack is gone, she heals enough to realize that it’s *Jack’s* problem and *Jack’s* wrongdoing. She begins dating Marcus, who encourages her in her faith and in letting go of her shame and embarrassment for Jack’s actions. She has returned to church by the time Jack returns.
As a couple, she and Marcus attend church regularly and are active. Olivia feels pressure to be active as the preacher’s daughter and sometimes Marcus has to tell her to take a step back.
She is disappointed when Tatiana branches away, but also proud of her independent faith, and she defends her right to branch away to her parents.
Olivia, however, stays active in the church she was born into until her death.
Christine
Christine does not know what she believes and is not really concerned with finding out. When she is young, she accepts that Joe is religious, that her father is not, and that her mother keeps a loose faith. She has listened to all of their perspectives and decided that she’s not really interested in finding out because “Anything could be true”.
Once she starts dating Jack, it becomes a pain in the ass to explore spirituality so she doesn’t. She’s fine with the boys growing up without religion so she doesn’t argue with Jack.
She does, however, wish to support her kids if they choose to be religious. She talks to Tatiana openly about her beliefs, and about Tatiana’s beliefs, and tries to get Jack to relax for Tatiana’s sake. She cares about Joe, and so doesn’t make a fuss when he brings up his faith. When Jamie begins to pursue a higher power she’s fascinated, as Jamie used to be a staunch atheist, and because it produces in him a lot of joy. They have long talks about Jamie’s evolving beliefs.
Christine maintains an irreligious perspective, but becomes more thoughtful with how she interacts with those who are religious.
Lily
Lily is not Catholic like Joe, but does value spirituality in her life. She is not sure what is out there but believes strongly that something is. She prays to whatever that is in times of duress. She is curious about religion and explores through reading different ancient texts to see what she thinks of them, picking and choosing what she finds comforting or helpful. Another way that she interacts with her spirituality is through Tarot. She enjoys hearing about other people’s views.
She frequently attends church with Joe, maybe 3/4ths of the time, and though she’s not catholic, she finds the services soothing. She also enjoys the church community and events. She attends those frequently, as well as hosting herself. They are aware that she is not Catholic, but she still feels welcomed by them.
Despite not being Catholic, through being with Joe since she was eleven, she pretty much knows all there is to know and could convert the next day if she wished to. She supports Joe in discussing his faith, things that he found helpful or enlightening during services or things that he’s just been thinking about. When he is struggling, she comforts him through the lens of Catholicism the way he needs.
She and Joe often pray together, especially at night before they go to bed. She likes these prayer sessions as it helps her to feel more connected to Joe, and he is sometimes more able to be vulnerable with her and drop the positivity during these times.
In addition to supporting her husband, she supports her kids in their faith journeys no matter where that leads them. Not all of their kids keep the Catholic faith they were raised in. She talks them through what they’re feeling, and shares her own perspective and experiences, providing a safe space for them to express their doubts or beliefs before they express them to their dad.
Lily never really gains much structure to her spirituality and just continues to do what feels right to her. She is content with the way things are.