[Solumina]

Jake went to a Catholic school. He was best friends with Bo, they're still friends but live far apart so they aren't as close. Bo is gay, this was evident quite early in his life. In first grade their teacher decided that the best way to deal with Bo's "problem" was to repeatedly beating him with a yard stick, so on a more or less daily basis she tried to beat the gay out of him, going so far as to break a few yard sticks. Any students who stood up for him got hit as well. Jake's parents, as well as a few others complained and at the end of the year she was asked to resign, but Bo's parents never said anything, even though they knew what was going on, because they hoped it would work and save their son from spending an eternity in Hell. On the flip side Jake's family is mostly made up of very devout Catholics and they have been wonderfully supportive of Nicole's transition to Nick.

It isn't about believing or not, it is about having blind faith or not. There are plenty of people out there who simply accept whatever their religion tells them without thought or questioning, and that is bad. There are also people who believe yet understand that people are capable of rational thought and that no matter how strongly you believe, their religion is not perfect, what their pastor/priest/rabbi/whatever says is not the direct word of a higher power, it is simply a man's interpretation of that word as it was interpreted long ago. My mother is one of the most faithful people I know, yet she is one of the most rational and intelligent people I know. She does not question God's existence but she question's religious dogma, often finding it to be out of line with her own moral and ethical views.