Essay // IMAGINING SIN

The Devil on My Shoulder

by Courtney Hunter-Stangler

---

EXCERPT //

Growing up Catholic, you don’t ask questions. Maybe growing up in any kind of religion, you don’t. At least not when you’re a child. The systems and structures and community in your life simply are—well, until they aren’t. You make your sacraments. You wear the itchy dress from the Saint Jude Shop and whine when you get burnt by the curling iron your mom uses to set your hair. You get a taste of autonomy when it’s time to select a confirmation sponsor and name. But what if, after all of this, a mental health condition that has ebbed and flowed throughout your childhood rears its head in full force and presents you with a single question that redefines your entire relationship with the religion that raised you: What if? //

---

For full text and images, consider reading RQ in print, on a Sunday afternoon, sun streaming through your window, coffee in hand, and nary a phone alert within sight or in earshot… just fine words, fine design, and the opportunity to make a stitch in time. // Subscribe or buy a single issue today. // Print is dead. Long live print. //