Content Warning: This section contains depictions of anti-LGBTQIA+ bias and abuse.

In Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, religion and the institution of the church play an important role in defining personal and familial relationships. The church is often seen as one large family unit, in which each family comes together to form a cohesive community. When Jeanette’s mother explains her past and conversion into the church to Jeanette, she frames her place in the church as that of belonging to a family: “‘The church is my family,’ she always said whenever I asked about the people in the photograph album. And the church was my family too” (38). The people that Jeanette points out are her mother’s former family members, now separated from her because of her conversion into the church and their lack of support of her. Her mother soothes the divide between them by throwing herself completely into the church community, considering them her family and looking to them for support and guidance as she would from her own parents. This belief and approach to the church trickles down and has an impact on Jeanette, who sees the church as her family as well.