What were you raised as?

Galphanore · Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 9:07 am Post subject: What were you raised as?

I was just wondering what religion, if any, all of you were raised in.

Amateur photographer · Post 21: Mon Jul 07, 2008 8:33 pm Post subject:

JW, some crazy stuff!

Atheist · Post 22: Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:36 pm Post subject:

It's a bit complicated for me. I attended Christian Reformed churches as a child, and that was my father's faith, but my mother is Catholic so tended to supply me with tidbits of information that were labelled, at best, heretical by the Sunday school leaders and clergy of my church. Eventually, my father defected and currently defines himself as spiritual, not religious. Add to that a significant number of Southern Baptist and hellfire-preaching Pentacostal relatives all with soul-winning agendas of their own, and you have the makings of a very confused young person. I selected "Protestant" as my upbringing on the poll though, since that's the majority of influence.

Post 23: Sun Sep 13, 2009 9:50 am Post subject: Re: What were you raised as?

Agnostic · Post 24: Sun Sep 13, 2009 5:00 pm Post subject:

I've said this elsewhere, but I was raised as a non-denominational Christian. The religious ministry I was a part of (and that my parents and the majority of my former friends are still a part of) is considered a cult by quite a few in the Christian "community" because they do not teach the doctrine of the Trinity. Most things about my religion seemed reasonable to me growing up but then I slowly began to realize that prayer and devotion was not going to change the fact that I was one of them lustful, sinning homosexuals (I didn't even know there was such a thing as being bisexual at the time). At the same time I had high school friends and later college friends that decided to come out and I realized that all these people who were demonized (literally - it was taught that other sexual orientations were caused by demons/devil spirits) were the same fantastic people I'd always known that were. I started questioning everything then and found that the god I thought had been around had really just been taking credit for things he didn't do. I experimented with various interdenominational groups on campus but nothing ever came of it. It was still another couple of years before I would get up the courage to leave the church and formally reject the traditions I had long since abandoned in my mind.

Like pwsoldier, I have not told my parents that I am no longer a Christian and it makes things incredibly awkward. When I come home to visit, I now have to leave before they have church people over in the morning for services (The Way Ministry has church service in the homes of the members) to avoid awkwardness with their friends and people I've known my whole life. They still ask me to pray for them and tell me that they are praying for my health and my mental state (I suffer from major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and probably an undiagnosed personality disorder that I could not get help with as a teenager because god was supposed to fix that). It's uncomfortable but they are my constant reminder that even though I feel Christianity, their brand and other fundamentalist brands especially, is incredibly misguided that people can still be good and loving even though they are religious. They just don't always express it in the right way. Slowly but surely I hope to bring them around. I'll wait to drop the bisexual bomb on them in another decade or so. Laughing

Accepts Correction · Post 25: Sun Apr 18, 2010 9:34 pm Post subject:

Raised Southern Baptist until age 9, then Non-Denominational Christian until age 16. At 17 became Agnostic.