Ideas you now belive are wrong, but were spoon-fed to you

[Pink Plaid]

I was raised christian believing I would go hell if I were to do bad and that drinking and drugs were wrong and believed I would never do them as old as 14, I'm now 21 an athiest, and pro drinking and drugs.

[Skjolddis]

Grew up with mixed messages.
Figured things out for myself.

[Pirate_Kitty_Katty]

I was taught in the private school I was sent to that public school kids were all criminals who couldn't read or write, and all of them, without exception were going to end up in jail as adults.

I live in Boston and was going to school during the Forced Bussing crisis of the early and mid-1970's. Schools in some neighborhoods were doing poorly, and some well-intentioned idiots decided that these kids were failing because the schools were somewhat segregated by color, instead of fithe real reasons (like out-of-date books, lack of supplies and bad teachers.)

The courts ordered that the school become "perfectly" integrated with 49% black students, 49% white students and 2% "other" ethnicities in each and every school. Half of the kids in the white neighborhoods were bussed across town to the schools in predominantly black neighborhoods, and vice versa. Nobody had a choice as to what school they were sent to.

People reacted badly. Someone started throwing rocks and sticks at school busses full of kids of the "wrong" color, and the violence spread across the whole city till everyone was involved. The only way to get through a school day without having to worry about being a victim of a thrown rock or a swung baseball bat was to be in a private school.

Our schools are not perfect by any means, but at least all those problems have been fixed. My own daughter goes to public school now, and I'm proud of her academic accomplishments. heart heart

[Dysfunctional_Hooker]

The LDs Juxtaposed

It's funny how this entire thread is just people saying religion.

Yeah, I noticed that too. It's alright though, everyone has very interesting stories. 3nodding

[Onigetoe]

Where do I begin on this one lol. I have a lot of them.
That I will go to hell if I didn't believe in god or hade sex before marriage
That being gay wasn't acceptable (9 out of my 10 male friends are gay and 4 out of my 8 female friends are gay, I accept them)
That the world would end in the year 2000 (never did believe that one)
(my fav that I proved my mom wrong and to this day 6 years later I still say "I told you so!" wink We are too close to the mountains, we can't have tornadoes here. (then 05 happened)
There are more but those are the ones that really stick out to me.

[Catuboduus]

Gays being evil, abortion being murder, that I was a special and unique kid, the usual.

[King Shining Heaven]

Oddly enough, I had no such ideas. My parents never forced any beliefs on me, nor society. All of my beliefs came through my own desire to believe and evaluation. The closest thing I have to that is that my Dad was more of a liberal person and often spoke about his political views, but it was not something he wanted to make me believe

[x-Garethp-x]

I was raised by tollerent accepting people who taught me anything I wished to ask, and always drilled in one basic thing. "Never take another persons ideas as true, not even ours". My mother was Christian, but I was raised learning about Islam and Wicca and Buddhism and so on equally. I was raised on ideals on gender equality, and I always questioned anything anyone taught me

[Aquatic_blue]

LilPinkCandy

Aquatic_blue

I grew up in a Church of Christ and was always told that women aren't allowed to preach or have any type of role in ministry - they couldn't even lead a song, help with communion, or say a prayer request. A lot of them were also SMO's - Sunday Mornings Only. On Sunday my parents tried to act all holy and the rest of the week it didn't seem like it applied and me and my siblings would listen to the music we liked all week and then on Sunday's, I remember Mom saying, "We don't need to be listening to that music on a Sunday." or something to that effect. Some members had bragged about money they donated and helped foreign countries and never helped out their own congregation , which to me is a fail. A church should also be able to take care of it's members. There was a sick mom that couldn't afford rent and had to move because she was evicted with her two kids and no one even offered to lend her a hand - it was really sad. If someone (such as a guest) says a prayer request the church doesn't like, they won't mention it in the prayer and it's rather rude. They'd excommunicate people for a lot of different things - their main attraction being divorce, which I never thought was right. There are also many other flaws in their belief system and a lot of it is twisting context and believing what they want to believe. There is also a lot of spiritual abuse in that church that can hurt someone mentally and emotionally as well.

Now, I am a Non-denominational Christian (although, non-denominational is sort of a denomination in itself because there are a lot of them out there). I believe a lot differently and am more accepting of others than I used to be considering I was raised not to accept people who were "sinful", but that never made sense because everyone is a sinner. I feel a lot happier when I'm able to be kind to everyone and care about everyone instead of holding feelings of hate for anyone no matter their beliefs or their problems. I used to get mad and start shoving the Bible down people's throats and now a days I feel so bad about that - also another reason I have turned myself around. It's not right to put people in the spotlight and tell them that they are going to Hell or whatever. Sadly, my parents, because of me changing from one aspect of Christianity to another - don't get along with me that well anymore. They also ignore me, press their beliefs on me whenever they do see me and have the chance, and they don't necessarily talk to me anymore when I do still care about them. It's sad that people think, "Oh, you don't believe like me so I hate you." because it truly does nothing good.

I grew up in several churches which endured church splits. They were all about stupid issues which both sides were stubborn about. The first one I honestly don't think I paid any attention to as I was just 12 when we left. I just mostly sat there through the whole thing and wrote my songs as well never returned. Its a good thing since it closed down. It was a Bible church so I'm not sure if that's the same as Baptist. Anyway, after that we went to a First Baptist church for a long while. I like it there and I enjoyed the people there as a lot of them followed over from the one that closed. It felt like home again- only better. I had more friends despite there being less teens around and I felt like a part of the church as opposed to just a kid who came with her parents. The our pastor stepped down and the church broke in half. The church wanted to move to a bigger place where we can have a real parking lot so the old folks won't have to try and cross traffic. The folks didn't like the idea and wanted to keep the same building. The church site literally had no where to put a parking lot. Pastor hated the fighting and decided it was time to retire and made the assistant pastor the new pastor. We ended up leaving with the crowd who left and build our own church- literally. We renovated an old school building and attained a pastor who just went through pastoral training. Its not home though. I went and felt like I just wanted to leave. Your just not supposed to feel that way. Now I don't attend church. I feel happier and I still believe the same way I did. Its weird though. A lot of the people who followed us over from the old church were the same ones that came over from the very first church. The pastor was the previous youth leader of the Bible church.

Sometimes it's sad when churches split, but a lot of the time it happens and church should feel like home. You have quite a story about that, too, I see. I don't go to church either because I haven't been able to find a good one. Although, I've found a few more around town I never knew existed because the location is out of the way or they are new and hopefully I will find somewhere that would be a good place to attend. I haven't been to a church in a while, although I'm excited to find another one if I belong and if I don't belong to any of those churches then I'll keep on studying the Bible at home as I have been smile so either way works.

[Aquatic_blue]

Saphira Wings

Aquatic_blue

We have a very similar story. I was also raised Church of Christ. My parents weren't deeply involved in the church, ( and never really talked about controversial stuff in front of me.. but not as a gesture of love, more like "we need to shelter her!" ) but I went to a Church of Christ school K through 9th grade... ugh. The biggest thing that sticks out in my mind is my [mandatory] bible class in 9th grade. At that point I'd completely dismissed the Church of Christ way of thinking, and had made friends with a girl who was.. not Catholic, but something similar.. anyway, she asked the teacher a question, and the teacher said, "we don't believe that here." That was so incredibly rude! Most of us in the class claimed to be a Christian, but here the teacher was being snooty towards my friend for not being the "preferred" type of Christian!

When I transferred schools my 10th grade year, it was like a whole new world. My first day I walked into the bathroom to see two pairs of female feet in the same bathroom stall. It honestly shocked the ******** out of me. Sexuality was something that was very hush-hush at my old school, and I'd really only seen that kind of thing on tv and in movies. But as soon as I was able to decide for myself, I have supported the LGBT community. There's not a lot of love in this world, and it's a beautiful thing when two ( or more! ) people find that kind of happiness in each other. Other people's lives are none of my business anyway.

@OP, maybe your mother doesn't mean that she would love him more if he weren't gay.. maybe that's her backwards way of saying that she doesn't care that he's gay? I dunno. My dad unintentionally twists his words like that so I might tend to think too much into parent-speak...

I'm sorry you had to go to a Church of Christ school. I never had to deal with that so I suppose my experience wasn't that bad. I can't imagine attending a Church of Christ school to be honest. It's so sad how a lot of the Churches of Christ treat people that don't believe the way they do. It's absolutely heartbreaking sad and just pushes people away. Sorry you had to go all that rough stuff, but I suppose in the end, that's what either makes us stronger or breaks us down completely.

[Aquatic_blue]

Dysfunctional_Hooker

Aquatic_blue

I grew up in a Church of Christ and was always told that women aren't allowed to preach or have any type of role in ministry - they couldn't even lead a song, help with communion, or say a prayer request. A lot of them were also SMO's - Sunday Mornings Only. On Sunday my parents tried to act all holy and the rest of the week it didn't seem like it applied and me and my siblings would listen to the music we liked all week and then on Sunday's, I remember Mom saying, "We don't need to be listening to that music on a Sunday." or something to that effect. Some members had bragged about money they donated and helped foreign countries and never helped out their own congregation , which to me is a fail. A church should also be able to take care of it's members. There was a sick mom that couldn't afford rent and had to move because she was evicted with her two kids and no one even offered to lend her a hand - it was really sad. If someone (such as a guest) says a prayer request the church doesn't like, they won't mention it in the prayer and it's rather rude. They'd excommunicate people for a lot of different things - their main attraction being divorce, which I never thought was right. There are also many other flaws in their belief system and a lot of it is twisting context and believing what they want to believe. There is also a lot of spiritual abuse in that church that can hurt someone mentally and emotionally as well.

Now, I am a Non-denominational Christian (although, non-denominational is sort of a denomination in itself because there are a lot of them out there). I believe a lot differently and am more accepting of others than I used to be considering I was raised not to accept people who were "sinful", but that never made sense because everyone is a sinner. I feel a lot happier when I'm able to be kind to everyone and care about everyone instead of holding feelings of hate for anyone no matter their beliefs or their problems. I used to get mad and start shoving the Bible down people's throats and now a days I feel so bad about that - also another reason I have turned myself around. It's not right to put people in the spotlight and tell them that they are going to Hell or whatever. Sadly, my parents, because of me changing from one aspect of Christianity to another - don't get along with me that well anymore. They also ignore me, press their beliefs on me whenever they do see me and have the chance, and they don't necessarily talk to me anymore when I do still care about them. It's sad that people think, "Oh, you don't believe like me so I hate you." because it truly does nothing good.

I am glad that you find happiness in your beliefs. It is sad how subtle differences mean the world to other people. You are still the same person, and happy with who you are and how you see the world.

Me, too smile thanks. I agree, subtle differences shouldn't make a whole person's world enraged against another.

[zaptar13]

His April

Funny, my mom is a super devout Lutheran, raised her kids to be devout, and yet I turned to Islam. emotion_dealwithit

She has nothing nice to say about Muslims. Kinda depressing.

Also, I was raised to believe that I would get murdered for grades lower than A's, and yet my parents seemed to quit caring about my school performance after I bombed sophomore year. cat_sweatdrop Kept all A's and B's after that though.

lol

[Avatar of Virtue]

Dysfunctional_Hooker

The LDs Juxtaposed

It's funny how this entire thread is just people saying religion.

Yeah, I noticed that too. It's alright though, everyone has very interesting stories. 3nodding

Thing is, aside from religion, I can't think of anything I was spoon fed or had hammered into my head. My mother was pretty much hands off when it came to teaching me things, my grandmother taught me religion and... well, not much else. Aside from space being really, really cool. And then the school system in Florida taught the bare minimum. Drugs got hammered on a bit in fifth grade but I did independent research on my own and disregarded much of D.A.R.E.

So.

Yeah. Religion was the thing that got hammered on me.

[Marquis de Stahl]

The idea that was spoon-fed to me was the idea that I could be anything I wanted to be. Every teacher and boy scout leader and just every adult in general told me that. I wanted to be a pirate and wear my pirate clothes to school. Those assbags who told me I could be anything I wanted to be, they told me "No; that's just for Halloween". emotion_donotwant My point is, nobody can be anything they want to be. Everybody has to be whatever the people around them agree is socially acceptable.