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Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 10:44 pm
My background was SO confusing to me as a child DX My father was a strict Pentecostal, as is his family. He was married 2 times, 2nd time to my mum, a hippie, who believes in God but nothing too strong. And even though I could not cut my hair or wear pants until I was in my teens, his family never liked me. His family is also filled with alcoholics and homosexual men...A bit hypocritical, yeah? rolleyes In my teens, my father stopped caring and I did what I want. Now I'm a Muslim and my family suddenly cares and wants me to turn back to Christ as my "Saviour" OI VEY gonk What are the religions of your parents or guardians?
How did your upbringing affect your current religious status?
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Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 11:21 pm
I have no idea how religious my dad was, I can barely remember when he and my mom were married. I know he's a born-again Christian, like me, so that's that. I wouldn't call my mom uber religious (though some of my friends do). She would never have dreamed of not letting her religion influence me and my siblings. We've gone to the same church since before my brother was born, so a lot of people there know us (some feel more like extended family then my real extended family). I grew up watching people praise a certain way, 'go down' in church, lay hands when a member was sick, speak in tongues... My mom also talked to us about certain things like praying to be born-again, and how the Bible's 100% true. By the time I learned about evolution, it seemed like more of a fairy-tale then the Bible (it still does sometimes). We had a lot of long discussions about things, and usually the problems of the world came back to how man has sin nature which causes him to do horrible things. When things went wrong we'd pray about it, and things like our behavior usually went back to what the Lord would want. Because I had Asperger's, the people who held significantly different beliefs weren't real to me until a certain age. I may have met them before that, but they didn't share their beliefs with me. Now my brother's getting a pastoral degree, my mom's supporting my delving into religion by getting me books about the Bible and Christianity and it's relation to the world, and my sister...well she's impatient to become really close to the Lord, and have a revelation.
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Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 1:20 am
My mother's agnostic at the outside, maybe straight atheist. I don't know; that's how little we talk about religion in my house. My father's non-practising C of E. My upbringing was totally secular, absolutely no religious input from my parents. It was fab, because it allowed me to explore different directions on my own and there was no anxiety when I was pouring over books on the occult as a small girl.
Man, I loved me some occult. The uncanny and ancient civilisations were my favourite things to read about after dinosaurs.
Ah, good times.
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Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 1:20 am
My background is very religious. I had a great grandfather that could heal wounds by placing his hand over it and saying a Bible verse. Though I never met the man, I have family members that are still living that witnessed this first-hand. My grandfather became a minister for the Methodist Church after receiving what he described as "the Call" in his early 20's while working on an oil rig. He was the last person anyone in my town would have thought to become a minister.
My Dad is a faithful United Methodist and my mom was a Catholic that converted to my Dad's faith after marrying my Dad. After my Dad's accident I seriously questioned my religion. Mom wasn't very religious but who could blame her. It was a miracle she lived for as long as she did after my Dad's accident and she could only leave the house so much.
Anyway to keep the story short I learned about Christian Gnosticism and had an experience that confirmed this religion for me.
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Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:02 am
It is pretty confusing. I have a Jewish side and a Christian side. Speaking of the generation of my great grand-parents, from what I know they were all very religious people. My grandfather's parents wanted him and his brothers to join a yeshiva. I don't know about his brothers, but he told me he never really went because he wasn't interested. He's still a secular man. He doesn't define himself Atheist, I'm pretty sure he does believe in god and he does visit synagogue every once in a while, but I have a feeling it's more for socializing than it is for practicing religion. He's somewhere in between.
My grandmother was raised Presbyterian. Many people in her family are very religious still; they say grace before they eat (the first time I had lunch with them was extremely awkward, I didn't see that coming), her sister is very strict and she'd been giving my second-cousin hell for "living in sin" with his girlfriend until they got married. There are several pastors in my family. After my grandmother died and we had to clear out her house, I found her little pocket New Testament she still kept in her drawer - it was very old and I suppose it had some significance for her, although I've never heard her saying anything about religion and never saw her practice any religion. I keep it on my shelf. I actually like it.
Both of my parents don't believe in god. I guess there's some tradition left, but there's nothing left behind it.
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Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 9:34 am
My dad was raised in a very strict Lutheran family and my mom was raised with no religion at all. My dad rebelled against his religion and mostly abandoned it when he left home and my mom picked up some Christian beliefs. By the time I was around, we called ourselves "Christian", but we never went to church and I knew almost nothing about my religion. By the time I was probably about ten my dad decided we should start going to church. We ended up at Willow Creek for a few years if any of you guys have heard of it. Illinois people probably will have. I stopped going. I hated it.
My parents divorced last year and when my dad left my mom explored several new religions. A little bit about Buddhism and Hinduism and some obscure stuff. Haha, because of her, I know all about how to communicate with fairies. She's a very spiritual person and is convinced that my atheism is a phase.
My dad who, since I've known what it meant, has considered himself Christian got a girlfriend who has huge biases against Christianity. I don't know if she's an atheist. But she said some very critical things about some very fundamental parts of Christianity last time I talked to her about it. Suddenly my dad doesn't consider himself a Christian any more. Idiot. >_< I don't like my dad. ._.
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Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 11:55 am
My parents were both raised Catholic, before I was born they decided they didn't agree with it and denounced Catholicism. They especially didn't like the part about babies being born sinful and having to be baptized.
So I was never baptized. I only went to church a few times with my grandparents who, in the Catholic way, never attempted to explain anything because Catholicism seems to be less about belief and more about habit and its enough that your a** is in a pew I suppose. I thought it was just a bunch of singing really.
It's not as if my parents raised me as an atheist either. They just had no religious beliefs. My mom would use vague things like heaven to answer heavy questions (as an adult she told me you don't really want to tell a child you rot in the ground when you die), but mostly I was taught secular humanism I suppose, not that they ever called it that. Just tolerance, honesty, not being a douchebag to people. Stuff like that.
Only as an adult do I self-identify as an atheist. I only started to examine religion as an adult too, and I didn't really like what I saw.
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Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 5:50 pm
My family backgrounud is not particularly religious. My dad is Catholic and my Mom is Jewish but very Reform. We celerate Passover and The High Holidays and Chanukah but also Christmas. We never even went to Temple when it wasn't the High Holidays or someone's Bar Mitzvah.
My educational background is very religious. I have been in Jewish schools for over 9 years. I am fluent in conversational Hebrew and I am knowledgeable about Tanakh, Talmud, Judaics, Jewish History, Israel, and much more.
My genetic background is very religious. OCD is hereditary, and my OCD gives me a little known obsession called Scrupulosity, with predisposes me to be obsessively religious and ethical.
Between these three backgrounds I ended up religious.
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Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 6:12 pm
My father was raised Lutheran, and my mom was raised something protestant. They decided to raise me and my brother outer-Christian. So it's rather interesting. I didn't get baptized or anything.
Thats about it.
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Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 6:18 pm
caeruleus5765 My father was raised Lutheran, and my mom was raised something protestant. They decided to raise me and my brother outer-Christian. So it's rather interesting. I didn't get baptized or anything. Thats about it. Same paternal religion! High five! XD
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Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 7:38 pm
My mom is a general sort of spiritual type with no actual religion. My dad has a deep distrust of organized religion and the closest he ever gets to nailing down his beliefs is "Mother Nature" but not in a Pagan, Goddess worshiping way. More in an abstract. Growing up, my brothers and I were pretty much free to believe whatever we wanted. I did go to church with my grandparents for several years when I was a kid but that was more because it was an easy way to spend time with them. And I liked the singing part. When I got old enough to actually pay attention to what whas being preeched, I stopped going. After that I spent a number opf years exploring and poking around until I found something that felt right to me.
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Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:13 pm
I come from an incredibly secular background. My mom was raised Catholic, my dad was raised Lutheran, and they eventually found what is not my home church, which is United Methodist.
Growing up, we never went to church. I sang in the children's choir at church because I liked singing and it was free, but when we would sing in the service, we would leave as soon as we were done singing. Eventually I wanted to start attending the youth group in middle school, and I finally started attending Sunday school and Sunday service my junior year of high school. I came to my faith almost entirely by myself and we didn't own a Bible until my best friend gave me one when I went through confirmation.
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Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:50 pm
My father was raised Methodist, and my mother was raised Church of England. While my paternal grandmother was very religious (and a royalist ;D), my paternal grandfather never seemed to be as much as she was. Only my father went to church every Sunday as a child/teen, as an airforce brat my mum generally didn't after she started highschool (13).
My maternal grandfather has instilled in me a mistrust of organised religion, and taught me that my religion is whatever I make of it. My parents too wanted me to find my own path, so they taught me all they knew about christianity (I even read the bible), and then I branched out into other Abrahamic (sp?) religions, then the more polytheistic, and eastern ones and finding none of them to my liking I went back to the one that's always held my heart and interest. Paganism, focusing on the Eygpytian pantheon, with no diet restrictions, specifically holy days, or strange hang ups...except when it comes to animal abuse. We have very specific views on that sort of thing 3nodding My maternal grandmother hopes it's a phase, and that I'll grow out of it. My mother is happy I'm happy with my spirituality, and my brother, well, he's a Flufflican xd
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Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:55 pm
Cradle Catholic here.
My grandparents on my Mom's side were very religious, and my grandmother on my dad's side was very religious. Both of my parents were raised Catholic, and they stuck with it their whole lives. My sister and I were both baptized into the Church and we attended Church every Sunday growing up. We also had to attend Sunday school until we reached Middle School age.
My sister got very involved with the high school youth group, so by the time I was old enough to attend the junior high youth group, my sister was involved in putting on some of our events. That's what got me to start going to retreats, which got me involved in the high school youth group when I was old enough.
After I got into middle school, my parents backed off a bit, as far as me being Catholic is concerned. They always made sure to ask me if I wanted to attend the youth group events and made sure I had a ride if I did want to go, but they never pressured me into attending. When it came time for my confirmation, they never even had a chance to ask me if I wanted to be confirmed. I decided I wanted to do it myself when they mentioned the classes at youth group, and I came home and told my parents, "I'm doing this."
Basically, my parents gave me a good foundation of religion up to age 12, then let me decide how much of that religion I wanted to participate in.
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Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 9:45 pm
What are the religions of your parents or guardians?
my mom is a Wytch, and a bit of a New-Ager. my Stepdad was born and raised Hindu, though isn't very observant anymore. he tells us the myths, and he meditates. smile i don't realy know what my biological dad is, but his partner, Sunshine, is an ecclectic New-Ager Christian. most of my mom's side of the family is baptist, with sme scattered catholics.
How did your upbringing affect your current religious status?
well, both my folks agree that all religion are different expressions of the same general thing. that is something that me and my siblings have always grown up believing. we also all agree on the belief ofhttp://s.cdn.gaiaonline.com/images/template/button/submit_submit.gif an immortal soul.
now, for the most part, we all grew up agnostic, leaning towards atheists. and none of us were religiously inclined. my brother lately takes to saying that if he has to answer to what religion he is, he says Hindu. myself, i have had my own personal experiences with Spirituality, that lead me to realize that gods realy do exists. i have built my personal path through my experiences.
my folks have never pushed us into anything religious. and my mom has barely taught me anything of her magic. xp
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