Childhood Religion Vs. Now

[Inky]

Raised Southern (United States) Evangelical Christian of several denominations--Southern Baptist, Presbyterian and Methodist, different one for each town we lived in. Mom would pick the church she liked that was the shortest driving time from the house. Never believed in biblical inerrancy, but went through the motions to keep things comfortable at church. Became some sort of non-Pauline Christian during high school. Went through an uncomfortable period of cognitive dissonance this year when I (mostly unconsciously) knew that my spiritual life had basically nothing to do with actually believing in the basics of Christianity, and that I may have been just holding onto it as a familiar label for myself, and because I like some of the ideas behind it. I had a swift and sudden de-Christianizing one night while jogging when I realized all that, and now I'm a monotheist of some sort who believes in direct communication through prayer with a God who is benevolent from my perspective, but too complex to be thought of as wholly benevolent, if that makes sense.

 

[Isabella Lecour]

I have converted from an Abrahmic Religion to a non Abrahmic Religion.

Raised in an odd Christian home, I choose to walk a much different path. I became Pagan.

 

[painted wolf]

I was raised LDS but now I walk as Native American. (somewhat "Pan-Indian" but mostly Cherokee)

wa:do

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I was raised Baptist, and later became agnostic, dabbled in Wicca, and then began to study Druidism.

 

[spiritually inclined]

I did not grow up in a Pentecostal household, but my dad's side of the family is Pentecostal, so I joined the United Pentecostal Church International at about the age of 10 and was completely devoted to their silly doctrine and rigid rules for about four and a half years.

When I finally made my way out I was really into New Age ideas. I became less gullible in a short time, but still held on to some of their basic beliefs. At this time I am a passive atheist, but I still have a sense of spirituality and spiritual experience. A good term to describe me would probably be "naturalistic mystic."

James

 

[Inky]

A good term to describe me would probably be "naturalistic mystic."

Plus, it rhymes!

 

[Tigress]

Born into, and raised in Unitarian Universalism, I became a Pentecostal Christian around the age of thirteen, but stopped attending services at about age fifteen due to a conflict of opinions on certain matters. I then delved into modern paganism, labelling myself an 'eclectic' for a period of time before 'rediscovering' Unitarian Universalism through online communities and research, as well as my grandparents. Since then, I've also learned of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and have thenceforth been involved with both.

 

[spiritually inclined]

Born into, and raised in Unitarian Universalism, I became a Pentecostal Christian around the age of thirteen, but stopped attending services at about age fifteen due to a conflict of opinions on certain matters.

Wow, that's quite a change! If your experience in Pentecostalism was anything like that of mine and many others, then I congratulate you on getting out.

An interesting background you have there....

James

 

[Papersock]

I was raised in a Church of Christ and was baptized at 12. Starting sometime around college I gradually lost my faith and I am now atheist.

 

[Sunstone]

I was raised agnostic.

 

[blackout]

Neat thread!

I was raised Roman Catholic,
but from my early teen years,
was FAR more interested in "transcendance"
than the "rules of religions".

practiced everything from meditation, to magic mushrooms....
(all whilst attending all girls catholic high school)

I Loved the Carlos Casteneda Series.
I called it my bible,
during my college years.

Got sucked back into Catholicism
later in life,
when I became aware of Catholic Mysticism,
and all of the claims of the miraculous.
Personally though,
I never found it there.
After 8 years there,
I found I had only succeeded in becoming AFRAID of the supernatural experience,
to the extent of which superstition and fear had almost robbed me completely
of my former mystical life.

It was then that I just ditched it all.
Started over, knowing that no man would ever give me truth,
and I turned to God Directly for answers.
(rather novel idea...eh?)
I even pendulum dowsed God with my catholic medals tied to embroidery thread.
Do you think that's crazy?
I think the amount of superstition that I had seated myself in,
needed a total undoing. So I threw all (christian) caution to the wind....
and told God I needed answers.
I needed to know how to HEAR HIM SPEAK.

Hearing God Speak became the entire quest of my life.
(along with my healing in body, mind, and spirit)

That Transcendent Summer,
The Supernatural Summer,
that soon followed my pointed quest to hear God for myself,
changed me completely.
Changed my entire outlook on life and everything.
God did indeed show me how to hear him speak.

I will never follow anyone again.
No religion, doctrine, ideology, tradition, popular wisdom,
nada. no-mass. x-mass.

All of life speaks to me now,
in sign & symbol....
and it's so much FUN to be alive
in the Spirit of Mystery & Majick & Wonder!

I like the spontanious freedom of not following anyone.
I also am rather wary of labels....
however this forum has SHARPENED my vision,
so I would say today that perhaps I could be called a

"Transcendent Esoteric"

I am a "see'r" and "in'visionary"
I am also a "creative speller",
and I "practice" improvisational, personally inspired majick.

Y'shua is still my favorite example of the transcendent life.
So yes, I am still a "student" of Jesus as well,
but definately not a christian as defined by any church I know of!

 

[Tigress]

Wow, that's quite a change! If your experience in Pentecostalism was anything like that of mine and many others, then I congratulate you on getting out.

An interesting background you have there....

James

It definitely was not the best of times, but the 'frankness' of the faith (or perhaps it was just the church I attended?) did give me the chance to get to know myself a bit better-to really get to know where I stood on certain issues-so I suppose it wasn't all for not.

 

[Aasimar]

I must admit I'm kind of surprised that only 1 person has gone from non-theist to theist and nobody has gone from non-abrahamic to abrahamic at this time. So far the trend seems to be either to drop Abrahamic religion alltogether or to drop religion itself all together. It's cool to see so many people responding, go go diversity

 

[Smoke]

I was raised agnostic.

I didn't know you were a convert! I would have thought you were a cradle Girls on Trampolineser!

 

[Smoke]

I must admit I'm kind of surprised that only 1 person has gone from non-theist to theist and nobody has gone from non-abrahamic to abrahamic at this time. So far the trend seems to be either to drop Abrahamic religion alltogether or to drop religion itself all together. It's cool to see so many people responding, go go diversity

Some Evangelicals claim that the Chinese are converting to Christianity at a rate of 10,000 people per day. I'd like to see some hard data to back that up, though; it doesn't seem very likely.

Most of the authentic "conversions" Evangelicals and Pentecostals crow about are from other forms of Christianity. In Latin America, they're a real thorn in the side of the Catholic Church.

 

[powder21]

I voted for "I have converted from an Abrahmic Religion to a non Abrahmic Religion", though I have not necessarily converted and while I still retain some Christian beliefs, I'm not sure if I would consider myself a "theist" (in fact, I'm considering changing UU Christian to simply UU), so "I have converted form theist to non-theist" would probably also apply.

It's cool to see so many people responding, go go diversity

I second that!

 

[TurkeyOnRye]

Followed along with that Christian stuff for far too long.

 

[mcteethinator]

Was raised in an Anglican church, then we changed to a Baptist church, then my mom converted to Catholicism but kept sending me to a Baptist and Evangelical churches for some strange reason. I had doubts when I was 11, became a hardcore fundie when I was 12, then became an atheist/agnostic (Changed a lot) although deep down I still believed in a God, I just thought close-minded evangelical Christianity was what all religion was like. I started flirting with Quakerism when I was 15 but couldn't be bothered going all the way into the city at 10 in the morning for services, so I stopped. Then I read about Islam, it just made sense, and I converted.

You're our daddy, and that's enough.

I was raised Christian, converted to Islam for a bit, then left for Asatru.

Whoa I'm a bit shocked that you of all people would have been a Muslim. Were your political affiliations are bit different then?

true, this.

i was raised Lutheran, drifted away from faith for a few years, later identified as Buddhist, Quaker, and now as Muslim... with some Quaker and universalist influences still strong. but i'd say if i identify with any organized body of faith right now, it's Islam.

Hmm another former Quaker Muslim.

 

[John_672]

I voted other.
Christian -> Buddhist -> Pagan -> Occult/Qabalah -> Omnitheist -> Omnitheist (Unitarian Universalist)-> ?

... and Omnitheist is just another way of saying that I have chose exploring different religions as my religion. It's been a long strange trip, and I'm not even at the end of the road yet.

 

[Bathsheba]

I was raised as a freakazoid. Today I'm just trying to empty the zoid.