I was brought up Methodist (United Methodist from the age of 8). Baptized in infancy and confirmed at 13. "Accepted Jesus as my personal savior" at about 12. I was always very interested in religion, and visited many different kinds of churches. When I was about 13, my family left the UMC and helped found an independent charismatic church that was sort of an off-shoot of the Christian Churches.
At fourteen, baptized in the Church of Christ and "baptized in the Holy Spirit" at a Full Gospel Business Men's meeting, which was an odd confluence of events since the Church of Christ I belonged to was very anti-charismatic. Moved away and didn't join another Church of Christ; attended various charismatic, Methodist and Presbyterian churches. Joined the Presbyterian Church, but more as a gesture of respect to my parents than anything else. I was more involved in Bible study groups than with the church as such.
At 18, I moved to Heritage USA (yes, Jimmy and Tammy Faye's place), where I became thoroughly disenchanted with the charismatic movement. I moved back to Columbia and dissociated myself from the charismatic movement. I began to describe myself as "a believer, but not a Christian."
At 19, I began studying Orthodoxy, but after a cool reception from the Greek priest I joined the Episcopal Church instead - confirmed at 21.
At 24, I converted to Orthodoxy after all; I was baptized and chrismated by a priest of the Greek Archdiocese and was involved in various Orthodox jurisdictions over the years. On joining the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia I was chrismated again, bringing my lifetime total to three baptisms and four confirmations/chrismations.
After a little over 20 years of being Orthodox, I decided I couldn't be a Christian anymore, on peace and justice grounds. Specifically, I objected to clergy promoting war, to the church's refusal to ordain women, and to the church's treatment of gay people. I considered the United Church of Christ, my grandmother's church, but wasn't satisfied because I found that the level of acceptance of gay people varied widely from association to association and from congregation to congregation.
Very quickly after I gave up my identity as a Christian, I realized I had no real reason to believe in Christian dogma, and I was a sort of vague monotheist for a very little until I realized I didn't have any reason to believe in god, either, and recognized that I was an atheist.
Presently I consider myself an atheist and a Buddhist who strongly identifies with liberal Quakerism.
That is, believe it or not, the Reader's Digest version. It was all much more involved than that.
