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Those with christian backgrounds

Reverend Rick

Frubal Whore
Premium Member
last I knew other paths could post in a DIR as long as the question or comment was respective of the DIR

Thats the way I read it. When I quoted a Mod who said we cannot post PERIOD, I asked what the tenets where so I could be in compliance with the rules, not to be off topic.

So the situation is, Paganism has no set tenets, but to post in the DIR we must stay inside them.
 

Reverend Rick

Frubal Whore
Premium Member
Would I not be qualified to speak on this issue being brought up Christian and becoming a Pagan and dealing with the same issues as the OP as well?
 

Isabella Lecour

amor aeternus est
Thats the way I read it. When I quoted a Mod who said we cannot post PERIOD, I asked what the tenets where so I could be in compliance with the rules, not to be off topic.

So the situation is, Paganism has no set tenets, but to post in the DIR we must stay inside them.

It's still a moot point. The op was for Pagans to answer. Doing so was staying in the spirit of the DIR.

Asking for the tenets of Paganism is a week arguement when the OP was crystal clear.
Just don't let post boardom get the best of you. Good posts will be along any day now...summer's just about over.

So can we get back on topic?
This was getting interesting.
 

Kcnorwood

Well-Known Member
About two years ago I told my mom that I was Pagan & was studying witchcraft at first she was your typical parent & had the typical response. It's been a year & she's starting to understand alot more about what I believe. Last time we talked about he she told me she didn't want to see me go to hell. I told her that I didn't believe in hell & that if god loved me so much why would he send me there? And then of couse I asked her is there anything I could ever do that she would send me to such a place, She hasn't said anything about it in weeks now! :D
 

wednesday

Jesus
^ My parents tend to support what ever i do. i think the thorn in society is ignorance and it is wrong of her to expect you to accept a God that to date, hasn't exactly come down here and done anything for anyone. If she really cares about you she will accept your beliefs because she loves you and not because shes letting her own beliefs get in the way of her judgement.
 

CelticRavenwolf

She Who is Lost
I remember wondering why a God who loves us so much would lets us burn in the fiery torments of hell? The only response I ever got was "God doesn't let us, we choose it by rejecting him". I was a pretty literate kid. I read cover-to-cover a simplified children's bible when I was 12, supplemented by the weekly readings at church and my own studies at home. It seemed so odd to me that there were so many contradictions in the bible, how God could change from vengeful to loving, then back again at the end of the world - did you know that according to Revelations only 144,000 celibate men will be saved? 14:3-4

Speaking of Revelations, that was a book missing from my childhood text! Have any of you ever read it? You wanna talk fire and brimstone, Revelations is enough to give anyone nightmares!

Anyway, long story short, I was 16 when I knew in my heart that Christianity wasn't for me, but I kept going to church until I was 18 because it meant so much to my mother. But finally I couldn't take it any more, and told her that I was done, that I rejected Christianity and all of it's teachings. She accepted my decision, but I was disappointed that she didn't want to discuss anything with me. A short time later I realized that I missed the sense of community and belonging that is the church.

A lot of things led me to my decision. The idea of heaven and hell never did sit well with me. Even heaven didn't sound all that great to me. There is so much on Earth that I won't get the chance to experience that not being allowed to come back would be my idea of hell.

My only fear, one that has plagued me since I renounced christianity, is that of loneliness. Say what you will about christianity, but one cannot deny how uplifting it is to worship with others who share and confirm your beliefs. I have no one who shares my beliefs, no one to worship or participate in ritual with. I can hold feasts and parties under the pretext of Samhain or Solstices, but the spirituality has to be kept to a minimum if I want my peers to participate. Sidenote: I believe that this is why so many pagan communities fail. We are all standing alone in a room of hundreds.

As usual my replies are dreadfully longwinded! So if you just skipped to the bottom, hell was never an issue for me, leaving the community of the Church was the hardest part.
 

blackout

Violet.
I was wondering for those of you who were brought up as christians how long did it take you to stop thinking that you might be going to hell? Well not hell excatly but to....get past what you were taught & move on with something that's a completly different.

I grew up "going to church" and catholic high school,
but I didn't actually get sucked into it all till my mid-late 20's,
then I got out again in my mid 30's.
I'll be 40 this year, and believe me,
I'm something completely different.:eek: :D

I have been breaking down every (religious & world) taboo
I can find in myself, one at a time,
actively laying them to waste,
and I've never felt more myself.
I've never lived more alive.

(though I consider myself more of a sourceress than a pagan)
(my closest match to a "known" "label/way/philosopy" now
it seems would be Chaos Magick)
 

Somkid

Well-Known Member
It took me until about 7 years old, after I found out Santa and the Easter Bunny weren't real and the conflicting religious stories I heard, I figured Jesus wasn't real nor God and everyone was jerking my chain about that too so I guess the concept of hell followed suit. I came to find out that Jesus was real historically but I still was devastated that I was lied to in the first place and eventually became a Buddhist, I think mostly because Buddhist were the only people that did not invent a reason of cause they told me straight up "I don't know" if that was the case.
For the record I still believe in the Tooth Fairy.
 
To quote Prof. Bruttenholm:
"I believe in a place."
(Yes. I am a geek. Thanks. ;) )
I think that evil people will go there. Serial killers, rapists, etc.
I don't think I will, simply by being Pagan. Technically, I'm still believing in,
and worshiping God/dess. I don't hurt others or do nasty things to them.
I used to worry about it when I was younger, but eventually I realized
that the idea that only one religion or order has the keys to Heaven
was a belief that I just didn't feel was right for me.
As a very nice Pagan lady who ran a shop near my house once said,
"Religion has good, strong roots that run through each of our souls and bind us to
the marvels of life and (Deity). It's one tree, but many branches."
 

MoonWater

Warrior Bard
Premium Member
I was raised methodist which tends to be a pretty liberal sect of Christianity. The sermons focused mainly on Christ's teachings and hell was never even brought up in any instance that I can remember either at church or with my parents. So hell was never an issue. When I first left I had trouble going to church to see my old friends for a while as i felt like I didn't belong but I got over it eventually and now..., I even help my mom out with the vacation bible school and the like. I've made my peace with Christianity and while the church will never again be the second home to me that it used to be I no longer feel unwelcome. Only those closest to me from the church know that I'm pagan and they still love and respect me a great deal. In fact there's this one guy who is probably one of the most devout Christians you'll ever meet and he has know problem with the fact that I follow something different and we'll spend hours discussing our views. But anyway I'm getting off topic... So as I said hell was never really an issue for me as it was never even brought up. If anything the Christian heaven turns me off to Christianity far more than hell ever could. A city made of gold where the sun is always shinning???? Sounds boring to me and besides, I hate cities. If there is no ocean, If I can't run through the trees or jump in a lake for a swim, or gaze upon a full moon, or watch the stars twinkle in the night, hear a wolf howl, or watch dolphins at play... then it's no heaven for me... Indeed that would be a far worse hell than the hell of Christianity.
 

argento_occhi

Sarcastically gifted
I'm not sure I ever really believed, even though I was brought up Christian. I stopped going to church when I was 14 or so and never wanted to go back, though I did on occasion until Aset asked me not to goto church anymore a few years ago, a promise I have no intention of breaking.

Actually, it's funny I find this topic now, because I've started talking to a dear friend of mine again after two years or more of little to no contact at all and discover that she's not pagan anymore, but calls herself a Christian (without going into detail, things happened and she feels she was saved by St Michael and she has her own interpretations and beliefs) and it's all a bit weird for me to deal with. It's bringing up issues I didn't know I still had with that faith. I think perhaps I need to re-evaluate where I stand with Christianity, because clearly there's some unfinished business there that needs to be sorted out before I can feel comfortable with it again.
 

fire&desire

New Member
I was brought up in a mixed environment but I did have some psychological trappings in some Christian faiths, specifically lutherans and mormons. For the longest time people kept telling me their way was so right and everyone elses was wrong, and I even believed that way for a time until I got so sick of it all I just had to leave and knew this wasnt right to me. I researched many faiths, talked to diverse people and friends about their own faiths, and spoke with various deities until the right ones called out for me to follow them.

so there's really no way I could ever follow straight out dogma and be arrogant like that again, it's just not in my blood or in my soul to act and believe like that.
 

black cat royalty

*probably reading*
kcnorwood said:
I was wondering for those of you who were brought up as christians how long did it take you to stop thinking that you might be going to hell? Well not hell excatly but to....get past what you were taught & move on with something that's a completly different.

To be honest, sometimes I still worry about Hell. Growing up, the churches I attended were quite conservative and taught that the Bible should be taken literally and that Hell was indeed a real place of endless fire and torture. My first break with Protestant Christianity was when I was about 15 and decided that I could never worship a god that called itself good, yet tormented people endlessly for the "sin" of not believing in something. My religious education primarily taught unquestioning faith. Those who asked questions were viewed as rebelling. It was kind of a damned either way situation - I am incapable of blind faith - and since I had nothing to lose anyway, I decided to explore different ideas. I stopped believing in nearly everything Christian around that same age, 15 or 16, because once my mind could no longer grasp a "benevolent" god that behaved like Adolf Hitler, the rest of the doctrine fell down too. I became interested in other ideas almost immediately, mostly because I needed to find some validation for not accepting my church's concept of god. I explored Wicca a bit but struggled with ideas such as the God and Goddess. No theistic entity made sense to me, so I went through a period of atheism, then agnosticism. After a while, I had the opportunity to learn about Kemet and then Taivannaula (sp?) Finnish tradition...and where I am now is learning. I am still in the process of casting off old Christian ideas. Strangely enough, I am very comfortable in RCC churches and do go to mass occasionally. It makes more sense to me than the Calvinist ideas I was raised with.
 

Tao

I don't want one.
I was wondering for those of you who were brought up as christians how long did it take you to stop thinking that you might be going to hell? Well not hell excatly but to....get past what you were taught & move on with something that's a completly different.


It took me about a Year. I was very fearful for my soul. This is what also liberated me from the religion of christianity as well. i thought that a religion that sparks fear is not a good religion at all. A religion should make you feel Liberated, Inner Freedom, and HAPPY! That is why im a Taoist too. it makes me fell that way, GO TAOISM :yinyang:
 

ryynänen47

Little Old Heathen Lady
I was wondering for those of you who were brought up as christians how long did it take you to stop thinking that you might be going to hell? Well not hell excatly but to....get past what you were taught & move on with something that's a completly different.

I was Russian Orthodox. I think it took about a month or so after quitting the church. When I became an Asatruar, by that time I didn't believe in any of the Christian doctrines anymore. Hell doesn't exist, but Hel is one of our goddesses. She's Loki's daughter and guardian of the underworld. :cold:

I agree with you Tao. I believe most of Christianity is fear based. Believe in this book/church/doctrine, or you'll go to hell. It is the ultimate protection racket!
 
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The Neo Nerd

Well-Known Member
I was never much of a believer. My parents sent me to church when i was a kid and even sent me to a private xtian high school.

But when i was 19 i met a girl who was a witch and she got me thinking. I eventually came to the conclusion that there is no gods.

It took me a while to come up with a solid idea on what i believed. Took me a couple of years after that to find a name for it. After that i did suffer from a bit of fear of going to hell and it took me a good couple of years to come to terms with it. The concept of god and hell is so ingrained into Australian social consciousness that its hard to get it out of my mind.

But i did this:

I have been breaking down every (religious & world) taboo
I can find in myself, one at a time,
actively laying them to waste,
and I've never felt more myself.
I've never lived more alive.

(my closest match to a "known" "label/way/philosopy" now
it seems would be Chaos Magick)

And came up with the same conclusions. I am no longer worried about going to hell.

-Q
 
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