Were You Born Into Christian Homes?

[Ryfka]

I was baptized as a baby, so I guess I was sort of born into it. I don't know if my mother did that to please my grandparents or what. I've lived with my mother and grandparents for most of my life. We started living with my grandparents when I was two and that's when they started dragging me to church every Sunday, and when I went to a private school for two years, it was Lutheran like our church. My mom never came to church with us and I'm pretty sure she's in about the same state I'm in... probably agnostic.

[♦ Fuego ♦]

Not raised religious. Parents took us to church until the pastor took a special offering and gave it to his kids. I bought in when I was about 11 because I was scared of the devil gettin' me.

[SilentLoner]

Kind of a mix. My mom was raised in a non-practicing muslim family in Iran. Dad was raised in a pretty catholic family in El Salvador (central america). My mom converted to catholicism some years after marrying my dad.

 

My parents weren't overly religious, my extended father's side of the family was (grandma especially). I grew up in El Salvador, and its a very catholic country so I picked up on that as a kid and was really into it. I actually urged my parents to go take me to church and have my communion ceremony.

 

My mom dislikes organized religion, but sticks to the "personal relationship with god" route. My dad left catholicism in favor of this new age sect led by an Indian guru. His cult obsession led to him leaving my family in the end. But that's another story for another time.

[Astreja]

My parents are nominally Christian, but my dad has never expressed any religious sentiment and my mother went to church perhaps twice during my childhood. I received infant baptism and briefly went to Sunday school on my own initiative. I actually read the Bible (in a picture version, mind you) when I was about six years old... And didn't believe a word of it. So I've been an ex-Christian for 45 years now.

[Vomit Comet]

Sang in the choir, fought in the parking lot.

 

Sounds like you was a typical Southern boy.

[☆ TexasFreethinker ☆]

Very devout Southern Baptist family. Church Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Wednesday evening. Dad was chairman of the deacons, Mom a Sunday School teacher.

[hereticzero]

Sang in the choir, fought in the parking lot.

 

Sounds like you was a typical Southern boy.

Yep. The brats at church were the same brats that picked on me in school for being the preacher's kid. They were not real bright kids. I fought them at school and kicked their butts and then they would want to impress somebody by having me beat the crap out of them at church too. One time I got in trouble because I slammed one kid up against the wall but the wall happened to be sheet rock, and I more or less threw him through one wall of the Sunday School and into the one next door. It made a huge noise when his ass went through it! SMASH! aw fuck ... He went through the wall so easily, I freaked out because I thought I had killed him! But he was just hanging out of the wall on the other side too freaked out to say anything cuz he just got his ass thrown clear through the fucking wall! Then he made the mistake of trying to jump me in the parking lot, with his brother, and I beat the shit out of both of them. My daddy was the preacher but he was also the Commissary Manager for military posts. We moved a lot but I got to meet people that taught me how to fight. It was like growing up and moving from one martial arts or boxing or what-have-you from one state to the next as I met different people, I learned a different fighting skill. Being a preacher's kid, for me, was like being a military brat, too. We moved from base to base. My dad became like a traveling minister that always got a church where ever we lived. Once he had a church in Arkansas when I was around eight years old. It was a one-way trip over 100 miles (US) from where we lived but we made that trip week after week for over a year. Then Dad would get transferred to another military base and off we went. By the time I joined the military from Fargo, ND, I had been in every state except Hawaii and Alaska. Now, I've only Hawaii to go to. I have even covered quite a bit of Canada too. Spent most of the time growing up in Florida.

[R. S. Martin]

Quite a story you've got there, Heretic. Wow!

[MWTP]

Yep. Add another PK to the list.

[noob]

My mother took me and my two sisters to a Baptist church when I was young but it seems to me that our attendance was rather sporadic. We moved to Florida when I was 10 years old and a neighbor introduced us to the Church of Christ. My mother really got into that whole scene and it turned into a Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Wednesday evening commitment until I married at age 19 ½. This particular Church of Christ was a serious hell-fire and damnation church. It was where I had my first introduction to the idea that only Church of Christ members were going to heaven and I felt very, very sad about all of the nice people that I knew who were going to burn in hell.

 

On the other hand, my father never attended church and on the few occasions that he went into a church building for a wedding, he made jokes that the roof would probably cave in.

[Raul]

Well,my parents are nominal christians,but it's more of a cultural tradition for them. I am not even sure if they have any religious convictions. I mean,I've never even seen them reading the NT.

So,for me it was a sudden convertion due to mental health issues.

[PitterPatter]

I was born into a very fundamentalist Christian family. We moved because of the military, thus constantly changing churches, but I mostly associated us with the Southern Baptist denomination. My dad didn't want to attend any church he couldn't play guitar in the worship band of, and my parents were always volunteering then complaining to others about how time-consuming it all was. I'm sure they just wanted to rub it in other people's faces what "good Christians" they were. So they were involved and knew everybody and criticized everybody behind their backs. At this point I consider my parents insecure bullies for the way they treat others and especially their children. Both sides of my family are very Christian and I'm sure I'm the only outright non-believer in several generations. One of my sisters wants to give her life to missions, which makes me sick. What right does she think she has to go tell strangers that she has the answer for everything and all their problems will be solved if they buy into that?

 

Sometimes I marvel at my ability to think critically at all. I was taught science was bad because all it wanted to do was hate God and pull people away from him. I was toaught not to ask too many questions and avoid religious history. I don't know why it took me into my early 20s to realize this was just a big scam...otherwise, why all the cover-up?

 

Growing up Christian blows...but I obviously know that my upbringing could have been way way worse.

[hereticzero]

Quite a story you've got there, Heretic. Wow!

It's been interesting ...

[mahjong]

I like hearing the short stories of your various upbringings.

 

HereticZero, I have always liked your Avatars, they show the REAL you.

 

I was born into a New York Italian Catholic family. I went to mass and communion every day because I wanted to. Such a good little Italian Catholic child, I took my grandma's hand and introduced her to a statue of Mary. I was going to be a nun, but woops I got drunk and kissed a boy. My dad owned a bar, so it was pretty difficult not to drink. And we all know how drinking and love go together.

 

Then I found drugs and the '60's tried to save me. I drank to excess, smoked cigarettes, got naked as often as possible, partied, did acid, speed and smoked pot a lot. I traveled the country and camped like other people live in houses. I eventually lived a very simple life in the Oregon woods for as long as I could. Made my own bread, butter from fresh milk, made tofu from soybeans, learned the way of herbs and learned to make pottery, weave, made my own moccasins & clothing without using patterns, tanned deer hides, stuff like that.

 

But having been inculcated, as the church likes to do, I reverted back, started going back to church. I was looking through the bible for the assumption of Mary, and lo and behold! It did not exist. I bought a Strong's concordance, read the Bible every day, began to believe in the 7th day Sabbath, believed Jesus was coming back soon, started keeping the Sabbath on my own, along with my husband and a friend of ours we lived with. Stopped doing acid and speed and pot, drank only wine, and was converted to Seventh-day Adventism.

 

Whereupon I put my clothes on, stopped dancing, drank wine no more, stopped smoking cigarettes and got into that church as heavily as I had been a Catholic. That lasted 15 years. I stayed sober for another 7+ years.

[Brought None]

Might be best to make a poll of this.

 

I came from a christian home. Church of Christ up bringing. (Didn't beleive in instrumental music when worshiping God, very organized services, Baptism and acceptance of Christ was the only way to get to heaven, ect.

[hereticzero]

I like hearing the short stories of your various upbringings.

 

HereticZero, I have always liked your Avatars, they show the REAL you.

Is it my hair? I've, like, worked on it all day before I took this shot! Or is it the round hat? I'm working on animating some, if I can figure out how.

[kazza]

Yes born into a evangelical christian home - my mums one abiding wish for my life that she has repeated over and over to me over the years is that i 'stay close to the Lord' - thats all she was ever really concerned about - oh dear! Needless to say i havent told her about my huge doubts and probable deconversion - i'm at that exploring dont know what to think stage!

[RankStranger]

Yep, my family has been hard-core Christian since time immemorial. My Mom was raised Baptist, but converted to Wesleyan (read 'holy-roller') shortly before meeting my Dad (raised Pilgrim Holiness [a wierd, cultish, back-woods sect in BFE Kentucky], which later merged into Wesleyan). We were at church 3 times a week. My parents squandered easily 15% of their income by giving it to that church. And yet, somehow, my two brothers and I all grew up to be infidels of some stripe.

[R. S. Martin]

I like hearing the short stories of your various upbringings.

 

HereticZero, I have always liked your Avatars, they show the REAL you.

 

I was born into a New York Italian Catholic family. I went to mass and communion every day because I wanted to. Such a good little Italian Catholic child, I took my grandma's hand and introduced her to a statue of Mary. I was going to be a nun, but woops I got drunk and kissed a boy. My dad owned a bar, so it was pretty difficult not to drink. And we all know how drinking and love go together.

 

Then I found drugs and the '60's tried to save me. I drank to excess, smoked cigarettes, got naked as often as possible, partied, did acid, speed and smoked pot a lot. I traveled the country and camped like other people live in houses. I eventually lived a very simple life in the Oregon woods for as long as I could. Made my own bread, butter from fresh milk, made tofu from soybeans, learned the way of herbs and learned to make pottery, weave, made my own moccasins & clothing without using patterns, tanned deer hides, stuff like that.

 

But having been inculcated, as the church likes to do, I reverted back, started going back to church. I was looking through the bible for the assumption of Mary, and lo and behold! It did not exist. I bought a Strong's concordance, read the Bible every day, began to believe in the 7th day Sabbath, believed Jesus was coming back soon, started keeping the Sabbath on my own, along with my husband and a friend of ours we lived with. Stopped doing acid and speed and pot, drank only wine, and was converted to Seventh-day Adventism.

 

Whereupon I put my clothes on, stopped dancing, drank wine no more, stopped smoking cigarettes and got into that church as heavily as I had been a Catholic. That lasted 15 years. I stayed sober for another 7+ years.

 

Love the way you tell your story: Whereupon I put my clothes on... Your story reminds me of a ditty I grew up with:

 

What you do, do with your might;

Things done by halves are never done right.

[godsfavoritecolor]

I was born into a moderately xtian family. My parents belonged to an EUB church. My mother attended twice a month, my dad once a month. At the beginning of high school I decided to join a hell-fire-and-damnation Baptist church. I went to morning and evening services and mid-week services. Joined religious clubs at school and toted a Bible in all my classes. My congregation expected me to become a preacher. Totally ruined my social life in high school.

 

“A little education is a dangerous thing.” After two years in college, I became an atheist, but didn’t come out. It would have been somewhat embarrassing to come out as an atheist in my senior year because I was president of the Baptist Student Union at my college

 

That was nearly fifty years ago. In the last ten years I have become a militant atheist.

[Seeker630]

I was born into a moderately xtian family. My parents belonged to an EUB church.

 

 

For anyone else who doesn't know-------what is an EUB church?

[oddbird1963]

Of those who deconverted, were you born into strong Christian homes, or did you come to Christ through a friend or something similar?

 

I don't think I replied to this one, but here goes. I was born into a non-Christian/non-Religious home. We had none of the religion, but all of the shame taught by religion. Mom was from a Church of Christ background. Dad was from a Southern Baptist background, but religion was ever only a peripheral reality. Until , at age 14, a classmate invited me to her church and blah blah blah blah blah, I got SAVED!

 

I recall Mom didn't want me to start getting involved, but after Dad had cross words with her, she conceded and let me go. For 30+ years I was grateful that Dad prevailed. Now, I wish that Mom had won the day. Another irony is that now she has started attending her home-town church of Christ. For years she said the reason she didn't go to church was that she refused to be a hypocrite.

 

Irony. Irony. Irony. Everywhere I turn lately.

[godsfavoritecolor]

I was born into a moderately xtian family. My parents belonged to an EUB church.

 

 

For anyone else who doesn't know-------what is an EUB church?

 

Evangelical United Brethren. It may be out of business or absorbed by now.

[Seeker630]

I was born into a moderately xtian family. My parents belonged to an EUB church.

 

 

For anyone else who doesn't know-------what is an EUB church?

 

Evangelical United Brethren. It may be out of business or absorbed by now.

 

OK thanks. I'm sure there are other smaller sects I've never heard of either.

[godsfavoritecolor]

I was born into a moderately xtian family. My parents belonged to an EUB church.

 

 

For anyone else who doesn't know-------what is an EUB church?

 

Evangelical United Brethren. It may be out of business or absorbed by now.

 

OK thanks. I'm sure there are other smaller sects I've never heard of either.

 

They were not of the body, so they were absorbed (Star Trek). You can find EUB history in Wikipedia.