Were You Kinda Raised In It, And Then Got Heavy With It Later?

[Vomit Comet]

Ooooh... this one's nice and detailed!

 

Also, here are some open-ended questions to chew on:

 

1. How did your parents raise you in regards to Christianity? Was it extreme childhood headfucking indoctrination or was it totally lax? Somewhere in the middle?

 

2. Did you kind of lapse from it as a child? As a teenager? When you went to college? Afterwards?

 

3. If so, did you get saved/born-again/committed later in life? As a teenager? As a college kid? As an adult? As an old fart?

 

4. How much did your raising have to do with your decision to get serious about it later?

[florduh]

Childhood was hellfire and brimstone and fear of the Catholics who were intent on taking over the world. I never accepted their crazy shit even as a child.

 

As an adult, the small shop I was working at was heavily Christian, and the guy I directly worked with was super fundy evangelical. Religious broadcasts were on the radio all day, and he would tell me when they were right and where they went wrong in their interpretation of the Word.

 

I eventually succumbed and ended up in the right church (according to my work buddy) which differed greatly from the church my dad used to drag me to. Total Bible believing, OSAS, not paranoid about the Catholics. Even some of them could be saved, as we don't know their hearts. But Buddhists, Hindus, etc. all worshipped demons. Real big on End Times. No tongues, but foot washing services. Lots of pancake breakfasts and shit. Compared to what I had known, they seemed almost intellectual.

 

WTF - made sense at the time! Fortunately I got so involved in wanting to understand the Word of God, I even went to Moody and studied everything I could on my own as well. Did Bible studies at my home. Of course the hard questions were never answered and the whole basis for the religion, the Bible, proved to be totally unreliable, so I eventually just walked away - a little bit wiser.

 

Pastafarianism is the true way. I know that now.

[Guest DD2014]

1. How did your parents raise you in regards to Christianity? Was it extreme childhood headfucking indoctrination or was it totally lax? Somewhere in the middle?

 

I woulden't say extreme childhood headfucking indoctrination but very close to that. Basically everything was evil, worldly or a sin, TV, video games, alcohol, public school, non-christians, sex, conventional science ect. Because of all the "evil" in the world my mom thought home-schooling was the best option for me and my siblings. Bible study would take up about half of the day (that counted as history), the rest was split between what I call "bible science" and math.

 

2. Did you kind of lapse from it as a child? As a teenager? When you went to college? Afterwards?

 

I started to lapse when in high school (about 14). I started skateboarding, which led to meeting people, which led to weed. Once I started smoking I began to see the world differently, I was more abstract in thinking and I enjoyed it. I started seeing the world from a unbised point of view and that really opened my mind and I began to see religion for what it was. I'm not sure when I totally abandoned the idea of God but if I had to guess I would say 17? And for the past 3 years I have been an atheist.

 

3. If so, did you get saved/born-again/committed later in life? As a teenager? As a college kid? As an adult? As an old fart?

 

Fuck no.

 

4. How much did your raising have to do with your decision to get serious about it later?

 

Everything. If I didn't have a the expeirences I had, I don't think I would belive the things I do now. So in a way I'm thankful that my mom was a God Nazi (she isn't anymore, hell I'm halfway to converting her). Not only did it push me away from "God" but it also educated me in Christanity so now I can argue my way around a theist in my sleep.

[Mriana]

Were you raised as a Christian?

 

In my yearly years, yearly elementary, we only went when we visited my mother's relatives, then she became "born again", but then it was sporadic, she was "born again", still a bit sporadic, then when she was born again the third time, she decided on the Lutheran Church so I would not rebel against church- but even so, I had to go or she'd be upset. As a child though, every summer I spent with my grandparents and had to attend their church no matter what.

 

If you were raised as a Christian, what was your childhood church like?

 

My relatives' church was and is batshit crazy.

 

To what degree were you raised Christian?

 

When we attended, it was a real hard-core brain f***... for my mother at least. The adults scared me to death.

 

Did it hold?

 

Not really and what I do remember, I wish I could forget.

 

So if you weren't quite successfully indoctrinated as a child, did you later become a Christian by your own volition?

 

I think I faked most of it, just to get along. You know- go along to get along. Until I threw a rant about something. There was only so long I could keep quite and then I started ranting.

 

So how much of a discrepancy was there between how you were raised and your teenage or adult choices?

 

I think there is a vast difference between Evangelical Fundamentalism and Episcopalian. My relatives didn't and don't believe Episcopalians are Xian.

 

How did it differ? Protestant "Catholicism"/ AKA Church of England v Evangelical Fundamentalism? That really shouldn't have to be explained. I'm probably one of the few former Protestants on the board who can quote Hail Mary's while using prayer beads, as well as the Nicene and Apostle's Creed, not to mention chant Kyrie Eleison, as I can go to a Catholic Church and pretend to be Catholic too. That IS night and day.

 

Once my sons were still toddlers, the closest church to the women's shelter where we stayed was a Catholic church. So we walked up there, attended, and when we went up for Holy Eucharist (children who are not confirmed yet, don't get communion. They cross their arms in front of themselves and receive a blessing.) my older son said in his three year old voice "We're Episcopalian. We're Episcopalian" as we approached the priest. I told him, "Shhhhh". You know... When in Rome... The priest still served me and my sons still got blessed. Hello Catholic Church! You've been infiltrated by Protestants! I passed right past the Father with no questions asked. I got the wafer! And it was no different from the Episcopal one! It tasted no different then the Protestant one too. Now that puts new meaning in "passing for _____". (SHHHHH! That's a secret though. You must be Catholic to receive the Holy Eucharist in the Catholic Church or at least at that time.)

 

Hey! I faked it very well. Thank you very much! And when spoke to my mother via phone (we were really a great distance apart at that time) and asked if we went to church, I didn't lie about it. I didn't tell her, I invaded Rome and faked it quite well though. (No, we weren't actually in Rome. We were still in the U.S.) However, it does not work the other way around. In the Episcopal Church, any baptized Xian is allowed Communion. Sorry, Ex-Catholics. You don't get to have the fun of invading Protestants. I faked being a Catholic very well though.

[Vendredie]

1. The form of Christianity I was raised into was pretty lax. Sure we went to church and my sister and I went to AWANA... we occasionally had religious discussions at home, but that was it. Otherwise everything was a CINO affair.

 

2. I lapsed from it starting at 13 when I realized that being a moronic neocon fundy wasn't really getting me anywhere, and I found that hating gays/abortion/people of other religions was pretty much stupid. At 14 I learned a little about the history of Christianity, mostly because I'd developed a very big interest in it after reading the Da Vinci Code. I dropped Christianity within weeks, and by October of that year (I read the Da Vinci Code in June) I was an atheist.

 

3. There was a brief time where I re-converted-- only lasted about 45 seconds during a thunderstorm. For some reason I had become convinced that God had sent it as a punishment for me being atheist. In my defense it was like 1 am and I'd been up for quite a long time.

 

4. It wasn't my raising, and I don't know what it was. I think it was more my brain running on AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH THUNDERSTORM, lots of adrenaline, and little sleep.

[Guest ephymeris]

Ooooh... this one's nice and detailed!

 

Also, here are some open-ended questions to chew on:

 

1. How did your parents raise you in regards to Christianity?

 

2. Did you kind of lapse from it as a child? As a teenager? When you went to college? Afterwards?

 

3. If so, did you get saved/born-again/committed later in life? As a teenager? As a college kid? As an adult? As an old fart?

 

4. How much did your raising have to do with your decision to get serious about it later?

 

1. Dad was CINO, Mom was slightly more serious, taking us to church and encouraging to us to get saved. I would say it was a moderately conservative household, definately not a total mindfuck.

 

2. I bought into it somewhat as a child as I was really depressed and prayed god would kill me in an accident so I wouldn't go to hell for suicide...thats kind of fucked up. By the time I was a teenager I thought I was going to hell anyway because I was so sinful so I ran wild. By the time I was a senior in highschool I had been "saved" and baptised for the second time

 

3. I started to get serious my senior year in highschool. I spent my college years full of christian zeal. Every moment of my spare time was dedicated to my faith.

 

4. My raising just set the stage but when I started to get serious about my beliefs, I actually hid it from my parents feeling they wouldn't understand. Hmph, irony.

[buffettphan]

I was raised catholic...irish-catholic. But at age 5, after my first vacation bible school experience, I came home wanting to know if my parents would kill me if god told them to. Thankfully they said NO, but that whole Abraham/Isaac story gave me the creeps for years. (Still does, actually.) But that experience also taught me that maybe god wasn't everything he was cracked up to be. From then on, I took everything the church/parents/schools taught with a major grain of salt. Even though I went to catholic school from grades 4-8, I could never really buy into all that catholic-crap. By the time I was 16 or so, I was agnostic and very close to being an atheist. (All the while, I was forced to go to church and other classes by my VERY catholic, divorced mother.)

 

A few years later, I met the guy who would be my husband. He too was a "fallen-away" catholic/agnostic. Unfortunately about a dozen years or so after we were married (and two kids later), he fell for the whole "the catholic church is the whore of babylon" routine and became SuperFundy. I tried to see what the appeal of church/god/religion was...I really tried. I went to church with him and got somewhat involved in other aspects. But I just couldn't keep it up. I'd sit in church and feel like I was going to puke from the complete lunacy of the teachings, the preachers, the members of the church. Then things started being taught in Children's Church that I would not tolerate my kids having to be tortured with. That was the end of my church-going days. For the past twenty-or-so years, the only time you'll find me in church is for a wedding or a funeral. Even then, I feel like I need a shower when I finally am able to leave the building.

[Vigile]

I thought the last two questions were interesting:

 

So how much of a discrepancy was there between how you were raised and your teenage or adult choices?

 

From Jr High on I was quite a handful. I believed but I was pretty wild. When with friends I was all fun and games and teenage angst and rebellion. At night I would worry and pray for my soul. For example, I'd get drunk and then start to feel guilty and run around and witness to people in my intoxicated state.

 

How did the church you chose as a youth/adult differ from your childhood church?

 

My childhood church was pretty moderate. In my early adulthood I went Baptist, hell fire, and drove my parents nuts. Even the ones who raised me to be a believer thought I was overboard; which I was.

[Vigile]

No tongues, but foot washing services.

 

That idea creeped me out even as an xian. No way was I going to kneel and wash someone's feet and the only way I'd let someone wash my own was if they looked and smelled like Anna Kornakova.

[ShallowByThyGame]

my parents were liberal northeast methodists, so they didn't like to talk about Hell, and viewed most bible stories as metaphors. Asides from sunday service and prayer at dinner they live pretty normal lives.

 

my father is a successful cardiologist, and believes that God demands that he support his children as much as possible in terms of education like his father did to him, so I went to a very good private high school where I learned critical thinking. This critical thinking forced me to question the basic assumptions I had made about life, including God.

 

There are four children in the family. Three of them became more liberal than their parents, mostly leaving the church, and one become more conservative, joining the more strict catholic church. The younger the child the more liberal...not sure why.

 

my story is not as shocking as many here, but I had to leave the church using pure logic and historic research, because my parents and their church community were very loving, altruistic, and accepting and I had no personal confrontations or tragedies like some do that shock them out of their delusion.

[Neon Genesis]

I was raised in a typical conversative home. My family wasn't too strict and their beliefs weren't too insane but they weren't too relaxed either. I could watch most any kind of TV or movies and listen to most any music as long as I wasn't watching porn or anything too pro-gay and the only music I was forbidden to listen to was Marilyn Manson. We went to church three times a week and participated in church-related activities and I was baptized when I was 15, but we didn't really talk about religion other than at church and although my parents are bible believing xtians, they weren't super fanatical about it. I'm not sure if I could say I "lapsed" or not. I still always went to church three times a week and participated in church-related activities, but when I was struggling with my sexuality, I tried to hold onto some sort of vague belief in a nicer Jesus although I still took most of the bible literally and still went to church with my family as they don't know about my sexuality. Before I finally gave up my faith, I tried one last time to rededicate my life to Christ by seeing a fundie psychiatrist at church to try and change my sexuality. That was about the only time I tried to make myself more committed, but when it didn't work, I finally deconverted.

[trashy]

raised Southern Baptist, last church I was in as an adult was non-denominational Charismatic

 

now an atheist

 

I seem to have answered most of the questions with the majority. Very interesting results there!

[Vomit Comet]

the only music I was forbidden to listen to was Marilyn Manson.

 

It's funny to me how so many fundies think that Marilyn Manson was the absolute worst there is and ever was. I mean, bloody hell, bands like Christian Death were doing way more freaky, fucked-up shit as early as 1979. Manson's schtick was old hat by the time he made the big-time in the mid 1990s. The only difference was that he cracked the Top 10, whereas almost nobody knows who Celtic Frost, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, G.G. Allin, Mayhem, Emperor, Gorgoth, Anal Cunt, or [fill in the blank] are.

 

It's just... man... they have no fucking clue that Manson isn't even the tip of the iceberg. He's just a diminutive little piece that broke off.

[Mriana]

I don't think I was really forbidden any music. I listened to Donna Summer, even the song that was banned in the U.K.- "Love to Love You, Baby" and would moan and groan with her. I shocked one mother with it. Her eyes got so big and she turned the record off (this was when vinyl was all there was by way of LPs).

 

However, before that, and when I was still in elementary school, I was astonished my mother burned the 8-track of JC Superstar and called it demonic after one of her "born again" experiences. I'm grown now and I not only have it on cassette, but also on VHS video. I just wish I had the very original addition on 8-track. That is almost impossible to find now and is probably very much a collectors item. I truly wish she had not done that. Yeah, I guess even as a child I did not believe in demons, because I just could not understand what she was going on about. The memory of the little bonfire she made to burn what she called "demonic" still astonishes me, but not like it did at that moment when I was watching her. Such a great rock opera on a classic format (which I did not know would be classic at the time) gone. I seriously doubt I will ever find that format again and I don't know if I'll ever excuse her for it. Almost like what happened at the library of Alexandria, except I know it must exist some where still, sitting on someone's self, collecting dust, because their old 8-track player is no longer functional and they don't make such players anymore. sigh The copy my mother burned though, is forever gone.

 

BTW, JC Superstar is the only version of the passion I can stomach, because it has no blood and gore. Not only that, the dude who played JC (look at this from a child's POV) is getting on the bus at the end of the show. All was well, even from my child perspective. It is also the only one my older son can stomach too.

[Neon Genesis]

It's funny to me how so many fundies think that Marilyn Manson was the absolute worst there is and ever was. I mean, bloody hell, bands like Christian Death were doing way more freaky, fucked-up shit as early as 1979.

I never got it either. I listened to Marilyn Manson anyway and I never saw why he was worse than any of the popular bands on MTV like My Chemical Romance or Evanescence or whatever but they complain about Marilyn Manson more for some reason and his music had like no impact at all on my decoversion.

[Vomit Comet]

It's funny to me how so many fundies think that Marilyn Manson was the absolute worst there is and ever was. I mean, bloody hell, bands like Christian Death were doing way more freaky, fucked-up shit as early as 1979.

I never got it either. I listened to Marilyn Manson anyway and I never saw why he was worse than any of the popular bands on MTV like My Chemical Romance or Evanescence or whatever but they complain about Marilyn Manson more for some reason and his music had like no impact at all on my decoversion.

 

Evanescence was a Christian band. Allegedly, or at least at first. So they were on the okay list for teenagers at my old church.

 

Here's something freaky for ya...

 

Warning: Explicit, Uncensored, etc.

[Mriana]

Oo! Talk about theophagy, vampirism, cavorting, cannibalism, morbidity... I don't think I got past 1.5 min of it. I couldn't understand a single word anyway. BTW, did I see bestiality in that too? Totally bizarro! That's a bit too rich for me. What ever happened to just plain sex, like in Donna Summer's "Love to Love You, Baby"? Or even something by Barbra Streisand? That's a little more my speed and doesn't blow my mind as much.

[Vendredie]

the only music I was forbidden to listen to was Marilyn Manson.

 

It's funny to me how so many fundies think that Marilyn Manson was the absolute worst there is and ever was. I mean, bloody hell, bands like Christian Death were doing way more freaky, fucked-up shit as early as 1979. Manson's schtick was old hat by the time he made the big-time in the mid 1990s. The only difference was that he cracked the Top 10, whereas almost nobody knows who Celtic Frost, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, G.G. Allin, Mayhem, Emperor, Gorgoth, Anal Cunt, or [fill in the blank] are.

 

It's just... man... they have no fucking clue that Manson isn't even the tip of the iceberg. He's just a diminutive little piece that broke off.

I've listened to some Marilyn Manson too, and he's not that bad. A lot tamer than some mainstream artists-- well, in some ways.

 

I've heard of Celtic Frost, Deicide, Mayhem, Gorgoth, and Anal Cunt already. Haven't heard anything by them but I've heard of them.

[Neon Genesis]

I've listened to some Marilyn Manson too, and he's not that bad. A lot tamer than some mainstream artists-- well, in some ways.

I always thought Marilyn Manson's music seemed to be more about politics than sex. By the way Vomit, have you heard the Japanese band Dir En Grey?

[Guest ephymeris]

I never did understand the kafuffle about Marilyn Manson, but christians seem to thrive on fear causes. I remember when He-Man and My Little Pony were tools of the devil. Nowadays it's Harry Potter apparently.

 

Off topic: Okay, so after watching Gorgoroth I thought of this video a friend showed me. The song/video isn't shocking at all, just funny to me because it gets stuck in my head. Enjoy.

 

[Vomit Comet]

By the way Vomit, have you heard the Japanese band Dir En Grey?

 

So the kid kills his parents with a golf club at the end?

[Vomit Comet]

 

 

What the hell!? It's like a holy sanctified Finnish version of Gwar?

[Seeker630]

Regarding the thread title--------yes I was raised very rigidly strict Roman Catholic. The RCC was the only one and true church. Everyone else either was heretics, or they worshiped false gods or idols. Much hay was made of "Pagans" in other parts of the world. 8 years Catholic school---the works. By the time I hit about 16 the serious questions began to flood my mind and lots of it made no sense at all to me. It was a long and slow downhill slide from then on. By the time I got married at 25 I had pretty much stopped attending mass at all. I did a Methodist thing briefly a few years later, but that didn't last either.