For any of you that used to go to church with family or parents; do you have any good memories from that time? I remember being quite young and visiting my dad's family in Kentucky. Before I really knew anything about God or even what religion was. I can remember sitting in the pews and singing the hymns with my grandpa. Even as I learned more and grew older, I loved singing the hymnals, even though I hated going to church.
As a child I was forced to attend a breakaway brethren church. I hated the arrival of Sunday. I also hated listening to the dirge of Cristians singing hyms, telling god how bloody clever he was to create the universe. Which was quite a childish and rediculous concept really. This attachment to what I considered to be a brain dead bunch of religeous idiots affected me badly until I escaped by becoming apprenticed well away from home. After I destroyed the bible my mother had packed for me I finally felt free at last.Unfortunately my brother became ensnared, he preached on the corners and studied the bible weekly under one of the elders tuition., and rode a bike with a large religeous message attached to it, [ at 84 I can still see that sign, For god so loved the world etc. ] Unfortunately my brother eventually comitted suacide. One of my sons has joined the flat earth society and also attends church.What went wrong ????
As a child I was forced to attend a breakaway brethren church. I hated the arrival of Sunday. I also hated listening to the dirge of Cristians singing hyms, telling god how bloody clever he was to create the universe. Which was quite a childish and rediculous concept really. This attachment to what I considered to be a brain dead bunch of religeous idiots affected me badly until I escaped by becoming apprenticed well away from home. After I destroyed the bible my mother had packed for me I finally felt free at last.Unfortunately my brother became ensnared, he preached on the corners and studied the bible weekly under one of the elders tuition., and rode a bike with a large religeous message attached to it, [ at 84 I can still see that sign, For god so loved the world etc. ] Unfortunately my brother eventually comitted suacide. One of my sons has joined the flat earth society and also attends church.What went wrong ????
The few times I went I daydreamed or slept. I don't have very many memories.
I grew up Mormon and have horrible memories, but there were quite a few good ones as well. Large families growing up and we children considered each other as family.... Sneaking into the sacrament cabinet to chow down on leftover 'body of Christ', climbing the apple trees of the person who lived next to the church and getting yelled at, and being rebellious during the children's class.
I almost forgot my first denim jacket at age 12. All the kids would ignore the sermon to check out the myriad items I carried around in the inside pockets.
I remember a lot of church outings like tubing down the river and picnics. I enjoyed that. My parents took us to a holy roller church for a little while in the 70’s where the preacher had long hair and a full on rock band that backed him up. The music rocked and I use to laugh at the people speaking in tongues. My parents word get on to me for laughing but I was only like 6 or 7 and still knew it was bullshit couldn’t help myself. I didn’t mind the music and seeing the preacher crowd surf off the stage was pretty cool. I think they were all stoned half the time now that I think about it.
I have a lot of neutral memories, a couple of good ones, a few bad ones. Nothing terribly compelling, so neither nostalgia nor loathing in my case.
The good memories are those that gave me a sense of belonging and/or sense of place. I suppose my equivalent for your hymn-singing was that I was the pianist and/or organist for several churches, a respected role, that made me feel good. I had a wholesome group of friends all up through high school if you ignore the ways in which our religion tended to turn us into self-righteous asshats towards those outside the in-group.
On the negative side, church just ran counter to the fact that I'm introverted and not terribly social, so the social obligations were stressful to me. I had a sort of low-grade intestinal upset that afflicted me and that I had just sort of accepted as part of my life, and it was only when I stopped regular church attendance and those symptoms stopped along with it that I figured out what it was connected to (given that fundamentalists are in and out of church all week, it is far more immersive than the typical Sunday-and-done Christianity).
Finally, as others suggest, I was quite bored with the whole thing, but simply couldn't admit it to myself. This and other forms of intellectual dishonesty sort of ate away at me. I'm mentally healthier and way more authentic since my deconversion. Also far more accepting of difference / other ways of being, far less controlling / defensive, etc.
I was always just bored to tears in church.
On Friday nite in Temple they have an Oneg Shabbot or coffee time with pastries after the service and socialization. If my parents literally dragged me that nite I looked forward to that.