What religion were you originally steeped in?
I was raised Mormon.
I was raised in the Church of England. It's one of the few churches in which you can be a member and not really believe in God, I think. I'm pretty sure there are CofE bishops who don't really believe in God. So, steeped would be too strong a word. I was a choir boy and server (alter boy), so I still have a soft spot for the theatre, the costumes, the music, the majesty of a medieval cathedral, the sound of a pipe organ in an acoustic wonderland. The rhythms and repetitions of Cranmer's liturgy in the Book of Common Prayer. Who could not be moved by the Order for the Burial of the Dead: "Man, that is born of a woman, hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery. He cometh up, and is cut down, like a flower; he fleeth as it were a shadow, and never continueth in one stay. In the midst of life we are in death: of whom may we seek for succour, but of thee, o Lord, who for our sins art justly displeased?"
That's spiritual, that is. Beats the hell out of guitars and bad impersonations of modern popular songs going on about Jesus and such, and other modern drivel.
I believe, in the States, Unitarians are comparable to C of E, in the not big on dogma thing.
Ex-Mormon too. I don’t like the term “ex” though I call myself an emancipated Mormon.
@MtnAthiest I’ve actually never dated one.
I was raised catholic but my grandfather was wise enough to introduce me to multiple faiths to allow me to make a choice based on first hand knowledge. When I told him I didn't believe any of them made any sense to me he trusted in me to make my own path.
grandparents are good like that
Oddly enough, I was never religious. A quirk of fate really. My father was jack Mormon and my mother was a non practicing Congregationalist. They divorced when I was 3, and I grew up in a religious vacuum surrounded by judgmental Mormons. I wasn’t pushed at home to be anything, and I resented the ostracism from the Mormons, so, I became anti religious.
I was born in Kanab, UT but grew up in northern AZ -- Tuba City, Page & Fredonia. My mother was only weakly LDS until I was in high school. Then she became much more devout. Later she taught genealogy classes at the Mesa Temple.
I was never a believer but many of my family and friends were/are. I remember very well the amount of pressure the Church can put on you.
I also knew and was related to a very few 'Jack Mormons' although our definition was closer to the the Spingerville cult group than seems to be the popular definition today. Lol.
Baptist and Pentecostal. My Mother decided when I was about 9, that Baptists weren't crazy enough.
I was born into a Roman Catholic household, with parents religious enough to send myself & my siblings (had to be some, I said we were Catholic, LOL) to Parochial school for a number of years. Very early on, as I think most young children do, I just absorbed the teachings, catechism & all. As I got older, & especially away from that school environment I found that I just couldn't accept the "story", neither the Jesus resurrection, Noah's flood, Genesis, whatever. Being catholic, the bible never held much sway, but I tried to read it as a teen & was either bored or horrified (or amused!). As a "child of the '60's/'70's" I tried a lot of New Age approaches, as well as "A Yaqui Way of Knowledge" (euphemism for hallucinogens) & then just "lived". As I began to see a rise in the christian right's political power I started taking more of an interest in my own actual stance & positions & grew into more of an active atheist.
Raised Catholic, which meant weekly church attendance, and the mandatory alcoholic and abusive father and submissive mother. I was an altar boy, then started playing guitar at the "Folk Mass" on Saturday nights. Priests were treated as demigods, so whatever they said went. I fortunately escaped from all of that fairly scar-free.
Hmm, maybe a little bit of everything, if that makes since. My mom believe in the Christian Faith and she spent every Sunday going to church in the morning and the evening, plus weekly bible study, but my dad was never heavily into religion, as he seldom went to church with her. But for the most part my family believed in was Christianity.
Baptist, but I spent many years in Calvinism as well.
Independent Fundamental Baptist Christian. They love their traditions...
Missionary southern baptist raised right ....and yes they surely do ...
Odd. You don't look Mormon.
So Evid. What's a Mormon suppose to look like?
@Skyfacer -- Odd. You don't look Australian.
That was a play on a joke about how somebody doesn't look Jewish, Russian, French, etc.
Jolly old Church of England. No hassle, come as you are, no pressure to believe anything, able to have intelligent discussions about religion and philosophy without God getting involved!