General question to all siblings...

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

I've noticed a lot of us seem to have been raised catholic, whether you are or not now. I've been sort of wondering since before we moved over here from the Other Place.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

I've done the whole enchilada, from baptism to marriage to sunday school for the first communion of my kid, buuut....
[rant]
I no longer go to mass, and when I go I don't do communion. The last time I went  (this past sunday because of my wife) I had the 'pleasure' to listen to the intolerant speech about the destruction of the family and society by gay marriage, abortion and contraception.

Nope, I may go to the place from time to time, I may try to be neutral with my kid about it, but I no longer believe in the stuff. I think that the whole "love thy neighbor" has become conditional (as if!  ) and that it is just been used for political purposes.

I know that there are good christians -catholics included- because I know them, and there are a lot, but if the institution(s) don't seem to follow the old advice from the prophet, why should I follow their advice?
[/rant]
Sorry, I just had it fresh...

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Grewup/raised as Assembly of God (a "charismatic" fundie protestant group, who's "claim to fame" is "speaking in tongues").

AoG is pretty intolerant of other Christian groups, as a denomination. Individual group-members' results will vary .

Haven't been to an AoG church since I was a senior in High School, back in the late 70's.

My parents changed over to Methodist along about then, and from HS senior on, I went to the Methodist church.  Up until I quit going altogether.

As for Methodists-- they are even wider spread from right-wing-uber-intolerant-WE-are-the-ONLY-ONES through the middle-road all the way out to 'progressive Christians' that would be right at home in a Unitarian or Secular Humanist service.

The Methodist's official position on gays is (paraphrased by me) "gay folk are okay. gay behavior is not okay.  No actively gay people may be ordained."  The degree to which this is strictly followed varies from church to church, and sometimes with individual churches. It's a big deal every national conference, which meets every 4 years. So far, the more liberal bunch has added "gay folk are okay" wording and kept out "gays are bad people" wording the last 3 national meets.

[goat starer]

lapsed at 12 (apparently the catholics think Goats are going to hell)

[beagle]

Brought up Church of England (Protestant) in a very half-hearted way. My parents are not religious at all, but schools had assemblies with hymns and little kids were taught Religious Education, and made Christmas cards and Easter bunny stuff as part of lessons (no separation of Church and State in England).
By the time I was in secondary school multiculturalism was more established and R.E. taught all major world religions, but mainly by teachers who believed none of them (except possibly Goat's fundamentalist socialism).

As a non-Catholic I admire the way Catholicism often has people (usually nuns) dishing out care in the worst places, and the way it doesn't change its principles for reasons of popularity. Unfortunately they're not principles I agree with.
The wishy-washy "humanism with old buildings" of the C of E would be more tempting if I traded in atheism, though I suspect Christ would raise an eyebrow at the wealth amassed by either Church.

[Bluenose]

I was brought up Catholic.  My mother is Catholic, my father was nominally C of E, although he usually described himself as a "wheel barrow" (went wherever he was pushed).  He has subsequently converted to Catholicism.

I went through the whole thing, right up to and including confirmation.  Went through the usual period of questioning everything.  I vividly rememeber one day when I was 14 sitting up a jacarandah tree in my maternal grandparents' front yard and ruminating on life the universe and everything and suddenly realising that I just didn't believe.  Have never since found any evidence of or argument for any sort of divine being that even slightly convinces me, or even raises a serious question.

Sibling Bluenose

[Swatopluk]

I'd call myself a Lutheran agnostic by now.
Having lost faith (gradually, no specific event responsible), I still have and respect a lot of values from the Lutheran upbringing (and have not shed my prejudices against the idolatric aspects of Roman Catholicism).

[Sibling Lambicus the Toluous]

I was raised mainly non-religious, though my grandmother would take me to her Baptist church on occasion growing up.  Since what little religion I got was Protestant, I voted for that one.

For the most part, religion was just something that was part of the family history.  My Mom's side is made up of Baptists and Quakers, and there were a few family stories that had to do with religion.*  My Dad's side is Irish Protestant, but I never got any sort of anti-Catholicism from them... the general feeling was that there are twits on both sides, and everything in Northern Ireland would be better if people could learn to live with their differences.

I've been experiencing Catholicism first-hand for the better part of three years: she's Catholic, so I sometimes go with her to church, and of course we were married in a Catholic church, so I had to go through the interviews with the priest and the marriage preparation classes.  Apparently, I got extra attention because I'm unbaptised.  The priest told me that he had to go to the bishop with a "Petition for Difference of Cult" (no joke - that's what they call it!).

Nowadays, I still go with my wife occasionally, but I've also started attending the local Unitarian Universalist service.




*Like this one:

My Mom's family originally came from St. Thomas, a town in rural Ontario where they had an allied Air Force training centre during World War 2.  One day, my great uncle, a fervent tee-totaling Baptist, was approached by a couple of airmen on leave who asked him, "excuse me, do you know where we can get a drink?"

My great uncle roared back at them, "IN HELL!"

The airmen walked off, confused.

[Opsa]

I was raised Unitarian, but a weirdly high percentage of my real-life friends were raised Catholic.

I think that many born-Catholics and Unitarians share an almost irreverant(!?) love of discussing spirituality.

[Outis the Unready]

I was raised nonreligious, my mom is functionally agnostic. My neighborhood was UU and Jewish.
(I chose atheist, it was closest of them)

[Sibling Chatty]

Raised Southern Baptist.

Offered ordination by a different Baptist group, by the United Methodint Church and by the Christian Church.

Refused all ordination, based on a sincere belief that most chuches still treated women as second class members, so why be an elevated second class member? Some things have changed since then, some never will.

[The Meromorph]

Raised Catholic - full boat, altar boy and everything.
Currently juggler of mental models. 

[Griffin NoName]

Raised as an Anglicised Jew. This meant learning all the rules, obeying them when anyone was watching, breaking them when not, having all the jewish law and language beaten into me, and losing out in both worlds I existed in. All my friends who were not jews were not jews so at soem level they werent "real" friends and all my friends who were jews knew the rules and laws properly and never broke them. The anglicised part added a further complexity : 200 years in Britain had caused my family to be creative with the rules. I had to abide by my parents workarounds. Like ok to be caught by the frummers while putting shopping in the car (not allowed to drive or shop) on Shabbat, but only if wearing a skirt and not trousers. I gave up G-d as soon as I could.

[DaveL]

Yes indeedy. Catholic schools, altar boy, novena attendance, saying the rosary, the whole bit.

The bit I really regret signing pro-life partitions, mainly due to group pressure. That's so not me these days.

It was truly revealing, finding out that many of the rituals I thought truly holy were man made and have changed over time (eg never touching the eucharist with your hands, purgatory etc).

In the end I just grew out of it. Mild atheist these days, but still looking for that definitive 'something'.

[Kiyoodle the Gambrinous]

Although my family is officially Catholic (officially in the meaning of "we celebrate Christmas and Easter, but there is no religion behind it, just out of tradition, and because of all the free stuff you get"), I was born and raised atheist.

Which isn't very strange, because the Czech Republic is actually the least religious (ore on of the bottom ten, I think) countries in the world.