Encounters with different beliefs when you were a kid

[TheLightWithin]

Our neighbours were CofE and never went to mass on Sundays.

I wanted to be CofE, but mum said no, I had to go to mass.

I thought C of E were fairly high church and did mass?
Don't they have Sunday services at least?

 

[TheLightWithin]

I also remember contact with our Pueblo neighbors, (when we lived out West) my mom had been close to them growing up.
The culture was different, but I didn't know as much because I did not get to spend as much time with them as my mom did growing up due to the closest kid my age was a few years older )defended me from bullies a couple of times at school.) My mom was close in in age to the kids when she was young and used to visit the reservation with her friends (1950s or 60s.)
Different culturally, but I don't recall what if anything was shared about theological beliefs.

 

[TheLightWithin]

I remember my aunt being interested in horoscopes and tea leaves, and my grandmother (and mom somewhat) getting interested for a time.

I remember my grandmother having a Ouija board for a time.
She believed the house was haunted by a ghost she called Herman.
I thought of it like Halloween ghost stories or Caspar the friendly ghost
She blamed Herman for things disappearing or being moved around.
I only learned quite a bit later that Herman was my grandfather's father's name.
The IRL Herman was not a nice man - in fact, vicious in many many ways.

 

[TheLightWithin]

I was lucky as a child, as my first memories of religion as a young child was when I lived on Penang Island Malaysia in the early to mid 1960's. Obviously those memories enabled me to embrace the diversity of Faith, even though born to a Christian faith background upbringing.

Looking back I feel I was lucky too, to have what I did in terms of diverse influence.
I used to sometimes wish that we belonged to some kind of regular religion to be more like everybody else, but now I'm glad for the unique shape of spirituality in my childhood home. If nothing else, religious freedom at work. But so much more.

 

[rocala]

Looking back I feel I was lucky too,

Yes, I think you and Tony were both lucky. My experience was very different. I was sent to Sunday school by my grandmother. I was furious about this, but all she would say is "it's nice". She was a very simple woman, her world consisted of nice and not nice.

In those days you sometimes got religious people knocking at doors collecting for charity. This happened one evening, but after giving the man a few pennies, he tried to explain about his churches' mission. She was really furious, telling everybody that she did not have time to listen to "his mumbo jumbo". I was delighted and kept shouting, "but it's nice, it's nice."

It was examples of hypocrisy, such as this, that contributed so much to my early hostility to religion.

 

[TheLightWithin]

Yes, I think you and Tony were both lucky.

In those days you sometimes got religious people knocking at doors collecting for charity.

Still do sometimes, people go door to door evangelizing too.
Or just to announce a new church is in the neighborhood.

It was examples of hypocrisy, such as this, that contributed so much to my early hostility to religion.

I remember my mom and grandpa, sometimes my grandma, having some antipathy to religion.
Sometimes for hypocrisy, or other problems as they perceived them.
My grandma thought that door to door evangelists were going the way of Jonestown
I think my grandfather wasn't raised religious and was bah-humbug about all religion until he came into contact with the WCG church, then he trumpeted that as the one true church, and continued his disapproval of other churches.
He said the world would end soon and only the WCG had it right
My mom and grandma thought the WCG were going the way of Jonestown...

 

[muhammad_isa]

Don't they have Sunday services at least?

Yes, several.
I used to have to attend 3 services on a Sunday, when I was a choir boy.
2 in the morning, with a breakfast in between .. and 1 in the evening.

 

[Thomas]

I thought C of E were fairly high church and did mass?
Don't they have Sunday services at least?

Well they range from high to low, and they do have services, but a lot of people when I was a kid identified as CofE because they are English, with no specific religious confession or inclination ...

 

[Tony Bristow-Stagg]

Yes, I think you and Tony were both lucky. My experience was very different. I was sent to Sunday school by my grandmother. I was furious about this, but all she would say is "it's nice". She was a very simple woman, her world consisted of nice and not nice.

In those days you sometimes got religious people knocking at doors collecting for charity. This happened one evening, but after giving the man a few pennies, he tried to explain about his churches' mission. She was really furious, telling everybody that she did not have time to listen to "his mumbo jumbo". I was delighted and kept shouting, "but it's nice, it's nice."

It was examples of hypocrisy, such as this, that contributed so much to my early hostility to religion.

Though my first memory of experiences with diverse faiths now have a solid framework of understanding, I never pursued faith, way too busy living life doing what I wanted to do.

Just before finding the Baha'i Faith we lived in Western Australia and in the 70's and 80's the "Orange People" headed by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh were all in the news. He owned about 92 Rolls Royce's. Basically a big con. I worked at my father's service station on the road from Perth to Fremantle, so I filled their cars regularly.

When the Rajneeshee sex cult turned Fremantle orange

Former Rajneeshee cult member Avi says being part of the religious movement in Fremantle in the early 1980s was like going to a theme park every day but with bucket loads of sex.

www.watoday.com.au

Those cons really fed my dislike of most religion, and the dislike was a passion. The night my wife told me she had some wonderful news, that she has become a Baha'i, all I could do was shout "What, who gets all the money?". That was the worst thing she had to face (and she had face horrific stuff as a child), what a joy killer I was.

Thank God she has a heart of gold.

Regards Tony

 

[rocala]

but a lot of people when I was a kid identified as CofE because they are English, with no specific religious confession or inclination ...

When I went to join the army a part of the process was an interview with a sergeant as he went through the application form. All was going well until he got to the part for religion. I had written "none". His attitude changed, "whats this" he said, sounding irritated. I said something like, I was not raised with any religious belief, I was not Christened, I don't practise a religion and I hold no religious views,
"That's Church of England" he said, and he crossed out none and wrote C of E.

 

[Tony Bristow-Stagg]

When I went to join the army a part of the process was an interview with a sergeant as he went through the application form. All was going well until he got to the part for religion. I had written "none". His attitude changed, "whats this" he said, sounding irritated. I said something like, I was not raised with any religious belief, I was not Christened, I don't practise a religion and I hold no religious views,
"That's Church of England" he said, and he crossed out none and wrote C of E.

Ha ha, that is what my Christian upbringing was in C of E Christianity when it suited.

Regards Tony

 

[muhammad_isa]

..identified as CofE because they are English ...

Guilty as charged

 

[TheLightWithin]

When I was in third grade, I remember sitting at lunch near some kids who were religious. I think one said they went to a Catholic church and the other said their church was Presbyterian. They seemed to be analyzing the proper technique for prayer before lunch. I now realize the student who was Catholic must have been showing the others the technique of crossing herself.

When we moved back East, I remember changing schools a couple of times and in my new school, several families were rather vocally religious. The most popular girl in my 5th grade class was a JW. There were a couple of really, really vocal fundamentalist families. Ran the school board for years and controlled all student trips to make sure they aligned with things they approved of, if memory serves.

I also remember in 6th grade, the Catholic students got to / had to leave school early a couple of days a month for cathecism.

What surprised me about being in what seemed like such a religious community, was how 5th and 6th graders were already so much like teenagers or what I thought teenagers were supposed to be like. The other girls were already wearing stockings and high heels and make-up. And were talking about dating! (This was in the early 1980s in a small farm community) They still questioned why I wore skirts to often, and questioned why I wore tights and Mary-Jane strap shoes "for little kids" and wondered why my hair was so long. My mom wouldn't dream of having me dress like that or wear makeup yet. And dating?

For some reason, our 6th grade teacher once asked us all our religion at home and wrote it on the board (I think we were studying the history of religion) I was going to use my grandfather's denomination but what do you call the WCG? I think he managed to get out of it that it at 7th Day Church of God and wrote that on the board.

Between that , and some people possibly have known my grandmother' family (originally from the area - and may have been from some kind of Pentecostal background.)

A bunch of people seemed to think they had me figured out when they put that together - my long hair, my age appropriate clothing, and my lack of makeup were attributed to me belonging to some Holiness sect more conservative than any of theirs.... I think I remember somebody once asking me if we spoke in tongues or did snake handling.... (I don't know if the church my grandmother was raised in had that or not, I don't recall right now if she ever mentioned it)

What I remember later, is that when some of the religious kids and their families got to know a little about my mom, and found out she was not religious, and wasn't raising us religious, we got a lot of disapproving looks.

 

[TheLightWithin]

She sounds like a little evangelical and would probably have done that on her own. I was like that. Theres no big controversy that the school or her parents would instruct her to do that. It was Jesus that tells us to do that as the great commission.

It's just that we were so little, 6 or 7. But she may have just learned by observing adults, and kids share what they experience with one another.

I don't remember if it was this early, or at some later point, that my mom told me to never let anybody push their religion on me.
She always said that she would never stand in my way of any religious pursuit, but that her main boundaries were that whatever it was, I not go in just because of peer pressure, and that I not push it on her.

I've always internalized this as a proper stance on religious freedom for us all.

 

[moralorel]

Raised in a Catholic family. Most of my aunts and uncles are named Mary, Josephine, Joseph, John, etc. I started reading the Bible at age 5 but nobody did a good job explaining my questions about the Bible. So I eventually became a skeptic and atheist. But I still had a fascination with the Bible and other religions. Became friends with a few Jehovah's Witnesses. They converted my sister but not me. Became friends with a boy from India. His family forced Hinduism on him. But he didn't believe in it. So he was always happy to eat at our house so he could eat meat. My aunt converted to Baha'i. But she and her husband never talked of their faith until I asked about it. I too encountered Herbert Armstrong and his son on TV. His show did answer a lot of my questions. But I still didn't follow his church.

I didn't get to experience other religions until college after that. Went to Guatemala and met people who were still following the Mayan faith and the national faith of Futbol. Was intrigued by the Mayans who also practiced Catholicism at the same time. I lived outside of Chicago so I became friends with Jews and Muslims. The interesting thing was that many of these Jews and Muslims were friends with each other. So different from what I would think. Visited a Buddhist temple in Chicago. Also found that Buddhists were so much different from what my professors described. Their explanation of Karma was different from what I had learned. Hung out with a few Pagans and learned a LOT! And then I became good friends with many from the local Hmong community. Definitely a fun group of people to be with.

 

[TheLightWithin]

When I was 12, (12½), for some reason, despite her disapproval of organized religion, my mom decided to send me to "Vacation Bible School" that summer -- kind of like a Bible day camp, at the Methodist church down the street. I don't know what her reasons were.

They taught out of the Bible as promised. I remember learning about Noah's Ark and the promise of the rainbow, but I do not remember if they were overtly adamant about us accepting this as literal science or history. Maybe nobody would have asked that question in that group at that age.

When I came home asking questions about things like the Trinity that the bible school teachers had tried to explain, mom and grandma told me to ask my grandfather, who railed against it. Also, later I asked for a Bible of my own and reported believing some of what I learned. I think my mom was not expecting that. (Though didn't she always tell me to have an open mind?) It all seemed really important though too, and the bible teachers seemed so confident and passionate about the things they were explaining. I knew not to agree with all of it as I had learned different things from my family, and had read a lot, but going to the Youth Group at least threatened to be fun, and I thought it was important to try to agree with at least some of what the denomination taught to take part.

I also asked to be baptized when I was - somewhere 13-15.
My mom always said she would never stand in the way of my beliefs, only insisted I never push any beliefs on her.

 

[TheLightWithin]

During my teens also, my mom was very into material like what is found here Jonathan Parker | Guided Meditation Retreats & Self Help Programs
It was that teacher, some earlier incarnations of his catalog, but a lot of the same material.

I listened to these materials along with my mom. I listened with an open mind, and felt the concepts explained a lot about life, the universe, and everything ( ) I didn't regard it as in conflict with Christianity because I didn't expect to agree with everything or even understand everything I learned from any source. I accepted some of what my grandfather preached but not all of it. I was used to that. I also had read enough to know there were a whole lot of denominations of Christianity, now and historically, and I knew of the existence of the Gnostics, whom I then thought were the earliest Christians, and who therefore probably had it right. I had drawn the conclusion from things I had read that the earliest Christians may have believed some combination of what my mom, grandma, and grandpa believed, and that the other beliefs that were considered Christian were just developed along the way because denominations and that was just what people did.

 

[TheLightWithin]

Naturally, I didn't share that much of my beliefs with peers. Some of it was none of them seemed really analytical or philosophically inclined at all. And also, a few people were from really fundamentalist families, and almost ANYTHING you said that wasn't exactly in line with what they thought incurred a disapproving scowl.

 

[Faithfulservant]

When I was 12, (12½), for some reason, despite her disapproval of organized religion, my mom decided to send me to "Vacation Bible School" that summer -- kind of like a Bible day camp, at the Methodist church down the street. I don't know what her reasons were.

VBS is free? Something to occupy idle children during long summer vacations?

They taught out of the Bible as promised. I remember learning about Noah's Ark and the promise of the rainbow, but I do not remember if they were overtly adamant about us accepting this as literal science or history. Maybe nobody would have asked that question in that group at that age.

They would have taught it as history.

When I came home asking questions about things like the Trinity that the bible school teachers had tried to explain, mom and grandma told me to ask my grandfather, who railed against it. Also, later I asked for a Bible of my own and reported believing some of what I learned. I think my mom was not expecting that. (Though didn't she always tell me to have an open mind?) It all seemed really important though too, and the bible teachers seemed so confident and passionate about the things they were explaining. I knew not to agree with all of it as I had learned different things from my family, and had read a lot, but going to the Youth Group at least threatened to be fun, and I thought it was important to try to agree with at least some of what the denomination taught to take part.

I also asked to be baptized when I was - somewhere 13-15.
My mom always said she would never stand in the way of my beliefs, only insisted I never push any beliefs on her.

I'm sad for this child. Searching for truth.. faith enough to believe with no adult to take her by the hand to mentor her.

 

[rocala]

When I was a kid and even into my twenties, Spiritualism was quite common in Britain. It had had a big boost with the deaths of the first World War and slowly dwindled over decades. My grandfather had an aunt who was an amateur medium and both he and my mother were impressed by her.

It turned out that our local doctor was a believer, and he left his house to the Spiritualist Church.

My mother I were returning home from somewhere one day, I was about 11 or 12, when she said let's hurry, my back is very bad. She had injured her back about ten years previously and occasionally had spells of severe pain. There were no visible signs, she walked normally. Just before we got to our street, a man on the other side of the road waved to us and ran towards us. He apologised for the interruption and said I know how much your back is hurting, and I think I can help you. He gave her his card and left. He was from the group which was in the doctor's house. We were both amazed. My mother started asking around after that, he did have a very good reputation, but she never went.

Years later, A friend asked me to go to some seances with him. I attended an instantly recognised the faith healer as the medium. I saw things there which I cannot explain. I became a regular for a while until something scared the life out of me and I stopped going.

I have no doubt that there is something in spiritualism, not sure what, but I do not see it as a spiritual path.