How religious are you?

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-15-2005
How religious are you?
31
Sun, 11-26-2006 - 1:56pm

Okay - it's sunday and I've come from a very sweet day at church made even sweeter because of the message of the season of thankfulness and Christ's birth and it made me wonder - how religious are you?

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iVillage Member
Registered: 12-28-2004
Mon, 11-27-2006 - 9:56am

WOW, Nancy. I could have written your post.We are Christians.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-29-2003
Mon, 11-27-2006 - 10:33am

We are non denominational christian. I call myself a hippie christian. I was raised catholic and left the church as an adult when nothing about the rules of catholocism made sense anymore. I grew up going to church, but learned nothing of the bible or jesus. I started doing bible studies, praying about what I believed, etc. The more I did that, the less catholocism meant to me. It was more of a family obligation. I also read some comparative religion books and came to accept that catholocism had a 3 pronged approach of bible, tradition & catechism that I couldn't swallow. What drove me nuts was the people who told me I didn't understand catholicism, when the truth is I couldn't do it because I did understand.

I believe God cannot be stuffed in a box. He's so much bigger than we can wrap our minds around. If anything science only confirms to me a presence of a higher being.

I don't go for legalism or any sort or dogma. I have a very hard time with denominations because of their interpretations of what a "real" christian thinks or does. Personal convictions are just that. The more I read the bible the more I believe the message is dead on. Not only is there instruction on keeping healthy in the old testament... ie the foods they ate, circumcision, etc. it also keeps society civilized. Salvation is extremely easy... acceptance of jesus as the son of god. It is a gift to be received. You can't volunteer enough, be good enough, etc. We aren't good enough, we're offered a gift we can either accept or not. You don't get to heaven by being good.

Now my son is far more hardcore. It's really interesting how fascinated he is by religion. We had an interesting discussion on genesis. If you look closely there is light on the first day, but the sun and moon don't appear til day 4, I believe. So we talk about what we think it means. I think one meaning could be Jesus is the light in day 1 and the time isn't necessarily 24 literal hours. But I won't die on the sword over it. I don't believe earth is only 5,000 years old, but I don't know if it's hundreds of millions either. I think God put all the animals on the earth and while they may have adapted to the environment, I don't think a fish one day turned into a completely different animal. Was Jonah really in a big fish (it never says whale) or is it really an allegory for Israel? I love psalm 23... the lord is my shephard, I shall not want, etc. There are some beautiful passages in psalms and proverbs.

I'm interested in others religions, but I find people to be very anti-christian. It's a really bad word these days. Christianity doesn't mean I'll thump my bible over your head. The problem is in all faiths and religions people take one passage out of their bible to prove a point when in reality you need to examine the passage around it, the time it was written, who it is written to and for what purpose. I find it fascinating to speak to another well informed person of their religion. I find it aggravating for people to just base things on gut feelings and what they think their religion is without any investigation on their part.

Not surprisingly since we moved I can't find a church I like, but I'm still looking. I know I've got God on my side and I can't imagine thinking I was truly on my own.

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-17-2004
Mon, 11-27-2006 - 5:31pm

Like others have mentioned, this has been a hot topic in our home recently. My husband and I were raised Catholic, and were married in the Catholic church. Throughout my adult life I have had issues with different teachings and beliefs, but I was able to overlook them. Things became much more complicated with the church pedophile scandal that really rocked the church here. I was enraged with how the children were unprotected, and with how horribly the church treated the families. I was even able to get pass that when the priests from my local church signed the letter asking the Cardinal to step down, and he did. Later the pastor of my church was sent to Africa (no, I'm not kidding), and the new pastor sent to our parish was very conservative. I left the church during the last election two years ago when the pastor removed two parishioners from their positions as a lector and a teacher due to their political views. I thought this crossed a line, and for me it was the last straw. I withdrew my daughter from CCD, and told my husband that I would no longer consider myself Catholic.

Since that time we have discussed church off and on. My husband still wants to be Catholic, but he has no interest in going to church. He also doesn't pray, or read the bible. Being Catholic is just part of his identity that he doesn't want to have to think about. This became a more heated issue because this would have been the year my son would have received his first communion. When we try to discuss the topic we get no where. In my husband's perfect world, I would continue to take the children to church every Sunday, and enroll them in CCD, with little involvement from him. That's not happening.

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-28-2002
Mon, 11-27-2006 - 7:26pm

DH grew up in the Catholic church, his first wife was Catholic, and so was their son.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-16-2004
Mon, 11-27-2006 - 7:55pm

We are a Christian family.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-01-2006
Mon, 11-27-2006 - 11:26pm
Jesus freak here - Christian
We go to church, we do skip on occasion. Hannah is involved in the youth group. They meet on Wed. evenings. They go on a winter, spring and summer retreat. In fact in feb. they are going to play in the snow for a couple of days. DH is involved in the summer sports camp. On occasion we take a bible study together. I'm involved in a ladies bible study we meet once a week.




iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Tue, 11-28-2006 - 11:08am
Not very. I grew up Catholic. DH grew up Baptist. His mother converted to Jehovas Witness and his grandmother converted to Church of Christ. His sister is a BAC. So religion is a very sticky subject with my inlaws since they are constantly arguing about which religion is *right*. We found Lutheran to be a pretty good fit for us, but don't really attend services.

     Lisa
and her two "whirlwinds"
     DS-13 & DD-9

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-28-2004
Tue, 11-28-2006 - 11:09am

Thanks for sharing the poem. I'd never read this one before.


I copied and sent it to DH.


Thanks for sharing....









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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-16-2004
Tue, 11-28-2006 - 1:59pm

You're welcome.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-22-2006
Tue, 11-28-2006 - 2:37pm
Lolly,
I am also LDS, the difference is that my DH is a non-active member and says that he doesn't want anything to do with the church! I am not allowed to "make" our children go so if they don't want to they do not go! The only one of the 6 that doesn't go is my soon to be 16YO son, however he is taking seminary this year and loves it which is getting him to the church on Wednesdays for activities, so I am hopefully that he will get to know the boys his age and start coming with me on sundays!! All of my girls ages 11(12 in Jan.),9,7&5 love to go and think the Primary is great! My baby is 4 and he is actually hard to get to go-he crys when I leave him in primary and is more inclined to stay with his dad because my dh does his best to talk him out of going to church with mommy, this past sunday he did just that it is soo frusterating for me!!
Virginia