I am curious as to how many people here are still the faith that they were raised in. Are you?

Question

Have you elected to remain the faith that you were raised or have you found your own path in this life? Why?
Peace Be With You,
Debra

Answer 1

I am and I am not in the Faith I was raised.

I was raised in my earliest years in a non-denominational Christian Church. When I was 12, my family quit going to Church without discussion. In my mid-twenties I converted (came home) to the Catholic Church.

So, in the sense that I am Christian, yes I am still the Faith that I was raised in. In the sense that I have become Catholic, I have found my own path.

Answer 2

No I have changed, I was raised Baptist but I have found that the answers that path offers me doesn't make sense to me. I have spent some time looking around and decided that my current path offers me the answers that I can agree with.

I would go into greater depth of why I chose to find a different path but I realized that one thing I hold very dear is the right of everyone to chose their own path and therefore I wouldn't want to wrongly influence someone away from a path they chose.

There are many paths to follow, and I feel that they all lead to the same place, it is just the scenery along the way that differs.

Blessed Be )O(

Answer 3

If you mean denomination of a religion, no. I was raised in the Anglican denomination of Christianity, but have left that church a few years ago.

Being a member of a strict denomination of Christianity no longer appealed to me. I have friends who are Wicca and have always been interested in their beliefs and the science behind their herbal remedies, etc. For a while, I floundered between the Christian and Wicca faiths, until I found the right path for me. I became a Christian Witch five years ago and have never looked back. It's a combination of Christianity and Wicca. I have been slandered by many people who do not think that Christianity and Wicca can be united in one religion, but the thing is, many of the Christian beliefs are based on the Wicca doctrine to begin with.

This is the path I have chosen. My deeply religious mother would excommunicate me from the family if she ever knew the truth, but it's a risk I'm willing to take for inner peace.

Bright Blessings and peace be with you, too.

Answer 4

My younger brothers and I were raised amongst Jehovahs' Witnesses. ( Mum & Dad are baptised) At 15/16 I went teenage-weird & wanted to 'do stuff'. So for a couple of years I was 'experiencing the world' (but I still did beleive this was the truth & knew I should go back at some stage) so at 19 and 24 my husband-to-be (not a JW) and I had a baby (beautiful chubby boy) While I was pregnant I had time to stop & really think seriously about what I was doing & what I needed to do for our son... so I started studying with Jehovahs' Witnesses. And that's going very well, I fully believe this is the truth. (With respect to everyone else :)) So yeah I'm heading back in the direction of the religion I was brought up in. :)
respect x

Answer 5

I am Buddhist and Shinto but was raised in a Baptist Church environment. When I grew up I decided that I would take my original cultural path. I was tired of the hypocrisy and hellfire. I wanted peace, nature, respect and love. I am very content with my decision. Only one family member has stayed with the Christ based faith. The rest of us are on a path of serenity and happiness. Peace and Light to you this holiday season, whrldpz

Answer 6

I am about as far from the faith that I was raised in as you can get. I was raised strict southern baptist and am now a Pagan. I never agreed with most of christianities beliefs and started researching other religions at a pretty young age. I have been an avowed Pagan since my early teens and have never regretted my decision or my chosen beliefs.

Answer 7

I was raised by a mother who was (and still is) one of Jehovah's Witnesses, and a stepfather who was (but now is not) Catholic. I chose to become a baptized Witness at 15 years of age, and I have remained one ever since. I have studied beliefs of many religions over the years, and I truly believe that the Bible is God's word, and that it's message is much clearer and simpler than most religions teach. What people believe is up to them, and I truly respect that.

Answer 8

I was baptized Catholic as an infant, then converted to the Orthodox Church at the age of 23 because I saw more of a community in Orthodoxy. I remained Orthodox for 13 years and then returned to the Catholic Church because I wanted to have a form of religious life in the everyday world that the Orthodox Church does not have.

Answer 9

No I am not in the faith I was raised in. I discovered my own path when the path I was on ran out of growing room.
And also with you,
Amanda

Answer 10

Yes, I was raised Catholic and I'm now Catholic. I rejected my faith from my teen years for more than 20 years, but eventually found my way back.
Many elements combined - I went to Rome on business and visited the Vatican, St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museum of Religious Art, including the Sistine Chapel. This inspired me and started drawing me back to the church.

Life had a way of showing me the limits of rationality and logic that I thought were a better basis for deciding how to live my life.

My father got ill and we were told he would be dead within 2 or 3 weeks. I was distraught, unable to sleep, and felt helpless. I finally prayed to God that my father be allowed to recover and live at least a few more years so that he could meet and get to know my son, who had just been born. In spite of the doctor's gloomy predictions, as soon as we brought him home to die, his kidney's started working again and he lived several more years, so my prayers were answered.

Finally, at my wifes request I raised our children in the church, which led me to study the rituals, practices, and sacraments. I discovered that rather than the archaic, meaningless and empty rituals I had imagined them to be when I was a teenager, they were beautiful, effective and relevant practices that made me a better man.

As a simple example, reconciliation and confession has been a powerful tool for living in my life. I have been forgiven for many of the stupid, hurtful and inappropriate things I have done. I still know I did them, and I have to remember that and sincerely work hard to avoid repeating those mistakes, but the burden of guilt has been lifted, and that is a powerful blessing. In addition, the fact that I have to confess my failing to my spiritual father serves as a powerful incentive to avoid sin.

There are other examples of the amazing power of prayer in my life, one of my favorite is when I was struggling at my job, not enjoying it at all, and considering applying for a job somewhere else. My employer had been good to me for over a decade, but my new boss was difficult to live with, and I was having a hard time making my mind up. I finally prayed to god for guidance and help making my decision. The next morning I went to work and was laid off, and I had a new job with a better boss and much more enjoyable work within 2 weeks. This also leads to an important lesson: be careful what you pray for, as God may give you what you need, not what you think you want.

Answer 11

Peace be unto you as well!

Although I'm still Christian, I have some doctrinal differences from my childhood. My parents went to Bible Institute and I grew up knowing about Jesus and being saved. However, I do see things differently than many Fundamentalists today. Largely because I've read the Bible and can see the Bible in context rather than just reading isolated passages.