Religion/denominations - what made you walk away?
 

If you're of a different belief now...

What made you walk away from a specific religion/denomination or religion in general?

science.

Quiet introspection and reasoning. :)

Actually, it was the priest arguing with me.

I was Catholic, now not practicing anything (but still believing in the faith in general).

When the priest not only could not (would not ?) answer my questions, but told me I was wrong to have them, I said "time to go." I wish I could go back, but since I have fundamental issues with some of the doctrines and what I'm told is supposed to be the "right way", I will just have to miss the singing and churches.

I walked away and came back. But I only came back because I found a Catholic parish and priest that doesn't make me feel like I am condemned to hell for my past. Perhaps I'm lucky.

But I am still very curious about other religions in general.

Let's see:

14 years of Catholic education, which included two years of preschool/kindergarten. Mix that with one strictly religous, very pre-Vatican II believing father who insisted the earlier one attended mass, the more religious you were :)

The same father insisted on the celebrant for my wedding mass, who had been assistant pastor at two churches we'd attended growing up (and a man I couldn't stand.) Turns out my instincts were right, because this priest was the same guy hit with dozens of sexual abuse/assault claims and almost single handedly brought down the Archdiocese of Louisville due to the number of lawsuits filed just against him.

Toss in my own deep beliefs that some of the Church's doctrines and "right ways" (thanks ZTA1806!) and top it all off with relatives who insisted that we'd all go to hell if we followed my father's own burial wishes by not having a full-blown Catholic funeral mass with the associated visitations and wakes, etc and that was more than enough for me.

These days, I'm what they term a "non-practicing Catholic" and do not participate in any formal religion.

I realized that I don't believe in God.

ETA: I was raised Presbyterian and later became a Baha'i and am now Buddhist.

:) I'm "non-practicing" too! My mom used to have a fit, since after 16 years at all-girl catholic school and getting her graduate degree from another catholic school, she still wants to go to mass every day.

I think it still bugs her a bit, but she's very understanding that it is not that I am a non-believer, just that I have my own way of expressing my faith. I also think it makes her feel better to light candles for me (but that could have something to do with my job, too). Even though I'm no longer in a LT relationship, she still has a minister (also a former Catholic, and a very cool guy) on call for my wedding (someday). Like I said, she's not pushy about things anymore. I guess she figures if He hasn't taken me out yet, I must not be that bad afterall (LOL)
:D

I guess you could say I've walked away from traditional Catholicism - I'm a neoThomist and I'm an Americanist, neither of which the Church is fond of, but it's certainly the direction the US Church is heading in. I'm not a strict interpretationist of the Bible. ;)

I grew up Catholic even though my mother wasn't strict about it and my fatehr is an atheist. My aunt is very super-Catholic and she pushed my brother and I into it when we were kids. My brother rebelled while I was there but not there. It wasn't until my sophomore first semester when alot of crap happened that I got serious about God. I first looked into getting back into the Catholic Church but I was already skeptical because of the whole priest abuse scandal and stuff. I didn't get back into it because no one really wanted to answer my questions. I would say now I'm a bible based non-denominational evangelical. I take all Christian beliefs with a pinch of salt and a look at my bible.

I didn't really practice anything before I got saved and started going to an independant baptist church. I went to a Methodist church and a Church of Christ church and a Catholic Church, all with different friends. I didn't really know what I believed. I switched because what they were telling me didn't make sense to me, but I found what I believe to be the truth in the bible. My faith is stronger than ever now.

I know I could google this, but you will probably give a better explanation. Does the neoThomist thing have anything to do with the Gospel of Thomas that was found, or am I completely on the wrong side of the fence?

Much to the amusement of many on this thread I'm sure, I find myself being pulled toward Catholicism, but I think it's more of a way to honor my grandmother and great-aunt than anything. The Lutheran church (or maybe it's just my home congregation) seems to be pushing evangelizing more and more, which I do not feel comfortable with. That and losing a lot of tradition. Call me shallow but I do not like to see paper signs made by 3 year olds hanging in the nave - it's TACKY!! The church I go to downtown is much more traditional and has more of the Catholic/Episcopal feel (i.e. wafers, intinction communion and Stations of the Cross on the wall).

one time, we lost the defining scriptures so we had to make it up, then the next time, i got turned off by the monthly payments.


weird

I didn't walk away from Catholicism so much as walked toward the Episcopal Church. I kind of fell into it because I wasn't very religious when I married Mr. KR and so we got married in his faith. Since we didn't get married in a Catholic church, we had the girls baptized in the Episcopal church. Then it dawned on me that, even though I was attending Episcopal services, I was the only family member who wasn't "official". So then I got received into the Church and I'm all official now :)


PS: Dionysus, is your deleted post count accurate? Only 1 in an entire month? Girl, you must be getting boring in your old age! ;) Either that or I'm not paying enough attention :)

Actually neo-Thomism is St. Thomas Aquinas - not the Gospel Thomas. It's, in short form, a return to intellectualism and modernity in the Catholic Church.

I took an American Catholic Life and Though class through our Theo department this summer and it was probably one of the best religion classes I've taken in my life.

I was raised in a very strict Catholic household. My father, in particular, is a very religious pre-Vatican II believing Catholic (like AOIIalum's father).

Rightly or wrongly, I have always perceived the Church as very closed-minded. That has been my experience with the Church, an experience underlined when I got kicked out of CCD for asking a question. :rolleyes:

I knew better than to question my identity as a Catholic while living under my father's roof. But once I left for college, I really began to think about things, and realized that Catholicism was not the right choice for me. Some years later, I realized that Judaism was the right choice for me... and now I am Jewish. :)

I'm currently a very skeptical United Methodist.

My mother was raised Catholic, and graduated from a Catholic high school. My father was raised Baptist. Both have a lot of negative feelings about their childhood faith, though my dad converted to Catholicism in order to marry my mom.

We moved around a lot when I was a child, so I wasn't baptized until the age of 13. I was baptized and confirmed within two minutes of eah other at my United Methdist church in Georgia.

About the time high school began, church youth groups became very cliquey. It was the Baptist crew, the Methodist crew and the Catholic crew. The Baptist kids were the most annoying of all. I think to this day those kids were brainwashed. I went to a Wednesday night youth group meeting once, complete with rock'n'roll band, but what they said always haunted me.

So anyhow, once these little church groups were formed, I felt uncomfortable about going to church at all anymore, even though in previous years I was at Sunday School every Sunday and sang in the children's choir.

So basically it was the cliquiness of the area churches, put together with my parents' distaste for their own childhood faiths and my own skepticism that drove me to how I feel today.

Honestly, if it were up to me, all Christians would all be one thing: Christians. No denominations. But that's wishful thinking, of course.

I got kicked out of CCD many a time. ;)

Re: Religion/denominations - what made you walk away?
 

I never had a religion to walk away from. But I NEVER walked away from God and never will.

Imperial1

Was a So Bab.:(

Little Old Blue Hairs mad cooing noises about my Blonde Curly Hair. Screw that. No Where for 6 years.

Went to Anglican Church service.

Found what I wanted..

Catholic, it means Universial. Check Dictionary.

There is a difference in Roman and Anglican Catholic in essence.

But, like horse shoes, close!!!!!

Now, Christian could mean something to some but not others?

I grew up in a Baptist family. My grandfather is a Baptist minister, so from a young age my mom and dad took me to church. My dad actually converted from Catholocism for my mom. For a while everything was fine until high school. I had already started to drift away from the church even though I was baptized. Then we got a youth minister that wasn't accepting at all. When the church was choosing her, I had met her once and got strange feelings about her (ie didn't like her). I said these at the meeting before she was asked to come to the church and the church not only pushed me away but pushed my family away. After she left my family went back, but I developed my own take on religion.

My beliefs now are more simple. More like Judaism but not really. I still like the meaning of Christmas (ie giving and receiving, helping others, the REAL meaning of the Christmas tree, simple stuff like that). I go to church occasionally when I go home, but only to service because I don't like Sunday School at all. The whole telling me I'm wrong for what I feel thing usually happens.

:cool:

Neo-Thomist I know, but may I ask what is an Americanist?

Oh, I guess in the spirit of the thread I should add that I've always been Presbyterian, but I've also pretty much always been an ecumenically-minded Presbyterian, willing to learn and draw from other traditions like Catholicism, Anglicanism and Orthodoxy. Just like some Episcopalians would identify themselves as Anglo-Catholic and some Lutherans would identify themselves as Evangelical Catholics, I could probably be described as a Reformed Catholic. (And just so no one has to post asking what I mean by "Reformed," "Reformed" or the "Reformed tradition" refers to the Protestant churches, usually called "Reformed" in continental Europe and "Presbyterian" in Britain, that have their roots in the Calvin and the Geneva Reformation.)

It is still 1. I'm getting boring in my old age. :D

Americanism (nutshell definition) was a big controversy in the 19th Century because American Catholics such as Archbishop John Ireland and Cardinal Gibbons (along with some of the CUA faculty) felt that the European Church was too inwardly focused. It basically delt with Isaac Hecker's question of "How can religion be made compatible with a high degree of liberty and intelligence?"

There was a big debate about Americanism at the Third Plenary Council. If you want, I can recommend some readings on it. :)

Thanks for the info, GeekyPenguin. I get the idea now.

:cool:

Give up that hippy liberal ELCA Lutheran stuff and join me over on the LCMS side!! We're waaaaaay more traditional. (But not as crazy as those LCWS loonies. We do allow our women to vote and hold office.)

We're cool! I promise!!

My ELCA church in San Francisco (the mecca of hippy liberal) has wafers and intinction. My farm town has pita bread and the pastor said in his sermon last Sunday "Jesus is ready to get the party started". :eek: I miss my home church with dark wood, stained class windows and no contemporary worship music. Are you talking about the WELS people? I heard they don't let people drink or dance, boo to that.

I left the church for a few years. I questioned my faith a lot. Sometimes people in a particular church are enough to make you leave. I don't need a building or other people to have a relationship with God. I was always told if you question your faith it makes it that much stronger.

Has anyone read "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller? I thought he had some very interesting things to say. It talked about his life and experiences with Christianity, and I didn't subscribe to everything he said, but the book was still worth reading (IMHO).

Yeah, I always get that acronym wrong. Wisconsin Synod--the one our crazy pastor defected to when we kicked him out of our home church.

Sometimes I feel the rural churches feel the need to overcompensate their "contemporary-ness" as to not be seen "backwoods."

Give me a true pipe organ, the old red Lutheran hymnal and a Pastor that doesn't hail fire and brimstone and I'm pretty happy.

I TOTALLY agree with you & aurora - this is exactly what's going on in my home church. "We're 80 miles from a Limited, but dad gum it, we're going to make this church DA BOMB DIGGITY, DAWG!!" Next thing you know we'll be singing that old classic hymn How Great You Are.

And I understand the concept of making the church more approachable and welcoming to children, but there is such a thing as going too far.

<hijack>
When I was a child there was a special children's talk/sermon and we sat at the front of the church in front of the communion rail. It was after the reading of the gospel, and then we all went downstairs to play. Little kids can't sit that long, and they aren't taking communion, they shouldn't be forced to sit there, nor should those of us sitting in silent reflection be disturbed by them doing what they do because they are kids. Don't get me wrong I like little kids, but until they are old enough to acolyte, help with communion, or are being confirmed, they shouldn't have to be forced to sit still.

I don't know about you Sheila, but I find the blue WOV book to be too contemporary, and I like my service straight out of the LBW word for word. I am from a Norwegian Lutheran background and we don't do anything high spirited or contemporary. At home they still have services in German they take it that seriously. The ensembles of some Lutheran ministers drives me NUTS, but that is my issue.
</hijack>

I hate WOV. Half the hymns sound like Mr. Van Driesen from Beavis & Butt-Head wrote them. I'm surprised Lesbian Seagull isn't in there.

I'm old enough to remember the Service Book and Hymnal - and my mom pitching a royal fit against adopting the LBW in its place. Call me old fashioned, but I want my thees and thous and "lift up his countenance" back.

From perusing the LCMS website, I discovered we are to be getting a new hymnal by 2006. I'm not quite sure how I feel about that as I already dislike the current hymnal supplement from 1998.

I feel like we're "dumbing down" our services more and more. Pretty soon the Lord's Prayer will be:

Yo, Big Guy, upstairs
You're pretty cool, dude
In the hizzle for shizzle
Dude, Just tell us what you want us to do
Down here and up there
And, Yo, how about some food?
We're really sorry for all the bad stuff we do, okay?
And other people are really sorry for what they do to us
Yo, help us stay out of trouble, mmkay
Because, seriously, YOU ROCK!!!
Yeah!

This totally made my day :) One of the funniest things I've seen in awhile :D

I wasn't raised in any religion. We celebrate Christmas, but who doesn't?

The inordinate amount of suffering some peoples have received for millennia has basically sealed my belief that there is no benevolent Creator. Not to mention, woman has gotten a pretty ishtty deal in Christianity.

This had me ROFLMBO -- too funny when you get a mental picture. Was he wearing overalls with a hanky hanging out of his back pocket?! :D

I kinda sorta led hubby away from the Catholic Church. Well - he did it himself after he realized that there are a lot of inherent issues with the doctrine. I about had it out with my in-laws regarding Eli's baptism -- we did it when he was 6 weeks old. They were terrified that something would happen before then, and he wouldn't be seen before the eyes of God. I was like WTH are you talking about. Dad-in-law said, well, it would be like taking the nose bleed seats at a basketball game. His soul would be in heaven, but God would not look upon him because he wasn't baptized. Okay - whatever - anyone who would think that an innocent baby would die and go to hell is just really creepy! :mad:

Anyhow - we wanted to go to a church that we could both believe in and raise our kids to believe in (although like my momma taught me, our kids are more than welcome to question their beliefs and their faith - if you don't question it, how do you really know what to believe?) So, we joined the United Methodist Church. We really love it, and believe in their "Love all, Serve all" philosophy (to borrow from HRC).

Funny, I went to mass with the in-laws this weekend, and the homily was about coming together to the one table to dine with the Lord --- I thought....now THAT is hypocritical since it says right there on the visitor forms "If you are visiting with us and are not Catholic, you may not partake in communion" -- so much for the ONE table, huh? UMC'ers don't care who you are - all are welcome at the table, and that is perfect for me!

That's because Catholics believe something different occurs during Communion than other faiths. I don't take Communion when I'm at services with my friends of other faiths because to me it's not Communion at all.

Same with me. I can't even commune with the other Lutheran Synods, it has to be LCMS. And we won't commune at a strange LCMS church until after we've had a chance to talk to the pastor first. It's just respecting what we believe.

I've never fallen away from God. I accepted Christ when I was 5, have always been Southern Baptist, have been to many other denominations, but have always been a Christian. If it's atrue commitment, falling away doesn't happen.

There are 3 years of my life where I walked away from God and did my own thing. I call it my temper tanrum. It was basically my being angry with God because I felt he took something away from me that I wanted. Since then, I've thanked him several times for not giving me what I thought I needed.

I don't see Christianity as a religion. It is a relationship with Jesus Christ. It's give and take, and a very personal intimate thing.

Churches and denominations will always be flawed and imperfect. People fill them. How could they be otherwise? If I had looked to a church or denomination for faith instead of my God, then I would have fallen away.

Woooooo Methodists! My ancestors knew Francis Asbury! We are Methodist ROYALTY! :D