What is Your Religious Education?

[Nachtengel]

Read, how did your parents raise you?
Were you baptized?
Were you taught about religion?
Does your faith correspond with what you were taught, or do you follow another religion than the one you grew up with?

[apwordsmith]

We were taught about religion in school, because I was raised in a Christian-oriented Chicago suburb. Was baptized Lutheran but never really went to church, and stopped going altogether once I reached thirteen. Wasn't really taught about other religions besides the simple "God hates non-Christians" and had to educate myself. I'm now Pagan and happier than ever.

[Stormraaf]

I was baptized and raised Christian in the Protestant Afrikaner tradition, regularly went to church, and attended an Afrikaans former Model C school, where the inclusion of formal Christian education and practices are to be expected. From the level of my participation in religious extra-curricular activities during my childhood/teenage years compared to that of my peers, I believe the amount of Christian teaching I was exposed to exceeded even the average for Afrikaners.

My turnabout in favour of Dawkins-style atheism came at about the age of 17, although I remained a "closet atheist" for another year (which is a good thing for one's social and family life in Afrikaner society).

The freedom I felt from shedding the shackles of Christianity was immediate and euphoric. In time I judged the religion to have always been somewhat alien to my personal values and world view.

I don't believe my turning against Christianity was because of a more oppressive form of Christian teaching or anything like that, since both of my brothers shared the same education and environment, and they both are still staunch Christians (whereas I once burnt a religiously themed poem I had written before, disgusted at the nature of what my creative efforts were applied to).

I am still atheistic, but have been familiarizing myself with Heathen ideals for some months now and are drawn to it, but do not yet know where that path will lead.

[Reich des Waldes]

My mother's family went to a very traditional Lutheran church that I was brought along to almost every Sunday until I was 15. My father was/is an atheist but for whatever reason let my mom force me to go to church. My mother put me in Sunday school when I was 12 so that I could learn everything I needed to know before I went to confirmation. During the summer before my confirmation we had a 3 week long Bible study where we went over Luther's doctrine at a higher level. On the Sunday at the end of the three weeks it was time for confirmation. There were only 4 of us and we went to the front of the church, got down on our knees and recited our passages that we were assigned. We also recited the Lord's Prayer and Apostle's Creed ("I believe in the holy spirit, the holy catholic[christian] church..."). After we had professed our faith we took communion with family members at the altar.

This entire event was the most shameful act I have ever committed. Why? Because I have been an atheist since I was 14. I would often get into verbal fights with my mom about having to go to church even though I told her, "I don't believe in your f*cking god!" My mother would withhold things if I didn't go to church. She wouldn't give me rides if I asked, wouldn't let me use the family computer, couldn't watch TV, couldn't have friends over etc. She said that once I was confirmed by the church then I could decide if I wanted to go or not. So like a spineless coward I gave in and recited the Apostle's Creed and took communion, as an atheist, in front of the entire congregation. I regret these acts more than anything else in the world. If I could go back in time I would put up with anything she could threaten me with and never repeat such an action. Even today I wish that someone would have come in and killed me before I disgraced myself in such a way.

[Thusnelda]

Read, how did your parents raise you?

My parents have talked quite seldom about religion with me. Both are catholics but my mother is more indifferent about it, and my father prays from time to time because he feels bad when he "forgets" it - because his parents (=my grandparents) were faithful catholics and so he prays for them. He sees it as a form of tradition.

Were you baptized?

Yes, and I´ve also received the "Kommunion" and "Firmung".

Were you taught about religion?

Predominantly in school and at church. I was visiting liturgy on a weekly basis when as a girl. I´ve canceled the behaviour when I was around 10-11, for gods sake.

Does your faith correspond with what you were taught, or do you follow another religion than the one you grew up with?

No, I´m a heathen now. It was a process over several years, and it began when I was around 16/17.

[Hrodnand]

Read, how did your parents raise you?

Not religiously.

Were you baptized?

Yes.

Were you taught about religion?

Yes.

Does your faith correspond with what you were taught,

Not at all.

or do you follow another religion than the one you grew up with?

I'm not a christian and I don't follow any another religion.

[Kriemhild]

I was not baptized and had a sort of liberal "Christianity lite" upbringing, involving occasional church visits. Both of my parents come from mixed-sect backgrounds, so being raised in a specifically Protestant or Catholic household was not a goal they had for me. I do sometimes wish they had given me a more rigorous Christian education, however; I feel like I would've been better connected to a specific, well-defined tradition, which Heathenism is not, in my view. I've explored some of the characteristics of the ancient Germanic belief but I would not call it my "religion".

[Sigurd]

What Valky said, to the word, with one minor detail, that being that I embarked upon my Heathen journey about a year earlier in my life (around 15-16) than she did:

I was raised Catholic, but my parents never talked much about it. My mother is entirely indifferent to it, and my father prays from time to time, seeing it as some sort of obligation, being the "black sheep" in a very religious family, my paternal grandparents being very religious Catholic.

I was also baptised, and I received Kommunion and Firmung, though I "questioned" matters from age 6-7 (though blame our RE teacher for that, probably ) , and started seriously doubting the church and its ways around 10-11. Completely disjoining myself from it around age 13-14, but still taking Firmung because it was consider good and proper.

I always wanted to go to church as a child, but stopped going to liturgy around age 11. I then became a Heathen, gradually, but around age 15-16.

Suffice to say, if she was not three years my senior, I'd get the troubling feeling that Valky and I were indeed separated at birth.

[Ullarsskald]

Read, how did your parents raise you?
Were you baptized?
Were you taught about religion?
Does your faith correspond with what you were taught, or do you follow another religion than the one you grew up with?

Well, I was born without any religion ,-)

My family is Roman Catholic. My dad was raised in the Irish-American sect thereof and my mom in the Italian-American sect. As one's mother is the de facto arbiter of moral teachings, I was taught the beliefs and culture of the Italian-American sect.

I was baptized as an infant and was confirmed as a pre-teen.

I attended Sunday school all the way through 12th grade, but did a lot of reading an my own, with my parents' encouragement.

I left the Church during Lent in 1975, wandered a bit religiously, spiritually and philosophically for many years and found a bond with the Northern Holy Ones in July, 1989.

I am Asatru.

[velvet]

Read, how did your parents raise you?

We visited the church occasionally to christmas when I was a child, but beside that there was not much religion in my raising involved.

Were you baptized?

Yes, also got the confirmation, against my will.
Got in undone in a ritual by a wicca witch when I was 17 or 18.

Were you taught about religion?

In school and the pre-confirmation lessons, but I guess I tought the priest there more doubts than he taught me about his funny belief
He suffered quite a bit on my presence, once he left a lesson crying. But stubborn as he was he still gave me confirmation... and that despite I tried so hard to be thrown out

Does your faith correspond with what you were taught

I'm not sure if I have a 'faith', and if, I'm still not really sure about its nature. But I'm sure it is not christian, after all, I fought against this lies that manifest in every little bit of one's mind and in the society as such since I could think in wider terms of consciousness (that wider consciousness childs usually develop between 8 and 10, realising wider interconnectness of things and such).
I'm more of an atheist, although I cant and dont want to exclude spirituality (search for wisdom) from my life. The northern heathenism accompanies me for about 15 years now, intensified within the last two/three years a lot.
But for now the heathen atheist reflects myself quite well.

or do you follow another religion than the one you grew up with?

I'm an unreligious person and obviously ever was.
Although I would not equate belief necessarily with religion maybe...