Grew up in a very moderate Methodist church that I like to refer to as Christian Lite. Drifted towards Deism/Agnosticism in my teens. Never attend church now unless it’s for a wedding/funeral or to humor my mom when I visit my parents on holidays. Think religion gets shit on unnecessarily. Won’t be raising my kids in the church but a part of me wants to; every one I’ve encountered personally has been all about community and charity. I suppose the exclusionist and bigot congregations are out there, but I think they’re a minority.
american white evangelical protestantism is probably the only US group I'd say doesn't fit with the latter point. unequivocally.
Weddings are just one of those occasions where everyone is in a good mood and the party scene afterwards tends to reflect that. I’ve also never been to a catholic wedding
Maybe I’m jaded because southern but that last bit doesn’t work for me. Church largely is a place to build relationships and very few southern worshipers do anything Christ like
I hope you don't mind me asking, but were you religious before you were an atheist? If so, how did you come to be an atheist? What was your reasoning? Was it evidence/science based? And whatever your reasoning was, how did you then square that with a newfound belief in a deity?
That’s fine and I don’t begrudge anyone for wanting a full mass for their wedding, it just wasn’t for me after having experienced it as a guest. Our wedding was fine, wished they would’ve let pastor from my church do more but they were only willing to let him do readings that anyone could do. They told us the service would be performed by the Deacon and not the Priest since I wasn’t Catholic. That was also fine with us as he was someone who had been around my wife’s whole life and the Priest was fairly new to their church
I think that’s an over generalization. “Evangelical” describes a really broad cross-section of various sects and denominations that self-identify as such, ranging everywhere from Westboro Baptist-style proselytizing to mainstream groups that build hospitals in Africa. From conversion/ministerial-focused groups like Mormons or Witnesses to deed-focused groups like Methodists or Episcopalians. And even within those broad classes there’s a lot of bleed-over in practice and regional variation. That may be true, certainly seems to be the case based on my impression of the comments ITT. FWIW, in my experience going to Protestant and Catholic services as a child growing up in the Western US, I never heard a sermon “against” anything, be it homosexuality, interfaith or interracial relationships, non-Christians, abortion, etc...
I just did vows and basically nothing else. We had like 20 people there and then moved to the reception location and had ~100 people at that. Definitely don't regret not having a long drawn out service.
It definitely depends on the diocese for Catholics. I have never heard a sermon against gay people or anything either but one Monsignor did try to tell us to vote for George W Bush during the homily.
Klansman used to grab couples making out and whip them for being sinful, (white couples), there was and continues to be a belief that sin affects an entire community
Not to bump from too far back but this isn’t really in line with the contemporary Catholic teachings. This is much more akin to how some evangelical churches believe it works.
My thoughts on this fine Saturday evening after my Gunners won the FA Cup Faith can be very good for people. If you use it to lift yourself up and be better to people then great, if you use it as a reason to hate gays and other stuff then fuck you. The world has fucking changed so much, same reason I think the constitution is mostly bullshit.
Think this was the best post that most represents my thoughts on religion. My wife (who was raised Catholic, but whom goes to church on extremely rare occasions) and had a discussion after the birth of our daughter as to whether she should get baptized. I told my wife I'd have no problem supporting our daughter if she chose to believe in a religion when she learned about it as she grew up, but I didn't feel comfortable choosing that for her. To my wife's credit, she said she understood and she told her family we would not be doing that. I realize the odds are low that our daughter will become religious when she's never exposed to it growing up , but I stand by my statement. If she does and wants it to be a part of her life, I will fully support that for her.
I might get my kid baptized just for the family occasion but there’s no way my kid is doing communion or religious Ed/CCD unless they ask to.
same here, getting my son baptized in Mexico for the family occasion/party but anything beyond that is only if he wants to......like we have zero expectations for him to ever be religious unless he chooses
I’ll be honest, I just don’t talk about god or religion with my kids. Their grandmother ministers to them and I just leave it up to them. When approached, I tell them it’s something they have to come to their own conclusion about. I just really don’t wanna be a parent who creates a hardline narrative over it.
We talk politics plenty and they’ve been given a proper bluepoint wrt kindness and empathy. They aren’t headed in that direction
Personally nothing has broken my heart more in my life than my parents the last 10 and specifically the last 4 years. I’m glad you are not dealing with that
They are a product of the world that surrounds them. I truly believe the people that we love and respect are still there, I just have no clue how to get them back
I believed in God at one time but I wasn't educated on the subject if you will. It wasn't hard for me to come to the realization at the time that scientifically it wasn't probable that God or a higher power existed. I would tell you now that God is not an object that can be studied by earthly means, or science if you will. But I will say that the day I attended Mass and had the experience that I did, it was a sense of the reality of God that I got, which I have not forgotten.
I think that approach makes it more likely that if she does choose to the religious, it’s for the right reasons and not out of obligation.
Honestly, I can’t stand it. I don’t do spice and only a couple things taste good. Smells awful to me. My wife loves it though. We stopped at chik fil a drive thru before the reception so I could eat.
Growing up Catholic in the South, I have been told numerous times at different stages in my life by people of varying ages that Catholics aren’t Christians.
Grew up catholic but since i was about 18 I was what my grandmother(RIP) referred to as a CEO(Christmas and Easter only was the only time you’d catch me in church). I grew up with friends of various faiths and we never talked about it because I really didn’t care if my friend was Jewish or Baptist etc I found myself questioning a lot of the things we were being taught and the answer i usually received was “well you have to have faith” which was unacceptable to me. How do we know there is a heaven? How do we know everything in the Bible really occurred and what’s in other beliefs teachings is false? moving to Utah and seeing how so many of these hardcore Mormons act towards those that don’t believe what they believe has caused me to have an issue with those that are so deeply religious they treat anyone not like them like Satan. Like teaching kindergarteners they cannot play with certain kids on the playground because their father has a tattoo or their parents don’t go to church or they drink coffee. In the Mormon religion you care so much about what your neighbor is doing which is the opposite of how I was raised. If my neighbor wakes up at 5 am for work and has a coffee that is his/her business. If when they get off of work they decide to have a beer or glass of wine who gives a fuck? There does seem to be a generational difference in the LDS community though. A lot of the younger members are far more open to others and since they have access to the internet they have been able to educate themselves on a lot of the things they question about their religious teachings which is a tool the older generation did not have.
That's how it's viewed some places here. Not really hated or anything but a lot of Protestants view Catholics the same as they do Jehovah's Witnesses. Where I live doesn't even have a Catholic church and I didn't know any growing up. Closest Catholic church is probably 30 miles away.
I went to a Catholic mass at a large church in Chicago where the priest's sermon was about the wickedness of homosexuality and how it was to blame for the ills of the United States - hunger, poverty, violence and corruption was in part due to the acceptance of homosexuality. That was probably 2011. My wife and I exchanged glances and walked out. I've been to countless Presbyterian services and plenty Catholic masses and that's the only time it has come up, so I don't think it is a common theme, but I would believe anybody who tells you they've heard a sermon like that. Also, there are two mainstream Presbyterian church groups in the US. One is relatively progressive and the other is more in line with the Christian Conservative stereotype. Two Presbyterians the same age can have grown up 50 miles apart in Michigan and have completely opposite experiences/educations in their faith based on to which group their church belongs.
you havent been to a true Catholic mass unless most of it is in Latin and you do a million kneel downs
My cousin married into a Greek Orthodox family when I was 12. Three hour ceremony. Complete Mass was done in both English and Greek.
Some people use the word « survivor » too lightly these days, You and your brother are true survivors
Polish Catholic masses are the best. You don’t understand a word of it, but it sounds cool and a service is 40 minutes, tops. Only masses I ever liked.
Last time I went to a church event it was for my niece baptism. I am The Godfather but i never finished confirmation because I don’t do well with authority. Just before the baptism i asked for a temporary one in exchange for me doing the thing and getting a confirmation later. I got it and there is 0 chance I will go over there every Thursday night for a month and spend a couple hours in the place they teach you these things(they don’t even seem to have big TVs and ps4) the godmother was in Mexico meanwhile so her sister actually came in and acted like she was her...the godmother was not my gf, it was his brothers wife but they were on vacation so they appointed her sister to fucking act as the real person. She even signed the book at the end...with her sisters name. we are all going to hell
Can confirm. I grew up in a town with a big Polish American community and they’re the majority of my exposure to the Catholic faith. They like to get in and out of there before the Sunday breakfast lines and that’s my kind of service. My uncle is one of the almost-extinct, elusive Anglican Catholics, and his church is stuffy as shit. I was shocked they let me participate in the baptism when I became his son’s godfather.
Nobody does the 3 hour wedding anymore. They’re mostly 45 mins to an hour. We also dont call it mass. #schism
I’m either spiritual or agnostic. I don’t pretend to have any certainty about the existence of God, but I do pray every now and then. So maybe that means spiritual. But I wouldn’t call myself a Christian.
Mostly me too, I still pray but I also know that where you are born has a huge deciding factor in what your religion is which always gave me doubts in my thoughts. To be my own devils advocate: I have a huge problem with a few stories in the bible, the great flood being one of them. The age of the earth is another sticking point for me. The words Jesus used when talking about creation translated directly into 7 literal calendar dates so you can't use the excuse of "7 days in heaven are longer than 7 days on earth". People much smarter than me have figured out that the bible then confirms the earth is less than 10K years old. BUT, we know the speed of light and we can see things much much older / farther than 10K light years away. I won't make my kids believe anything that I believe in and try not to be an asshole to others that have different views. I do enjoy talking about this kind of stuff though. One thing that is kind of out there that I do believe in is the possibility of the multiverse. I can't think too much into it without having an existential crisis though.