Conservadox Jew.
Where’s the option for changing religions? I grew up United Methodist, currently in the late stages of converting to Judaism (Orthodox). Needless to say, there is absolutely no similarity between my old church and my current shul.
Interestingly, though, my decision has caused my mother to go from Methodist to UU to Episcopalian.
I grew up Southern Baptist, but I wasn’t that old when I decided it was too conservative for me. I attended an ELCA church as an undergraduate, Presbyterian during grad school. After I moved to NY I started occasionally attending Unitarian Universalist churches. I married a woman who was raised a secular Jew, and she sometimes attended with me and the kids for a few years after I became a member. She’s been a member for 10 years now, and we’re all 4 very active. She still keeps her Jewish identity, I still identify as Christian, and the boys are figuring it out (they probably just identify as UU, although they do hold on to their Jewish heritage).
I was born into a loving fundamentalist family. I converted to Catholocism (Latin Rite) with a brief stop at Episcopalianism in the middle. I can’t figure out how to put that in your poll.
Quite the contrary; most of them never even leave the church grounds any more.
Eh, yes and no. There are a lot of places where the parishes overlap, catering to different ethnic groups or other demographics. When I was growing up, we were about equidistant from an Irish church and an Italian one, and there’s now a Spanish one only slightly further away (we went to the Irish one). When I was in Montana, there were two churches in town, a more traditional one downtown and one just off campus catering to the college students (I went to the downtown one, even though the campus one was closer, because it was more like what I was used to). Nowadays, the closest Catholic church to me is one I’ve never even set foot in, but go to the one from my childhood (which isn’t that much further) because I have family there.
But yes, it’s no big deal if you’re traveling or something and have to go to a different church. Mass is mass.
You did not factor in pseudo churches like say Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
I can count on being involved in 11 different churches and/or ministries since I left home over 30 years ago.
My college had one of those, just barely off campus. It was built more like a youth hall. The one Mass I attended had us all sitting on folding chairs, and the main song was “I Can Only Imagine” led by a guy on guitar. I think they even sorta sat instead kneeling, as there just wasn’t room.
The building was more like a frathouse, and I believe was even in the frat house area–which was always just outside of campus so they could flout the campus rules.
The main reason I went was that they had free food, and would give me and my roommate the leftovers, which was usually a whole casserole dish. He had brought a minifridge from home.
My roommate wasn’t Catholic, either, but he’d made a lot of Catholic friends due to his Catholic ex-girlfriend. He even kept a Bible with the Apocrypha. He alternated between going to mass and a Baptist church.
I did go to those (along with some other denominations), but I never made any of them my home. I basically didn’t have a home church when I was away–I would just go to church at my parents’ church when I came home, which was pretty much every other week. (I had a bi-weekly doctor’s appointment.)