# Anyone Else Raised in a Kooky Religion? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 17, 2009, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-raised-in-a-kooky-religion/517947 "2009-11-17T19:32:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Rosie\_is\_Tired](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@Rosie\_is\_Tired](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rosie_is_Tired)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-raised-in-a-kooky-religion/517947/41 "2009-11-18T19:35:05Z")
Hey, I was also a Christian Scientist growing up, so my story is pretty much identical to both\*\* Beadalin\*\* and **The wind of my soul** ’s, except my first painkillers were at 15, on a trip with my sister, and my menstrual cramps were to the point of being unable to move. Two months later I was on birth control at the suggestion of my sister. Most of my family has drifted, most notably my mother who went from hardcore CS to “Well, I really don’t like the bible, I think Jesus is just kind of okay, I don’t really believe in a conventional god, but I think the world is pretty neat, and Buddhism is not bad.” Band-aids: Band-aids are fine, since blood is messy, and medical interventions were deemed okay (by the people I knew, at least) if there was something you couldn’t think around- excessive pain, bones sticking out, etc. I also remember that my family used an awful lot of neosporin when I was a kid, so we obviously weren’t that strict. And my impression of the CS Monitor is that it is trying to be a really good newspaper for the sake of “the truth,” and not at all about the propagation of the religion. Which is probably why it’s held in good esteem, they really do care about finding out what really happens. I agree with **Beadalin** about Christian Scientists really priding themselves on critical thinking, generally being decent at it, but have made a few odd assumptions that they base the thinking on. The reading rooms, though, are primarily for Christian Science books and materials (no weird ritual stuff or anything, mainly just chalk pens and book markers). I don’t see how you can think they had general reading material. Maybe a few magazines and newspapers, but not many. Also- **The wind of my soul** - the boarding school let you seek medical attention? When I was there (I’m assuming its the same one, I’ve never heard of another) I couldn’t imagine them doing that- these were people that threatened to expel me since they suspected I was bisexual (I was) and made me talk through the logic of being in pain while I was practically immobile and vomiting every month. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-raised-in-a-kooky-religion/517947/42 "2009-11-18T20:32:35Z")
I grew up Missouri Synod Lutheran and it seemed normal to me. As I got older, I realized how uptight and angry the sermons seemed. The pastor was a great guy, awesome with children, and one of my father’s best friends, but most of those sermons were killers. My wife and I were church shopping a few years ago and stopped at one in the area. It seemed like the church was dying. The congregation was older and there were only a handful of people attending the service. The pastor read his sermon and people followed along with sheets handed out in the pews. Is that “kooky?” I don’t know, but it seems the Missouri Synod is crawling to a halt. People want to be happy in church, not angry. They want progrssiveness, not stogey conservatism. But that’s just what I think. My wife grew up attending a “hippie mass” and loved it. ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-raised-in-a-kooky-religion/517947/43 "2009-11-18T21:08:25Z")
Someone list all the kooky ones so I’ll know if I can join in or not. Or just go ahead and move all us dropouts to the pit. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-raised-in-a-kooky-religion/517947/44 "2009-11-18T22:11:07Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > Funny, where I come from (Newfoundland), Pentecost is pretty much mainstream. My grandmother and her family are Pentecostal. She married a Catholic, so, nominally, I, my aunts and uncles, and my cousins are all Catholic…I don’t think any of us are practising, though are few of us are still believers. Never struck me as particularly ‘kooky’ in any way, even aside from not being outside the mainstream - a lot different than our Catholic services, for sure, but not odd. (IIRC, the Pentecostal church was directly across the street from the Catholic in the town I grew up in…may have been the Anglican crosswise, though, and the Pentecost a ways down the street from there.) That’s interesting. I don’t believe it is considered mainstream in the U.S. Most of the people I knew definitely thought we were weird. Not to, um, overgeneralize, but it seems in the U.S. at least, Pentecostal churches tend to attract a number of really batshit crazy people. A lot of people I attended church with had serious psychiatric problems (bordering on psychosis, my friend’s mother was a textbook ‘‘magical thinker.’’) I felt like, in that environment at least, these people were able to hide their illness under the cover of their charismatic religious beliefs. What I mean is, a schizophrenic in mainstream society babbling about angels, demons and hidden messages from God is pretty clearly mentally ill, but drop that same person into a religion that focuses extensively on angels, demons, and hidden messages from God, and their mental illness may not be so apparent. I know this raises the question of cultural context and how we define mental illness, but when you’ve got a 9 year old attempting suicide and you’re attributing this to ‘‘demons,’’ you’re getting into some very dangerous territory. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-raised-in-a-kooky-religion/517947/45 "2009-11-18T22:26:50Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > If everyone can confine their remarks to fringe-religion practices, we can keep the thread open a while. But if mainstream religion practices **continue to be ridiculed** , I’ll close the thread. Emphasis added. If that was directed at **hotflungwok** , I don’t think his intent was to ridicule. Quite the contrary, IMO–the impression I got was that \*\*hfw \*\*was challenging the labeling of non-mainstream religions as “kooky” when mainstream religions, put under similar scrutiny, would be considered just as strange to an outsider. > [@The\_Surb](#): > > I was raised as a Dunkard. I read this as “Drunkard.” :smack: ---
**Author:** ![badbadrubberpiggy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/57b2e6/32.png) [@badbadrubberpiggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badbadrubberpiggy)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-raised-in-a-kooky-religion/517947/46 "2009-11-18T22:37:14Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > I read this as “Drunkard.” :smack: Me too. Which would definitely be a kooky religion. ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2009, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-raised-in-a-kooky-religion/517947/47 "2009-11-18T22:54:08Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Interesting thread. I hope nobody minds if I have a question for the Christian Scientists: I recall seeing storefront “Christian Science Reading Rooms,” and I also recall that the _Christian Science Monitor_ had something of a decent reputation in print journalism. But neither seemed to be pushing Christian Science–the Reading Rooms had, from what I could see through the window from the street, a fairly normal selection of reading material on the shelves (newspapers and mainstream magazines such as _Time_ and _Newsweek_, for example), and the _Monitor_ items that were reprinted in such publications as _Reader’s Digest_ never seemed to have much to do with religion. Just what were these vehicles designed to do? I didn’t imagine that stopping in to read a secular publication such as _Time_ or the local daily newspaper was going to ensnare me in a cult, especially if the _Monitor_ itself didn’t seem to push Christian Science. What was the goal of having the Reading Rooms and the _Monitor_? I am a practicing Christian Scientist, but was not entirely raised in it, so I don’t have much much of what I imagine **The wind of my soul** was looking for to contribute to this thread. My extended family includes many CSists, but my mom rejected it as a teenager. I started studying/practicing in high school. Kookiness abounded, it just wasn’t religious. I have been in some heavily concentrated Christian Science communities and know there is a pretty broad range of “kookiness” among families. For example, in the CS textbook Mrs. Eddy wrote that we mustn’t record ages. In my family that was interpreted to mean don’t make a big deal about how old you are, or accept limitations associated either with age or youth. Other families took it to mean that plus “no birthday parties, not even for little kids”. My family likes cake too much to embrace that position. The purpose of the Christian Science Monitor is primarily to provide unbiased reporting about world events. Mrs. Eddy expected her students to pray for the world, their nations, their communities, etc. and my understanding is that she was not entirely impressed with the papers available in her day. Currently there is a weekly print edition and and online edition. Throughout the paper’s history there has been one religious article daily. The purpose of CS Reading Rooms is to provide an outlet for sale of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. They sell Bibles as well, and related materials; all published writings by Mary Baker Eddy, the Monitor and magazines published by the CS Publishing Society. I’m not aware of any of them selling Time or Newsweek. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-raised-in-a-kooky-religion/517947/48 "2009-11-19T00:12:21Z")
> [@badbadrubberpiggy](#): > > Me too. Which would definitely be a kooky religion. A pretty popular one, though, I’m thinking… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Surb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ce73a5/32.png) [@The\_Surb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Surb)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-raised-in-a-kooky-religion/517947/49 "2009-11-19T03:55:09Z")
\*\*Shot From Guns "I read this as “Drunkard.” \*\* That is a separate sect. They are a helluva lot more fun :). ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-raised-in-a-kooky-religion/517947/50 "2009-11-19T04:38:19Z")
> [@gwendee](#): > > The purpose of the Christian Science Monitor … > > The purpose of CS Reading Rooms … Thank you for the information. I should point out that I never went into a Christian Science Reading Room; I only ever looked through the storefront window as I walked by daily. Perhaps the copies of Time and Newsweek and other popular publications were there to entice passerby inside, where they could read these publications for free on the spot–there was no indication that these publications were for sale, but it appeared that the public could certainly read them on the premises, like in a library. I had a feeling also that the Reading Rooms would be willing to sell me Bibles as well as Christian Science writings and suchlike. Now I know that they would, and that the _Monitor_ really is a reputable publication. Again, thanks! ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-raised-in-a-kooky-religion/517947/51 "2009-11-19T06:37:14Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > I’m going to take a different tack to this than the one **Ellen Cherry** did, with her permission. > > I’m pretty sure that no one but **Hal Briston** keeps a full dossier on me, so y’all may not be aware that I have a PhD in the sociology of religion, expertise in American cults. As such, I spent a lot of years thinking very specifically about what makes some churches “cults” and some cults “churches.” Basically it’s a matter of the degree of acceptance by society at large, which sometimes, but not always, correlates with the number of adherents. > > I’m thus really uncomfortable with divvying up religions into “kooky” (and thus up for mockery) and others as “real” or mainstream – that’s deciding theological issues by majority vote. > > If anyone wants to share stories about growing up in a non-mainstream religion, this would be the place. > > If anyone wants to take potshots at \*any \*religion on the basis of not sharing that religion’s beliefs, this would **not** be the place. > > Let’s see how the thread goes with those guidelines. If it gets out of hand, we can always move it to GD or the Pit, depending on in what way it gets out of hand. (Pls. note that it is my devout [sic] hope that it not get out of hand.) > > Thanks, > > twickster, MPSIMS moderator Were you a colleague of J. Gordon Melton? ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-raised-in-a-kooky-religion/517947/52 "2009-11-19T06:38:41Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Not me – but I was once talking about kooky religions, and got onto Blavatsky-ism – the weird beliefs of “Madame” Helena Blavatsky. > > [Helena Blavatsky - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helena_Blavatsky) > [http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/](http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/) > So, after talking for a while, one of the people I was speaking to volunteered that she had beem raised by parents who believed… > > …well, what were the odds? How many Blavatskians have _you_ ever run into? > > I certainly haven’t run into any since. But I’ve learned discretion. The movement is Theosophy, the adherents Theosophists. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-raised-in-a-kooky-religion/517947/53 "2009-11-19T06:43:09Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > I will definitely assert that it’s not fake, it’s some weird real psychological phenomenon that feels completely involuntary to the person it’s happening to. > . I am AoG & 99% of my speaking in tongues, usually in private prayer, is fully volitional. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-raised-in-a-kooky-religion/517947/54 "2009-11-19T09:17:51Z")
Excuse me, I have a definitions question. This “speaking in tongues” **olives** and **FriarTed** mentioned, it would be understood by a listener as nonsense? Asking because the “speaking in tongues” I was taught about within Catholicism involves people from different languages all being able to understand you as if you were speaking their mother tongue, so a completely different thing. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-raised-in-a-kooky-religion/517947/55 "2009-11-19T10:56:25Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Excuse me, I have a definitions question. This “speaking in tongues” **olives** and **FriarTed** mentioned, it would be understood by a listener as nonsense? > > Asking because the “speaking in tongues” I was taught about within Catholicism involves people from different languages all being able to understand you as if you were speaking their mother tongue, so a completely different thing. I was raised Baptist for 14 years, and we were taught that glossolalia/speaking in tongues was exactly that - everybody heard the apostles speaking as if they were speaking the individual audience members language. We were also taught that it happened back then, and people speaking in tongues now were deluded. Actually there was a 3 year fractioning in the church … the pastor who had been there for some 60 odd years died, so the church spent about 9 months auditioning new pastors. They settled on a really nice guy then the fecal matter hit the rotational cooling device … he taught in one of the optional classes [I think it was the young adults class, might have been the little old lady class…] that [and I cant remember which way he swung] that miracles happened and dont happen today which was found highly objectional to whomever. So the church split into 3 groups, miracles happened but not anymore, miracles happened and happen now, and who cares, get on with the preaching. 3 years of arguments and auditioning of preachers until a substantial number of people left in disgust, and they found someone who had absolutely no backbone and preached however the deacons wanted. Me? I basically considered routine christianity a lost cause and became a deist. And I pissed off my parents by refusing to go to church ever again. [Ill go to services with people to be friendly, but I am absolutely not going to convert to anything.] ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-raised-in-a-kooky-religion/517947/56 "2009-11-19T13:06:54Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Excuse me, I have a definitions question. This “speaking in tongues” **olives** and **FriarTed** mentioned, it would be understood by a listener as nonsense? > > Asking because the “speaking in tongues” I was taught about within Catholicism involves people from different languages all being able to understand you as if you were speaking their mother tongue, so a completely different thing. A Pentecostal/Charismatic explanation is that unrecognised tongues are “angelic” (I Cor 13:1). Also, there are anecdotes where languages are recognized. But , yeah. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-raised-in-a-kooky-religion/517947/57 "2009-11-19T13:33:32Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > The movement is Theosophy, the adherents Theosophists. Granted, I just took 2 minutes skimming an overview of it, so I might have missed the kookiness, but it doesn’t seem that weird to me. A bit woo-woo, but the overall impression doesn’t seem bad. If there are things I missed, edumacate me. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-raised-in-a-kooky-religion/517947/58 "2009-11-19T13:35:38Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > Were you a colleague of J. Gordon Melton? I’ve met him, but he was already an established name when I was in grad school. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-raised-in-a-kooky-religion/517947/59 "2009-11-19T15:11:11Z")
**Nava** , my understanding of “speaking in tongues” is exactly the same as **aruvqan** ’s - the Adventist teachings are similar to what he spoke of. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-raised-in-a-kooky-religion/517947/60 "2009-11-19T15:53:38Z")
> [@The\_Surb](#): > > BTW, it’s Anabaptist, but I suppose anti-Baptist might work too. Thanks! I have problems keeping some of the differences and spellings apart/straight. Going one region of the country to another can be tough; keeping the different sects/faiths clear in your brain is even tougher. > [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > I read this as “Drunkard.” :smack: That would be my Mom’s side of the family. They never quite organized their Faith but they sure did practice it regularly. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-raised-in-a-kooky-religion/517947.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-raised-in-a-kooky-religion/517947.md?page=4)