How religiously observant are you?

In My Humble Opinion
41

Florida. (at school: Tallahassee, vacation: Ft. Lauderdale area)

South Florida

Lutheran Christianity

Went to a Lutheran evangelical school, and attended their Sunday school sessions. This lead to me being confirmed… when I really didn’t want to be confirmed.

After I was confirmed, I didn’t have to go to any sort of religious service. Before then, I was to at least attend Sunday school via my mother’s mandate.

From preschool through 8th grade, I attended religious schools. After that, I went to a college preparatory school.

At the moment I’m a reconstructionist practicing an indigenous folk religion.

I’d say I’m fairly religiously observant, considering that my religion does not mandate me to attend services or pray or have ritual X times a week, but I do find time at least once every other week to immerse myself in religious thought or devotion of some sort.

It varies widely, partially because college students tend to either not attend any religious services/organization meetings or go to them at least once a week. I’m somewhere in the middle between those two extremes with a few other stragglers.

42

1. Where do you live now?

Isle of Man (UK)

2. Where was the bulk of your childhood spent?

Accrington, Lancashire, UK.

3. What religion, if any, were you brought up in?

Christianity (very very loosely, I was vaguely aware of it)

4. Did you have any formal religious instruction as a child? If so, how much and what kind?

I guess I went to church with school a few times. And my primary school was a C of E (Church of England) school - St Nicholas.

5. Did your parents try to influence your degree of religious observance, either in childhood or in adulthood? If so, to what extent?

Not at all.

6. Did you attend public schools? Religious schools? Neither? If you attended public schools, was there any religious instruction as part of the school curriculum?

At High school we had a compulsary class in the first few years called Religious Education. As I mentioned my Primary school was C of E, but I can’t remember anything religious about any of the classes.

7. Do you currently practice any organized religion?

Nope. I got slightly interested in Buddhism for a bit. (mainly just the meditation part)

8. How religiously observant do you consider yourself to be now, in terms of following the formal practices and restrictions of a particular organized religion?

Not sure what you mean. Do you mean am I aware of other people’s religiousness? I don’t follow any formal practices of any organised religion. I have a set of morals which may match those of a particular religion.

9. How do you think your degree of religious observance compares to that of others where you live?

Apart from the Muslims and other eastern migrant religious in Accrington I guess the degree of religious observance by others is About the same as mine. Only the older generation of non-muslim/hindu(60+) seem religious.

43

  1. Where do you live now?
    Baltimore, Maryland

  2. Where was the bulk of your childhood spent?
    Rural Southern Alberta

  3. What religion, if any, were you brought up in?
    Roman Catholic

  4. Did you have any formal religious instruction as a child? If so, how much and what kind?
    Yes. I took Catechism and I was Confirmed.

  5. Did your parents try to influence your degree of religious observance, either in childhood or in adulthood? If so, to what extent?

Oh my, YES. They forced us to go to mass weekly.

  1. Did you attend public schools? Religious schools? Neither? If you attended public schools, was there any religious instruction as part of the school curriculum?

Until grade 11, I went to public school. I recall saying the Lord’s Prayer until around grade 8.

  1. Do you currently practice any organized religion?

Welp, I’m in the choir of an Episcopalian church because they pay me to be there, so I guess I practice Episcopalian in that I follow the rote and go through the motions. I just don’t believe it.

  1. How religiously observant do you consider yourself to be now, in terms of following the formal practices and restrictions of a particular organized religion?

I’m not at all.

  1. How do you think your degree of religious observance compares to that of others where you live?

Since I’m mostly described as a lapsed Thiest, I would say that you really can’t get less observant than I am. However, I’m in church every Sunday morning, and for every high holiday where they need my voice. Tomorrow, I’ve got mass in the morning and an Evensong service.

44

I should add that I attended Catholic school for the last two years of high school. I didn’t just up and quit.

45

*1. Where do you live now? *

Springfield, IL

2. Where was the bulk of your childhood spent?

Springfield, IL

3. What religion, if any, were you brought up in?

Christian (Disciples of Christ). My grandfather and uncle were ministers in the denomination, and my parents were (and still are) very active in the church.

4. Did you have any formal religious instruction as a child? If so, how much and what kind?

Church, Sunday School, that kind of thing.

5. Did your parents try to influence your degree of religious observance, either in childhood or in adulthood? If so, to what extent?

As a young child, I was taken to church and never really thought about whether I had any choice in the matter. As an older kid, I was strongly encouraged and occasionally bribed, but not forced or browbeaten, to go to church. As an adult (i.e. since I hit college age), my parents have pretty much left it up to me.

6. Did you attend public schools? Religious schools? Neither? If you attended public schools, was there any religious instruction as part of the school curriculum?

Public schools. Not much in the way of religious instruction in school, although I do remember learning about the different religions in 6th grade, possibly in conjunction with learning about the Middle East.

My impression was that most of the kids I went to school with were Protestant Christians of various denominations (the Catholics would have mostly gone to Catholic schools), but it wasn’t talked about all that much.

7. Do you currently practice any organized religion?

I am a “mere Christian” with no current affiliation with any particular church, and my practice of religion is pretty disorganized and personal.

8. How religiously observant do you consider yourself to be now, in terms of following the formal practices and restrictions of a particular organized religion?

Thoughout my life, my involvement in organized religious groups (as opposed to my faith) has had its ups and downs and is currently in very much of a down. I have not been to church in a long time; I have yet to find a church where I felt like I fit in. Part of me yearns to find a religious community to belong to, but churches I’ve been to, when they haven’t actually turned me off, have bored me to tears and left me cold and just haven’t been worth getting up in the morning and going to. I believe that organized religion has the potential to be an extremely good thing, but in practice it’s all too often pointless, petty busyness. I have little interest in ceremonies, rituals, religious going-through-the-motions, and the kind of church activities that some people practice as a hobby. Privately, I pursue Christianity by reading, praying, etc. and trying to live up to the fundamental Christian moral teachings (like, love God and your neighbor).

9. How do you think your degree of religious observance compares to that of others where you live?

I don’t know. Around here the influence of organized religion seems fairly benign and inobtrusive, and fairly tolerant and diverse in a traditional middle-American sort of way.

46

  1. Where do you live now?
    -Austin, Texas

  2. Where was the bulk of your childhood spent?
    -Houston, Texas

  3. What religion, if any, were you brought up in?
    -Presbyterian

  4. Did you have any formal religious instruction as a child? If so, how much and what kind?
    -Yes, went to Sunday School all my life and membership classes as an early teen.

  5. Did your parents try to influence your degree of religious observance, either in childhood or in adulthood? If so, to what extent?
    -Yes, they would not accept me being anything other than Christian. To this day whenever I visit, they make me go to church.

  6. Did you attend public schools? Religious schools? Neither? If you attended public schools, was there any religious instruction as part of the school curriculum?
    -Public. No but we sang Christmas carols.

  7. Do you currently practice any organized religion?
    -No.

  8. How religiously observant do you consider yourself to be now, in terms of following the formal practices and restrictions of a particular organized religion?
    -Fairly observant of Chistianity for an Atheist. I go to church when they pressure me and I celebrate all the holidays.

  9. How do you think your degree of religious observance compares to that of others where you live?
    -Moderate to Low (by US standards) in Austin. Moderate to High in Houston.

47
  1. Where do you live now? Pacific Northwest.
  2. Where was the bulk of your childhood spent? Montana
  3. What religion, if any, were you brought up in? Congregationalist (United Church of Christ).
  4. Did you have any formal religious instruction as a child? If so, how much and what kind? Church most weeks (though not every week), Sunday school as part of church, confirmation classes for a semester as a young teen, before I was confirmed.
  5. Did your parents try to influence your degree of religious observance, either in childhood or in adulthood? If so, to what extent? Church was not an optional activity when I was a kid, so if “making us go” counts as influencing my degree of religious observance, my mother certainly did. We also said grace before dinner and “now I lay me down to sleep” before bed. That was pretty much it, though.
  6. Did you attend public schools? Religious schools? Neither? If you attended public schools, was there any religious instruction as part of the school curriculum? Public school. In Montana, the only religious schools were either Catholic or fundamentalist, neither of which my family was. And unlike in other locations, the Catholic schools were not better than the public schools, so we went to public schools. If a religious school of any stripe had offered a higher-quality education, I’m sure my mom would have sent us there. And no, there was no religious instruction as part of the public school curriculum.
  7. Do you currently practice any organized religion? Yes.
  8. How religiously observant do you consider yourself to be now, in terms of following the formal practices and restrictions of a particular organized religion? I don’t know. I go to church most weeks, but that’s about it. I don’t personally consider that to be terribly observant.
  9. How do you think your degree of religious observance compares to that of others where you live? I think I’m more religiously observant than many people of my age (younger 30s) in my area (greater Seattle area), but probably about average of the population as a whole – middle-of-the-road, half-assed Protestant.
48

Oxford, England.

Buckinghamshire, England. Not very far away really.

Church of England.

Yes, and I’ll cover it in more detail below…

My mother was a Sunday School teacher, my father a diocesan lay reader, so I guess they rather assumed they would be bringing me up Christian … I went to Sunday School and church regularly as a child. I rather rebelled against it in adolescence - my parents, being reasonable on the whole, didn’t make me attend when I didn’t want to.

The UK is nominally Christian … very nominally. “Religious Education” was part of the state school curriculum; however, it did cover other faiths besides Christianity. It was also mandatory (may still be) for state schools to hold brief daily “assemblies”, which were supposed to be “broadly Christian in nature” … this generally meant five minutes of the headmaster reading out notices, followed by a perfunctory mass prayer. (My atheist friends at the time just stood there and said nothing.)

Yes, after some wanderings, I’m back in the Church of England.

I go to church … occasionally. (Used to be more frequent, and more involved - I used to run a church newsletter and sit on the church council. These days, I’m just a “gormless pew filler”.) I do, however, try to let my Christianity inform my daily life and guide me in it. Whatever that means.

Difficult to say. Probably a little bit above average - there are plenty of observant Christians in Oxford, but there are also a fair number of atheists/agnostics/not bothered. (Not to mention those of other faiths.) I’m sometimes surprised, though, by how many people will, if the subject comes up in conversation, own up to being believers and churchgoers (however irregular.)

49

  1. Arizona, USA

  2. Illinois, USA (earlier) and Arizona, USA (later)

  3. I wasn’t brought up as any more than a nominal Christian, but I brought myself up as a semi-fundamentalist Southern Baptist. (Mother shipped me off to church for my first 8-9 years, but after that, she made it difficult for me to get to church. I’d bum rides, or when I was old enough, walk to church. God in the flesh wouldn’t have kept me from church!)

  4. Went to Sunday School and church. Not much, as I remember more the games we played in Sunday School than the actual teachings. However, I read many the Bible as much as I could get my hands on it, as I tried to proselytize others as often as possible.

  5. There were a few times that my mother tried to influence this, as she thought I was too observant. (However, observance was more properly considered “fervency of belief.” We didn’t put stock in rituals or observances nearly as much as how orthodox one’s beliefs were and how much one would strive to increase in faith. I’m taking a few liberties in saying that observance is equivalent to belief for purposes of this questionnaire, because observance wasn’t very much a relevant concept in my beliefs.) Anyway, once she tried to steer my sister and I towards a more liberal Lutheran church around age 7, then she forbade me to attend an extremely fundamentalist church when I was 12, and then she lectured me a bit in my teen years about how love and respect was also part of Christian belief.

There hasn’t been much religiously-based interaction in adulthood. Once my beliefs became less fundamentalist when I was 15-16, we didn’t discuss religion much.

  1. Public schools, no.

  2. Kind of…I don’t believe I’m quite at the point where I can say that I am back in the faith yet, but I’m just making excuses.

  3. Not very, but if observant is defined as following formal practices and restrictions of a religion, I was never observant. Using my previous definition of observant, still not much.

  4. There seems to be a very wide variety of such – in my area there tends to be high levels of localized observance, but go 15 miles in any direction and nobody seems to care. It’s really rather localized and/or depends on the individual.

50

I attend school in Evanston, IL, and when I graduate later this year I’ll be staying here full-time.

Long Island, NY.

My parents are Jewish.

I went to Hebrew School from… I’m not sure exactly, maybe age 6 or 7 to 13.

I went along with it until I became an atheist at 13. For a while they insisted I keep going to services, but I always refused. They also insisted for a time I’d eventually changed my mind, but I think it’s clear at this point that ain’t happening either.

All public schools. Northwestern is a private school but it’s non-religious or I wouldn’t be here. There was no religious instruction. As a freshman in high school, my biology teacher spent about 3 seconds discussing creationism as a theory before going into evolution. If I could do that over, I’d shout at him for even mentioning it in a science class.

No.

I consider myself a very devout atheist.

There are tons of churches in this town for reasons I’m not entirely clear on. Although you can of course find good numbers of skeptics and atheists among the students. Doesn’t really matter where you put me, my degree of observance (zero) is going to be lower than the average.

51

[hijack] As a near-native Evanstonian (age 2 onward), here’s my $.02.

Told to me by an old friend of the family, now passed away (she was in her 90s when I knew her as a child, around

In the 19th century, when Chicago was much smaller than it is now, Evanston was a far-off suburb where many rich Chicagoans had their country homes. Its original name was “Heavenstown,” according to the old family friend. Her family was old blue-blood Chicago; she told us her father had lent Marshall Field some money to start his business. There does seem, however, to be a big split in the nature of Evanston church congregations by color; never having been a Christian, I couldn’t begin to tell you why that is, i.e. why people of one color tend to end up in the same few denominations. But that’s a national phenomenon, I believe; my impression is that churches are among our least racially integrated institutions (well, and synagogues, for historical reasons, Sammy Davis Jr. nonwithstanding).

I don’t know the whole story about how Evanston got to be so politically liberal, but it was also a stop on the Underground Railroad. It’s the only north Chicago suburb until you get to, say, Waukegan or North Chicago with any significant black or Hispanic population. Maybe some escapees from the South decided to stay for the liberal political atmoshpere? I know my parents picked Evanston when we moved from the East Coast precisely because of the integrated population (and the decent public schools). [/hijack]

Oh, and I forgot one thing in my initial answer; we did learn about various religions in school, from a historical/cultural perspective (i.e. it would be very difficult to explain European history without talking about the Inquisition or the Reformation, and hard to run a choir without doing any religious music, although they always tried to be egalitarian about it, which generally meant sticking in some cheesy arrangement of “Hava Nagila”).

52

**1. Where do you live now? **
Huntington Beach, CA

2. Where was the bulk of your childhood spent?
Hollywood, CA

3. What religion, if any, were you brought up in?
Birth - age 9: Lutheran
Age 10: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS).

4. Did you have any formal religious instruction as a child? If so, how much and what kind?
IIRC my mother and I went to church weekly when I was young. My Daddy was an alcoholic (he died when I was 9) and didn’t go out of the house much so I don’t think he ever attended church with us.

My Aunt was active LDS so whenever I was with her, she would take me to church with her or send me to any of the “kid” religious classes (i.e. Primary) with my cousin.

When my dad died, my mother converted to the LDS church. That was when church attendance escalated to not just weekly attendance on Sunday, but also weekly attendance of the classes and activities for younger members. And any other activities or projects for everyone.

5. Did your parents try to influence your degree of religious observance, either in childhood or in adulthood? If so, to what extent?
YES! I was extremely shy when I was young but she insisted on me going to church or activities. As an adult, I realize she’s very fanatical about church involvement and has been extremely critical of me and my choices in this area.

6. Did you attend public schools? Religious schools? Neither? If you attended public schools, was there any religious instruction as part of the school curriculum?
I attended public schools through the 12th grade. After that, I attended both the LDS run private Brigham Young University and the non-religious University of Utah.

7. Do you currently practice any organized religion?
I am an inactive member of the LDS Church.

8. How religiously observant do you consider yourself to be now, in terms of following the formal practices and restrictions of a particular organized religion?
There were times I thought I was questioning the beliefs I was raised with to determine if I really believed them or if I was just going along with it all because that’s what I’d been taught to do. But I was wrong. I wasn’t really questioning… Awhile back I did start questioning and now I consider myself “lost”. There are to many things about the LDS Church I’m not comfortable. I do want to align myself with a religion, but I don’t know which one yet.

9. How do you think your degree of religious observance compares to that of others where you live?
Living in Southern California where anything goes, I don’t think I’m alone. There are people of all denominations with all degrees of observance, or the lack thereof.

53

**1. Where do you live now? **
Northwest England
2. Where was the bulk of your childhood spent?
Southwest England
3. What religion, if any, were you brought up in?
None. Our household was secular humanist.
4. Did you have any formal religious instruction as a child? If so, how much and what kind?
Bible stories at school, comparative religious education at school.
5. Did your parents try to influence your degree of religious observance, either in childhood or in adulthood? If so, to what extent?
No.
6. Did you attend public schools? Religious schools? Neither? If you attended public schools, was there any religious instruction as part of the school curriculum?
I attended public (state) schools in the UK. There was religious instruction as part of the school curriculum.
7. Do you currently practice any organized religion?
I identify as UU, but bugger me, that’s a broad umbrella.
8. How religiously observant do you consider yourself to be now, in terms of following the formal practices and restrictions of a particular organized religion?
I don’t go to chapel, and don’t appear externally observant.
9. How do you think your degree of religious observance compares to that of others where you live?
Similar. Quite a few people go to the local Anglican church, but the majority of people here are not church goers.

54 
  1. Topeka, Kansas

  2. Topeka, Kansas, although I spent three years in the Army and three years in East Lansing, Michigan.

  3. I was raised a Lutheran, in what is called the Missouri Synod, a very conservative denomination.  For example, women are not even yet voting members of the church, and of course they can't be ordained.

  4. Had a lot of childhood instruction, Sunday School, confirmation class for two years, and so on.

  5. In our family the "question" of attendance/observance was not a question, it simply *was.*   It honestly would not have occurred to me, while living at home, that attendance on Sundays might be questioned.

  6. I went to public schools, except for first grade, when I attended a Lutheran school.  In the public schools there was no religious instruction, school prayer, or anything like that.

  7. Left the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod for a more liberal branch of Lutheranism, then became an Episcopalian.

  8. I'm quite observant.  I attend each Sunday, and also teach 2nd/3rd grade Sunday School, which I find I rather enjoy.  I'm also currently enrolled in a serious weekly Bible study class that meets for two hours each Monday evening.

  9. Hard to say how I compare.  Topeka has a lot of churches but I don't think that indicates we are more or less observant.  I'd honestly say that I'm somewhere in the middle.  But the local public schools have a lot of sporting events and practices on Sunday morning, and I know that interferes with the observance of a lot of people.
55

  1. Where do you live now?
    Stockholm, Sweden.

  2. Where was the bulk of your childhood spent?
    Stockholm, Sweden

  3. What religion, if any, were you brought up in?
    None. Technically I was a member of the Lutheran Church here in Sweden although once church and state were separated and I started working I left the church since I didn’t want to pay any tax to a church especially since I didn’t believe.

  4. Did you have any formal religious instruction as a child? If so, how much and what kind?

None at home. I did go to confirmation classes for some reason in my teens. Don’t know why really, must have been for the gifts.

  1. Did your parents try to influence your degree of religious observance, either in childhood or in adulthood? If so, to what extent?

Nope.

  1. Did you attend public schools? Religious schools? Neither? If you attended public schools, was there any religious instruction as part of the school curriculum?

I went to a public school, there were very few private schools when I was a kid. (I’m 30 now BTW). Religion is taught as a subject in school. We are taught about all religions.

  1. Do you currently practice any organized religion?

No. I consider myself an atheist/agnostic.

  1. How religiously observant do you consider yourself to be now, in terms of following the formal practices and restrictions of a particular organized religion?

Not observant at all, see answer 7.

  1. How do you think your degree of religious observance compares to that of others where you live?

I’m probably less observant than the average Swede. It must be said though that in general Swedes are not that religious. It is often joked that the average Swede only enters a church 3 times in his or her life and two of those times they are carried in.

56

  1. Where do you live now?
    Toledo Ohio,

  2. Where was the bulk of your childhood spent?
    Maumee Ohio, Suburb of above.

  3. What religion, if any, were you brought up in?
    Roman Catholic

  4. Did you have any formal religious instruction as a child? If so, how much and what kind?
    CCD Classes until about 6th grade. Various Prodestant Sunday Shcools, Including Baptist, Penacostal and UU

  5. Did your parents try to influence your degree of religious observance, either in childhood or in adulthood? If so, to what extent?
    My Mother being the good Catholic girl, did her best as proscribed by the Church to turn both my Brother and myself into PopeDrones. Fortunatly she gave up about 6th Grade. Tho’ she will ask us to go to Mass yet.

  6. Did you attend public schools? Religious schools? Neither? If you attended public schools, was there any religious instruction as part of the school curriculum?
    I went to Maumee City Schools where the closest one could find religious talking was a Bible as Litrature class that was gotten rid of the year I became eligible to take it.

  7. Do you currently practice any organized religion?
    Can forms of Paganism ever be truly organized? I do belong to a Coven. I am Wicca.

  8. How religiously observant do you consider yourself to be now, in terms of following the formal practices and restrictions of a particular organized religion?
    Part of the fun of being Pagan is that there are none of these silly things. As fro my own personal observances, I do devotions daily and burn candles daily for prayer.

  9. How do you think your degree of religious observance compares to that of others where you live?
    I have no idea. FFIW, I am one of the most observant that I know of in my Coven.