I am a Christian though neither of my parents or my sister were. They regard(ed) Jesus as spiritually advanced and subscribe to reincarnation and the Eternal Being or G_d. I’m not certain that they are incorrect about reincarnation. My first recollection of G_d was when I was two years old. I felt His presence and talked with Him then as I have always during my life.
I was baptised & confirmed Episcopalian, attended a Baptist church for a few years during my adult life. It’s not my impression that Quaker is far from my original Episcopal church, but like other posters in this thread, I am first and foremost a follower of Christ and where He leads me.
Our family experienced an amazing spiritual walk (which we are still on btw) following the diagnosis and loss of Dawson (our little grandson) because of pineoblastoma. Since this particular event, I am very sensitive to anger, hate (in all it’s forms), suffering, and love, and when love is absent in another. Because of this my visits to these boards are often short, but I return now and then for the pearls a few leave behind.
Not a fan of religion, to say the least. Great fodder for jokes, though! I don’t care much about what people believe - though I’m often at a loss as to why - as long as they don’t get in everyone else’s face about it.
I’m a real oddity. I was raised as a Roman Catholic (dad a cradle Catholic, mom a converted one), and I still am Catholic. However, I have a pretty good working knowledge of the Bible and I have done quite a bit of reading on Christianity and Catholicism. I disagree with some of the Church’s teachings (women should be allowed to be priests, birth control is better than having more children than you can support, priests should be allowed to marry), but I agree with the important tenets. I really wish that the Church was a little more Jesus and a lot less Paul. But the Church is a human institution, after all, and I think that what I disagree with will be gone in a few hundred years :).
I love the core of the faith - the mysticism, the ritual, and the theology. The rest of my extended family are various denominations of Protestant Christian, and while I joke that my ‘second choice’ religion would be Brethren, I am uncomfortable with the Protestant view of God, as it doesn’t seem to me to allow for the mystery of God.
I am often disappointed by other parishioners. For whatever reason, many Catholics I run into are a judgemental bunch. Didn’t exactly feel the love flowing from my parish when my parents divorced. I’m having quite a dry period in my faith, just because I’m frustrated with being part of a group where so many members either just don’t care, or don’t bother to show it.
