Religious Affiliation

[Dobie]

I have a strong belief in God, but do not attend an organized church. I used to belong to a very small (30 members) church - but was told that I had lost my salvation when I divorced my husband who had been beating me up and refused to get help (said it was the medication he was on and there was nothing he could do about it - I just needed to learn not to aggravate him.) He didn't want the divorce, so he was allowed to stay and I was kicked out.

I think I made it worse when I told the elders that I thought that their sin (taking on the role of God and declaring that I had lost my salvation) - was worse than mine.

I do not believe that God would want me to stay in a relationship where I was being physically abused.

[pearl]

i'm with you there, dobie.
i go to a methodist church but my beliefs are not traditional. i believe the life of jesus was an inspiration, and that there have been several prophets that we can learn from the life of. i try to follow those teachings.
i don't literally take the immaculate conception as reality, but i also think it doesn't matter what we believe about what or how things really happened back then. how a person lives their life is more important.
my main way to live life is take care of myself, help other people, and take care of the earth.
i like a lot of things other rreligions say...buddhism, taoism, etc.
i get a lot of spiritual things from nature, my friendships, the way the whole universe works, and music; i see a lot of god there.

[Janet]

My family are members of the First Church of the Nazarene. I started there as a child. Now, I attend (and not every Sunday) a nice country church a couple miles from us...Hopewell United Methodist Church. The people there are all my neighbors and a lot of the families whose kids ride my bus. It's not very big, maybe 100 or less members, but it sure feels good to be there.

aw Dobie, I'm sorry! Thats what I tell my mom........she is a charismatic holy rolling believer, and when she found out I was converting to the "great whore in the book of revelations!" she almost had a stroke. In fact I need testimony from family members as to why my previous marriage ended. Getting testimony from family members so you can become catholic when they think you should have stayed in the relationship has proven difficult in the extreme. Never mind that he settled arguments by pointing a gun in my face on more than one occasion. Had I had the sense god gave a monkey he would have done time for aggravated felony domestic assault. But its in the past now, and I wish him only blessings.
Anyway, after we split, most of my former friends and family totaly turned against me. So I told my mom, that while I would never set myself on the level of god himself, that like him when he said "these wounds I got in the house of my friends". thats me. every bad thing that has ever happened to me has been at the hand of a so called christian. I have learned that most have forgotten that christian is suppose to mean christ like.
My desire to become catholic, is that they are an extremely formal church and I believe it is a human need to have a ritual of worship. I find that there. My personal convictions of my inner soul are simply between god and myself. he knows me, the good the bad and the ugly, and amazingly enough he still sent his son to die for me. thats all I need.
Thanks for sharing Dobie. I needed that! {huggie}

[katcarasella]

I'm a Roman Catholic.

[Gina]

I'm a Roman Catholic .

These kinds of threads scare me, lol. I guess I will just say that I take things from a lot of different religions and incorporate that into what I believe or not believe. There's at least one thing in each religion that I can agree with, as well as at least one thing that I don't

[pearl]

Originally Posted by Gwen

These kinds of threads scare me, lol. I guess I will just say that I take things from a lot of different religions and incorporate that into what I believe or not believe. There's at least one thing in each religion that I can agree with, as well as at least one thing that I don't

i'm kind of there too, gwen. i'm a blend! sometimes my beliefs don't make sense to other people, but only what works for me and what i can hold on to and live by is what's important.

[Ponyup]

Organized religion makes me nervous as well. I do believe in God, I do believe God sent his son to die for me. I also think however, that the bible might have been manipulated by the original translators to get the people to do what they wanted without a revolt. Because the leaders could say don't get mad at me this is coming from God, like the scripture that says to pay your taxes, don't know exactly what verse it is, but I know there is one because it was brought up in my church not too long ago.

I was raised methodist, I loved the old hymns we sang, we had wonderful singers, my grandma was one & a wonderful organist. That chuch however believed that drinking, gambling, & smoking were sins along with tattoos & multiple other things. I have come to the realization that where they got these sins was because it says that God should be #1 in your life. If you become addicted to any of the things mentioned they will take that #1 spot from God. So rather then saying these things are fine in moderation they deemed doing them at all sinful & evil. My family also have something against the catholics that I don't understand. I do not understand the catholic faith therefore i can not judge it. In fact I don't feel I can judge anyone or anything that's not my place. My current church is a missionary church, i like the music & most of the services, some of the things they preach i do not agree with, but I enjoy the fellowship there.

Ponyup.......dont know if this will help but I think that after the original christians came out of the catacombs, Catholicism was the first organised church. Therefore all the protestant churches of today came from catholic originally. Thats not my opinion it is a historical fact. Naturally they had a reason for leaving or they would have stayed. I think most protestant groups have a long history of dislike for catholic and alot of misinformation. The catholics do not have a clean history either. historically they did many evil things. However there isnt a religious group that hasnt. your religion is only as nice as the peole who claim it. if your evil, then the religion you claim becomes evil as well.