Growing Up Against Religion

I have to admit that growing up was sometimes mystifying or even confusing, as you will see. I was baptized into the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, per request of my maternal grandmother, but when I attended mass at my father's Roman Catholic Church, I wasn't allowed to receive communion. I stood up to follow my dad down the aisle of the church, just as I followed my mom to receive Qurban (Amharic for "communion" in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church). But, my older brother grabbed my arm and whispered, "We don't do that here." I proceeded to ask him why and he nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders. I taxed my mind searching for a logical reason behind his answer, but I couldn't find one. Although I was puzzled for a moment, I was soon comforted by my favorite deacon's sermon on "Loving Thy Neighbor." It never occurred to me that any two components of who I am could clash. In my home, differences were always celebrated and accommodated, but at church, they seemed

I didn’t come from a particularly religious, or irreligious, household. Growing up, there was no solid, undoubting spiritual framework from which I could base my life on. There was never any Sunday morning “rush-hour,” where we would all eat a quick breakfast of bacon & eggs before cramming into the car to go listen to a man, clad in white, preach & sing to us about a creator. There was never any youth-group, or summer-camp, or bible study. Not to any fault of my parents, of course - I just wasn’t raised that way. That being said, I was still told about God, the bible, and the things that entail it. Despite the fact that I was never really, fully indoctrinated into the Christian faith, I was still being raised as a Christian, and that’s what I identified as for the majority of my childhood. I was Austin Tanner Herz, the 3rd grader, the lego-fanatic, the comic-book reading, lunchable eating, bed-jumping extraordinaire, the Christian. Little did I know how much my religious identity would change over the upcoming years.

When I was younger, I would go to church with my Grandma and attend Catholic religion classes to prepare for my first communion. At the time, I was happy to go; I looked forward to those days. Around the summer before fourth grade, I stopped attending religion classes since they were at a time which conflicted with my schedule. From then on, much to my grandparents dismay, I slowly stopped going to church. After a few years of not attending religion classes and church, I started to notice my own beliefs didn’t match those of the church. Being away from the church gave me time to explore ideas other than those of which I had been taught all of my life. In sixth grade, I remember being curious and wondering if my beliefs matched those of another religion. My interest was sparked by my love of history and culture. I discovered that Celtic Pagans have similar beliefs. Celtic Paganism, specifically, is a polytheistic religion from the Iron Age practiced by the ancient Celts. I learned about specifics of the

Much of my whole life growing up was doing more good than bad. Much of us probably know about following rules as an access to heaven which I was raised under. Growing up as a child, I was forced in religion because of my grandparents did it and also my parents. My grandparents were so strict with their faith that my parents stop going to church since they made them feel not accepted. At times I asked my parents why we are not going to church and always told me we have other plans today. Not knowing that was the day I stopped going to church and knowing God more for the next 12 years of my life. During these times, I still followed the rules that I was raised under and was truly hard on myself when I did something wrong to the point where I would ground myself (I was 6 at the time).

As a child, I was surrounded by relatives with a strong Catholic foundation, and this religion was followed faithfully by my grandparents. Although I was not brought up Catholic by my parents, I was taken to church on Sundays. Most of the time we attended Methodist churches as this was accepted by my grandparents as their grandchildren were being taught Christianity. As an adult, I pulled away from mainstream religion and do not attend church on a regular basis. This does not mean that I am an atheist; I believe there is a higher power of some sort. I also believe that the Bible has too many interpretations. It is confusing that one book can be perceived differently by several different Christian groups and with many disagreeing on the meaning. On the other hand, I believe in the human race and feel everyone should be treated the same. I realize this does not happen often as we are taught stereotypes throughout our childhood and this stays with us throughout our lives. I am of course human and work to make my life positive as well as make each day better than the last. Some may say I am fooling

Religion has always been a big part of my family. I was raised in a pretty strict catholic home. Going to church every Sunday, needing to learn all the prayers, doing my first communion, and then doing my confirmation. As I started to get older I started having more of an open mind towards things, especially religion. All you have to do is look on the news and you can see all the evil in the world. Terrorist attacks, kids getting shot down by cops, and school shootings. How can someone be so evil to walk into an elementary school and kill innocent 6 and 7-year-olds? There isn’t any justification for this; the kids and parents didn’t deserve this undeserved pain and suffering. That’s why I believe that there is an evidential problem with evil.

Now that I’m an adult there moments where I do have some conflict between my traditional beliefs and what the catholic church is in reality, based on the bible and other religion, there a hugged different from what I was told when I was younger of bee catholic. They’re very confusing for someone to try to be following their culture's beliefs now days.

Growing up in an extremely religious family was easier when I was younger. My great-grandmother and great-grandfather were both pastors, my grandfather was a preacher and my grandmother always went to church and did everything that was right by God and the Bible. My parents and grandparents were never really worried about what I thought or how I felt about their religious beliefs. As I grew older I stopped believing in the Bible and God. I believed in the concept of evolution. I knew that coming out to my family and informing them that I did not believe the same as they did would be the most difficult achievement in my entire life.

At the age of 17 my dad became a Christian. I specifically remember changing the ‘religious views’ section on my Facebook account to: “I respect all religions”, subtly saying to my dad, that unlike him I believed there were many ways to God, if God did indeed exist.

One of the hardest identities which I have come to develop is my religious beliefs. Although my mom never really told my brother and me what to believe, I did know that she was a devoted Catholic. She grew up in church, even though we didn’t go to church, she prayed every morning and carries a picture of Jesus in her wallet. My mom 's nonchalant attitude towards religion led me to explore different faiths. As a child, I just did what my mom did—she prayed, I prayed, she believed so I believed. Also with catholicism being part of Christianity, this norm went unexamined, similar to whiteness. However, the more I learned, the more doubts I started to have in what her faith preached.

Religion is everywhere, even if we don’t notice it. Some common elements of religion include group activities, morals, actions, and rituals. It may not seem like it, but those factors in religion are involved in our everyday life, including mine. After learning more about religion, I am starting to realize how much it actually affects me daily.

My parents raised my brothers and I in a Catholic household. Throughout our childhoods, they instilled in us at an early age the importance of honesty, kindness, forgiveness, and love. However, these lessons usually related back to God. Due to our faith, my family would go to church, say grace before our meals, and pray every night. Despite this upbringing, doubt still festered in my mind. At the age of 13, I began to question my faith. A year later, the questions that led to myself choosing to not be Catholic changed my outlook on the morals of myself and others, death, and my attitude about life.

Religion is sometimes pushed on to people, which results in something completely different than the intended outcome. Throughout my life, religion has always been the foundation of my family’s morals. When I was younger, my mom and dad would accompany me at church and fill my head with the belief that no matter what, Jesus is here and he is real. They enrolled me in many youth groups lasting from elementary school to the beginning of high school. Religion has always been a hard concept for me to understand, since it is concept based purely on beliefs and morals. On more than one occasion, I have asked my parents for answers, but they were never able to give them to me. Christianity is very popular where I live, so it was not uncommon to see someone walking down the street that I knew from church or my youth group, but since I had a problem connecting with God, I had trouble connecting with them. As I am getting older, I am beginning to understand that since so many things are hard for me to believe, I need some time to think about where I am in my life. I have always wanted answers about how Christianity worked, but my parents would only tell me to ask God about it, and he would answer. After many years, I have started thinking that Jesus is not real since he never answered my questions. I knew that telling this to my parents would be difficult, and it is. We do not agree on many aspects of me being less involved with the church, but they ultimately let me draw out of my

My entire life in Newton religion has always been right around the corner. That applies both literally and metaphorically. A couple friends and I once attempted to count every church in Newton and if I remember correct we lost track at around 40 or 50. This town is home to many faiths, all of which I have never been affiliated with. Religion was never something my family really talked much about but they always told me whatever I choose to believe in or not believe in was up to me. Between my mother, father, sister, and I we all have different beliefs. My mom is an atheist, which very much is a reflection of her character. If she doesn’t see something it’s not there. My dad believes there is a God who created all, but not the God we think of today. Instead he just believes something created us all and that whatever is was is not something we would ever know enough about to worship. My sister is a regular believer in God and to my knowledge always has been. To be honest I never gave religion a true hard thought until my senior year, before then I really had no interest in the subject and would often refer to myself as an “Apatheist”. I remember I use to say things like, ”Even if there was definitive proof of a God I still would not care.” I use to say things like that to try and sound different but at the end of the day I still truly felt that way.

As to be expected given the strong Christian upbringing I had, the first several years of my life following the ability to think for myself (to a degree) I was unshakeable in my faith. As a child, I had dutifully attended Church every single Sunday with barely any exceptions and heavily engaged with the community. I'd always look forward to Sunday school and learning about Christ along with attending youth club meetings every week on Wednesdays. I had even made developed a hobby for preaching and chattering about Christianity with other Christian children my age. There was no one that could possibly turn me away from my faith in God... or so I had thought.