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 Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 4:21 am
Hello there!
I have a belief question for purpose of gleaning personal insight:
How many of you were former members of Christianity?
I was raised Southern Baptist by a bipolar mother and a loving and compliant father (a former Catholic who changed faiths to appease her) who aided in my distaste for the faith and was active in the church for about 20 years. My mother claimed to have spoken to God through the thunder one night and had run off on my sisters and I many times after "religious experiences" which coincided with going off of her meds. I remember staying with our music minister in Jr high and being told that she was "unsafe" for me to see, although I knew that the church as somewhat insensitive to her mental issues and that many suspected that there was something "unnatural" about me as her daughter. I thought often on my ancestors when times of trouble came, and it always puzzled me. It was an odd aspect of my life that aided in my exploration of Asatru.
I was wondering if anyone was interesting in sharing their experience. If you were, can you please provide me with some information about how you chose Asatru and reactions of your family if it is not too personal? It would be a great help.
Thanks!
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Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 5:41 am
My mother's a non churchgoing protestant, my father's an atheist. When I told 'em I'd left the church (which you're automatically a member of if you're born to a christian parent in iceland) they mostly just shrugged and went "whatever makes you happy".
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Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 10:31 am
I was raised seventh-day adventist.
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 3:26 am
Before discovering Asatru, I explored a number of religious paths. Just before my conversion to the religion of my ancestors I was Christian Gnostic, but somehow the Christian faith did not satisfy my spiritual needs. In 1986 a girlfriend gave me a set of runes as a birthday present, and after performing some research I discovered the wonder and glory of Norse mythology.
The following year I converted to Asatru, and since then I have never been happier.
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Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 7:13 pm
my current boyfriend and fiance introduced me to Asatru. i was born methodist, never went to church except to appease my devout uncle and his family, decided i was too logical to believe in christianity and declared myself an atheist. but when my boyfriend started teaching me about Asatru, i began liking it more and more, feeling quite comfortable with it, more so than any other religion.
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Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 12:38 pm
Yes and no.
In the end I find it hard to count the earliest years of my childhood when I was raised in an assemblies of god church going family, and was taught all the stories via pop up book.
I really am not connected with my family and they have no idea I do not have the same faith as they do. If they found out they would disown me, or even try to actively 'hunt' me as they do all the 'witchcraft' (D&D, Halloween, the usual misinformed ignorance).
I just couldn't accept the religion, and questioned it mostly because of the people I saw doing blatantly bad things and still feeling justified. It led to a lot of anger and ignorance in my family so by the age of 9-10 I was starting to question the logic greatly.
(Keep in mind Me<12 so maybe not philosophy level) My first question was that if God knew the future already, how did we as his creations have the free will to end up where we pleased. He 'programmed us' right and already knew the story's ending before we played it out? Well my curiosity was met with 'if you think about that you will burn' so I naturally fell into an atheist state of mind.
Years later I became friends with someone I consider family now, and he was trying his best to become a respectable follower of the Asatru faith. He was young but was really putting his heart into it. After I realized it wasn't a fad or cool thing he was trying to do to be different I learned more and more about it. Because of him I'm learning more and adopting more of the religion into my everyday life.
I'm very happy with my life as of now and religion is one of the main aspects.
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Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 9:30 pm
I was raised Christian - Northern Baptist which means I was never baptized - but my mother was and is agnostic and my brother is atheist. My father is nominally Christian but never took me to Church. Ironically, my agnostic mother took me to Church.
She tells me that even when I was a child I was "different" in a Church, as if I felt something. I began exploring religions as a teen, seeking gods, and ended up Asatru in my early twenties.
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