My agnostic parents were a bit candalized that my brother & I had a church-going, spirirtual bent. I went to Sunday School because I liked the ritual and the stories and the music. After experiencing several other religious traditions, I am back to the Protestant Church - and for more or less the same reasons.

I was raised by a Southern Baptist mother and a Christian Scientist father. I joined the Episcopal Church when I was 19 and began studying the Torah and going to inquires class at the local Temple when I was 30. I have not converted to Judiasm, although I still think that someday, I might. I am very spiritual but do not necissarily need or want all that comes with religion.

Great subject and beautiful posts from everyone. I was raised in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1986 began going to evangelical churches that had a more expressive worship service. As a believer, I can’t imagine life without the Lord. I have respect for all people and love to learn about all religious faiths. I’ve witnessed miracles and the power of prayer in my life and the lives of others. I’m still growing in His Knowledge and Purpose.

I have changed so called different types of faith, being from Lousisiana you had to be southern baptist. I was baptised southern baptist. I moved to Texas and when my son entered a Lutheran private school, I studied that faith and changed over to Lutheran. When my mother was dying if I had not had a higher power to turn to, I do not know how I would have coped. I believe there is a higher power. Then I moved back to Louisiana and did not practice any religon for several years, now I attend a full gospel church, they don’t like to use the word religion but spiritual, I believe I am spirtual and when the time comes for my departure from this world, I sure as #@$% hope there is a better place where I will see the ones that has gone before me.

The Evangelical United Brethren church that we attended became United Methodist.

I come from a long line of converts. Both parents and three grandparents changed religions. I was raised Roman Catholic. I left as a teenager for too many reasons to list here. I went to different churches & briefly considered becoming a member of several. It was when I was invited to a bat mitzvah that I found my religion (or it found me….it’s hard to tell). I felt as if I had gone home. I formally converted in my mid-twenties. My faith is still evolving, however. I have practiced a form of Goddess worship & witch craft, but I am not Wiccan. I am one of many who call themselves Jewitches. Religiously I am moving to the right, but spiritually to the left. I converted into a Reform congregation but didn’t fit in; I am considering undergoing an Orthodox coversion so all Jews will accept me as one of the tribe. I am still studying ancient Paganism, especially Slavic & Israelite/Hebrew.

I want thank everyone who posted on this topic. My life has been a quest for a place I could feel at home. I changed at twelve and again at twenty two. It has been a search ever since. I don’t trust organized religions and not because of the religions but because humans use them to point out the short comings of others rather than point to themselves as working or failing to keep what their religions teach. I’m not sure who to blame the preachers or the preached to. I didn’t know what a Catholic was until I spent two years in New Orleans. Now that is a Catholic city. I even took a course with a Jesuit to better understand the women I worked with. My daughter married a Jew and his mother has never forgiven her for being a goyim. But they did give me an opportunity to cook a Christmas dinner for a group of his friends one year when they were living in Atlanta [He is a New Yorker.] Those young men had never been close enough to a Christmas tree to touch it. They’d never had a traditional Christmas turkey. It was a delightful experience. Those of us from the west coast think that being a Catholic or a Jew is like being a Presbyterian, they only do it on Sunday like we do. Well I learned that isn’t necessarily true. I don’t think for moment I personally could live with the restrictions, I do admire their ability to make it their life.

Here are some wonderful things from the Sunbeams page of “The Sun,” May, 2008: “If you don’t find God in the next person you meet, it is a waste of time looking further….” Mohandas K. Gandi **************************** “Life happens to be both a severe and an endlessly kind teacher. It’s the only authority that you need to trust. And this teacher, this authority, is everywhere. You don’t have to go to some special place to find this incomparable teacher; you don’t have to have some especially quiet or ideal situation: in fact, the messier it is, the better. The average office is a great place. The average home is perfect…. That is where the authority, the teacher is.” Charlotte Joko Beck, roshi and author of “Everyday Zen.” **************************** “Who cares if you’re enlightened forever? Can you just get it in this moment, now?” Byron Katie **************************** “Don’t put your faith in anyone. You have it all inside you. You’re always asking the masters. Why don’t you ask yourselves? Forget the masters.” J. Krishnamurti **************************** “I am so absorbed in the wonder of the earth and the life upon it that I cannot think of heaven and the angels. I have enough for this life.” Pearl S. Buck

My mother married and divorced four times, each time changing our identities, religions, social standing and geographical homes. I was baptised in the Church of England, raised in a Jewish home (including hebrew school), schooled in Europe as a Social Register Episcopalian and finally married by a Congregationalist minister (he had a free day), who immediately left the faith and became a gay, surfer in Hawaii. In my young married twenties, I enrolled in the local college: Barat College of the Sacred Heart. It was still a women’s college and filled with demanding nuns and professors, that expected nothing less than the best of us. We were the editors, the valedictorians, the athletes - we were Barat Broads and our male friends and relatives were not so happy. Five years post graduation, I was received as a member of the Roman Catholic Church. This caused no end of controversy in my family, that continues to this day. The Sacred Heart sisters (mothers in the day!) gave me the gift of self and faith. I have raised my two daughters in the faith and insisted on their attendance (with me) every Sunday and all holidays. We mark Advent and Lent with purpose and sincerity. My daughters chose to attend a small all-girl Sacred Heart high school - the guy thing was hard. Today, the eldest is 24, finished with grad school in London and living on her own in Chicago with her best friend since 4 yrs of age, who is Jewish. She still attends mass. The youngest (a college senior) stopped attending church after her 18th birthday. She was hesitant to tell me but my message was: “my job is done - your faith is yours”. And that is the truth - find a community that feeds your spirit and your soul. It is your job and your opportunity. Peace and love to you all

P.S. As the resident Jewish authority (all that hebrew school and Purim pagents), I was the go-to Mom in the parochial schools. Every spring, our little school set a Sedar table and read the Haggadah. My daughters were required to take comparative religions in grammar and high school and still celebrate Jewish holidays with much of my family. My daughters know more about the Jewish faith and history than my siblings, nieces and nephew because they are typical of contemporary cultural Jews. We are richer for the experience.