yes.

[kaigou]

Religion is a circumstance of birth for most people. We're indoctrinated into it and that's where we hang out for most of our lives, wallowing in and out of varying degrees of fanaticism for it. ... Yeah, people convert, but outside of countries where [there's] Freedom of Religion or something, [for] the most part, generically speaking, you are what your parents taught you to be.

killermuff rocks my world.

Comments

[mikkeneko.livejournal.com]

My dad believes that the only religion you can truly commit yourself to spiritually is one you've converted to.

But then, my dad himself converted, so maybe that's why he feels that way.

Actually, when I use the word 'converted' it gives the impression of a huge inter-cultural change, like from Judiasm to Mormonism or something. He grew up the son of a travelling Baptist minister, and in graduate school converted to Unitarian Universalism. I'm pretty sure he thinks that even just lapsing from your faith for a time, and then coming back as an adult and re-examining its values, then deciding that it's the right religion for you after all, counts.

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

Dude, I would totally consider Baptist to UU to be a major cultural shift!

My dad believes that the only religion you can truly commit yourself to spiritually is one you've converted to.

I suppose if you raise kids in an a-religious environment (or a omni-religious environment?) where no one POV gets more weight than the rest, than if the child embraces a religious (or political or social) mindset, this is a type of conversion. It's just movement from an apositional POV to preferential POV.

Or, uh, something. I have a chapter to edit. Bleah.

[mikkeneko.livejournal.com]

I would totally consider Baptist to UU to be a major cultural shift!

*laughs* I suppose that's fair. But I meant to say that even a less major shift, like say from Baptist to Episcopalean, would probably still fit what my dad had in mind.

Myself, unfortunately, I don't see any such shift in my future. I'm not religiously motivated at the moment, but if I were, I can't really think of any religion more suited to my values and perspective than the one I'm already in.

[okaasan59.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure he thinks that even just lapsing from your faith for a time, and then coming back as an adult and re-examining its values, then deciding that it's the right religion for you after all, counts.

I think that's a pretty healthy thing to do, perhaps even necessary. If a person never questioned the faith they were brought up in, then IMO, they're just being mindless sheep. I'm still in the church I was born and raised in, though I've attended others and attended none for several years. I've done my share of questioning and feel that the church I'm in is the right one for me...at least for now. Current social issues and the resulting conservative backlash is making the grass look greener a few pastures over.

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

Current social issues and the resulting conservative backlash is making the grass look greener a few pastures over.

Are the Lutherans getting pulled into the whole Anglican controversy?

[okaasan59.livejournal.com]

The branch I belong to is one of the conservative ones--LCMS. They don't ordain women, are ambivalent at best on the issue of sexual orientation, and they get caught up in all kinds of 'legalistic' shit like having a hissy fit if a minister participates in a service with ministers of other faiths. I'm thinking of changing to ELCA, the more liberal branch of the Lutheran church, though my brother, who is an ordained LCMS minister might disinherit me. ^_~

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

But don't both branches co-recognize with Episcopalians? I know back about ten, fifteen years ago there was that whole Synod between the two, and the conservative branches of Lutheranism threw wrenches in the works. The liturgy is so similar between Episcopalian, Lutheran, and most Roman (American) Catholicism that it's almost like "different name, but same on the inside!" --except for those pesky issues of women priests, sexuality, and AIDS outreach.

And for the record, Rite I makes me break out in hives. Ehehehe. Rite II, man! ;D

[okaasan59.livejournal.com]

No, LCMS doesn't share pulpit privileges with any other branches, even with ELCA churches. Two LCMS leaders recently got in trouble--one for co-officiating at his niece's wedding with an ELCA pastor, and another for participating in a prayer service after 9/11 that included many different faiths. That sucks big time.

Um...what's Rite I and Rite II? (And yes, the liturgy is so similar that I feel right at home in a Roman Catholic church service.)

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

Rite I is the formal, older style: It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks -- while Rite II is the modern version: It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks...

Most often you see Rite I and Rite II contrasts in the LP. "For thine is the kingdom and the power" is Rite I; the modern version is "For the kingdom, and the power, and the glory are yours". The thing to note is that this isn't set in stone; I was raised in Rite II churches but some use Rite I during the Eurcharist for its more formal language.

And YES damn it I CAN still quote massive sections of the Nicene Creed. You hear this crap nearly every Sunday for the first eighteen years of your life and IT WILL NEVER GO AWAY.

Gimme bleach.

*snickers*