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

[habibti.livejournal.com]

I was raised in an Antiochian Orthodox family with a very religious mother (she still is). All the Byzantine chanting, incense, robes, gold crosses, processions, a 2.5 hour chanted liturgy, having to go entirely vegan over all of Lent, church every night during holy week, holy oil and water, candles and ashes, body and blood, blah, blah, blah.

My family enouraged reading and eduation but my mother meant becoming a doctor or a lawyer, not questioning her basic assumptions about life, as I mistakenly thought. When that led me far, far away from my religious upbringing, all was not happy in the household. Luckily, my mother still loves the sinner! And while my own particular brand of philosophy and spirituality has undergone quite a few changes over the years, I only have to go back to an Orthodox church for a wedding, etc and it's the only form of church worship to me that feels 'real' somehow. And it is incredibly beautiful.

That's inculturation.

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

not questioning her basic assumptions about life, as I mistakenly thought

Silly girl!

*snickers*

Heh, Episcopalianism doesn't have the same high grand ritual, so that's not what feels 'real' to me. Instead, I tend to look askance at Xtian sects that don't permit women to the priesthood. I suppose growing up with women priests around just as much as men, I can't feel truly comfortable (and sometimes not at all) with any group that thinks one gender is more suited for a role just because he's got dangly parts between his legs.

Odd, where our comfort zones are, hunh.