Did anyone have a christian upbringing?

[aphroditemoon]

Hey everyone,
It's been forever since I've been here, but I happy to be back now. I feel so much more at peace getting back into the craft. I was gone for a while because I had a Christian period but it's just not for me. Does anyone have a Christian backround? How do you get over feeling like you're doing something wrong even though you're not. That's honestly the only reason I ever went back to Christianity because I was scared and I thought I was "evil" or something. After going down that road again like in my childhood it brought nothing back but bad memories. I don't feel like I'm terrible, but I would like to feel at peace to just let it go and be happy with my choices. I am 23 and it's not like I need to answer to anyone. I guess I just can't shake the feeling I got when I was always told I was going to hell if I wasn't a christian when I was a child. It's brainwashing.

[SnowCat]

I was raised Catholic. I explored Mormonism and conservative Christianity. I'm claustrophobic as it is. Don't fence me in!

Snow

[loona wynd]

I was raised in the United Church of Christ. At least that is the church I went to. My upbringing would never actually fit most Christianity. My mom believes that children should have a spiritual or religious aspect to their life.

My father taught me about the spirit in all things. He taught me about mother nature. He taught me a lot about the importance of how we are all connected. For him God was in nature.

I went for half of one school year to a Christian school. This happened at the same time Witchcraft came into my life. Because of my dad I was able to find a way to combine them. This time served as a transition from thinking in a Christian mindset to that of a witch which was more natural to me.

So I guess the answer is yes. Though it wasn't strict. It was more fluid and open. I was exposed to Christian beliefs as well as Native American beliefs. I was never a real Christian by the church. I was a heretic and honestly I am proud of not being raised in an evangelical church.

[Seraphin]

My family is a Christian. But fortunately, they are very open-minded! ('Cept some very distant relatives)

I'm very blessed that my two younger sisters and one younger brother, all Christians (though different denominations), are all open to discussing the beliefs and experiences of me and my fiancee's, especially my sister Shine as she was so peaceful and loving. She feels more free to share with me than with any of her Christian friends when it comes to talking about her own spirituality. She receives no argument or judgment from me, and that goes both ways. She's an amazing woman, my sister, and I love talking with her.

And I feel blessed to have you here, as well, and everyone who is sharing their path without judgment of other.

What accounts for such a turn-around of attitude toward witchcraft, magick and occult? I would blame ignorance or lack of knowledge about these things and religious bias as the main reasons for such a harsh behavior.

During the Middle Ages, the silent majority were kept ignorant of many things; only the Church (prisethood), the government (monarchy) and the aristocracy were educated. They hid a lot of things from the masses, except what the religious authorities and the royalty wanted them to know. They couldn't question the authority figures, they could only obey, follow and submit themselves totally to whatever was asked of them to practice and believe.

Despite the advances in education and spread of information due to the invention of the printing press, Internet, and media the prevailing attitude of today's of majority of the folks regarding magickal stuffs are still regarded with suspicion rather than awe. People who practice the art and craft are feared and often avoided rather than admired and respected.

It seems a lot of people has never outgrown its medieval thinking about witches and magickians. During the Middle Ages, the Church even institutionalized the persecution, torture and execution of folks who were accused of being "Satan worshippers" by establishing the dreaded Inquisition. It was ordered to find and hunt, torture and burn at the stakes any person, regardless of age and gender, who exhibited psychic powers, because they were a sign of being in league with the devil. Such powers were labeled evil because of the erroneous belief that such abilities could only come from the devil, not from God. Do they really think that the devil has something to do with such spiritual abilities? I don't think so, in fact, the devil (or any other devil) has no ability to create or to bestow, specially to "mankind".

How the revered and honored Church fathers arrived at such a conclusion defies all known laws of rational thinking. Why, even their Messiah, Jesus displayed many of such powers that witches and magickians have during his lifetime on earth, yet he wasn't considered to be Satan worshiper?

[aphroditemoon]

Thanks everyone for your replies. It helps I've never really strictly followed Christianity. When I was young I was raised Catholic and I just felt "different". There isn't any other way to explain it I guess. Not like I knew I was a witch or something, heck most of the time I don't even know what I'm doing but I learn more every day, especially when it comes to my practices. So, when I was little I knew even when I was about 8 years old that I just didn't fit in with the church. I always felt bad about it because I felt like I was hurting my family but I can't help how I feel.

So when I was about 15 I really dedicated myself to learning about religions in general and I felt like wiccan/eclectic paganism fit me the best. I don't know if I feel like that's exactly the "right" thing to do I guess, just because of how I was brought up, but I don't feel at all like it's wrong. I suppose I just feel like I'll never be fully be able to get better in my craft or just in learning in general until I stop feeling this way. I feel like I did it to myself because for a while I felt like I was doing totally fine, but then I started doing things I'm not proud of like getting addicted to pills, etc. So while my life was in chaos I turned to christianity for help with all my crap and I did get over all of those things but I realize now it was because I wanted to.

I am a soon to be mom of my third and final child and I don't have any desire to go back to my old life. I guess I just need to learn and grow again like I did in my past to be free of this burden. I admire many christians and I love Jesus as a great example to people, but I just don't know how much I believe. Sorry I'm rambling, thanks for listening to me.

[Seraphin]

Hiya aphroditemoon!

I was like you before I started walking in pagan path. When I was in my grade school, I had many magickal and spiritual experiences that happened in greater frequency in the most unlikely situations. I was afraid of them before and even questioned my sanity. Because of these experiences, I believe I am different than the others. People tried to label my experiences and abilities as demonic or delusional. Some even said I was cursed. But that didn't stop me to find answers about the mystery behind these abilities and phenomena. What others thought of me is their problem, I didn't self be shot down just because others didn't see me the way I do. We are all cursed in one way or the other, but its not my abilities or experiences that defines me...it's my character. It's what inside of my heart that really matters in the end.

That being when I began wandering in the less-trodden path, I always keep in my heart that my study of Craft and mysticism, rather than destroying one's belief in God, reinforces and sustains it.

Today, I see no conflict nor incompatibility between magickal or spiritual experiences and religion. One is because I do not belong to any religion anymore but the other reason is that all religions that I know started with a magickal or spiritual experiences, with a vision or contact with a celestial or Divine beings.

You are right aphroditemoon! Just learn and grown as you walk in your own path and make your own journey. That's the best philosophic wisdom of humanity I believe. That's more logical that the old belief in a vengeful or merciful God that only holds the truth of what is right and what is wrong.

I also believe in Jesus Christ though I don't worship Him. I believe that He's a God. I also believe that He became a man to be a role model for those who want to follow Him. I also believe He's the greatest psyhic in history who performed so many magickal and spiritual wonders, like when he predicted the future, transfigured, healed the sick, walked on water and materialize things. Calling them miracles from the Heaven above doesn't change their magickal and spiritual nature I believe.

[BabyBear]

Lets see I guess you could say I was raised more Christian then alot, meaning since I was born I had Christianity crammed down my throat. Lets just say I went to church more often then the preacher and his daughter.

I went to church Sunday morning around 7 for sunday school, at 8am we had morning service till 12, left for lunch came back (except the first sunday of every moth which was picnic day and we all went to the park and ate and worshiped) at 3 for youth chorus and then adult chorus and some times youth drama team practice till 7pm when evening worship began to 9 or 10pm some times as late as 12.

Wednesday we had service from 7pm to 8pm but I would end up staying till again 9 or 10pm.

Thursdays were youth practicing so that was another 2-3 hrs after school, about once a month it was also traveling chorus day so i would have to go to nursing homes to sing and praise.

Friday was youth lock in nights at least once a month or youth hang out night the rest of the month usually doing drama practice or going to other churches to interact with other youth groups.

Saturday was another traveling chorus day and happened more often then the Thursdays. (Granted these stopped when i was i think 12 or 13 and only cus the leader of the group moved away)

I wasnt allowed to do Halloween instead we had a fall festival either the week of or the week after Halloween.

I was never allowed to miss a day ever, even if my mother or no adults went with us me and my sisters were made to go, i remember being so sick i couldn't move at all and my preacher picked me up put me in the church van took me to church placed me on a back pew and then prayed over me that night for like an hr and then took me back home.
And goddess help me if there was a prayer revival or concert or anything in our area cus then it would be every night for as long as my mom felt we needed to be there with was always till it ended.

I think the only enjoyable times were either the church youth lock ins or the yearly summer camp we went to one week out of the summer but even that was a mandatory church service twice dayly every day. I mean I did have others but those were the most enjoyable cus it wasnt as much church driven as just hanging with friends.

I remember being as young as 9 and begging my mom to let me miss this or that and never being allowed to. I didnt stop going dayly till i was 15 and thats only cus we moved a town over and my mom was heavily on drugs by this time and just not caring anymore.

as for the bad feelings, i get them every once in a great while but ive never cared about those feelings enough to quite my journey. I have hidden it thought. After all the stuff Ive been through when it comes to "witch craft" I learned to just hide it. I mean I got a 2hr lecture over witch craft and sin using a bible a thick as hades reference book and a reference book for the reference book that was a bit thicker all because i brought a harry potter book to my house once i sure as hades dont wont to deal with something if they found out i was wiccan, bi they can simi deal (meaning some are okay with it others dont have a clue) with wicca/pagan or any religion other then Christianity they can not and will no.

[BabyBear]

quick addition...
I think i should also minchen that i was so worried when i was younger because i loved the craft as young as 9 that i would send a good 15 to30 min praying every night that god erase my sins because ik i had done something wrong for just thinking or doubting and all this other stuff, I did play with my head alot when i was younger but like i said now im more of a i dont care about those feelings because to me they dont apply to what i know now to be true for me.

[YanaKhan]

I was raised as an atheist. During the communist reign in my country it was almost forbidden to go to church or be baptized in one. But the traditional religion in my country is Orthodox Christianity. After 1989, everyone got back to the churches even though for 45 years they denied all religions. And I find that hypocritical. But (there has to be a "but" ) ... my husband's family is deeply religious. And my mother and father in law go to church regularly. They are incredibly nice people and I respect their belief system. In the region I live now, people kept their religious traditions and went secretly (mostly after sundown) to church and have been persecuted for that.
Long before I met my husband, I had a boyfriend who was deeply religious and tried to make me like him (which obviously didn't work) and made me read books about Christianity and the Bible. It only made me resent it even more. (Have to admit, I did like one of the books, though "Diagnostics of the karma" by a Russian author - S. N. Lazarev).
When I was in high - school, I had this very very religious teacher, who I hated the guts of because he told us every day that women were made for men's pleasure of the one bone that has no brain (once I asked him if the mud had any brain and got suspended, but it was so worth it ).
From my personal experience, every devoted Christian I have ever met, turned out to be a total psycho (I am absolutely positive there are incredible deeply religious people, I just haven't met one yet). The exceptions are the ones who believe in God without trying to preach to others and just follow what they think is right. But that can be said about any religion.
I am happy to have an understanding husband, who is not very keen on discussing my belief system or practices, but I don't really want to discuss them either. So he gives me my privacy and respects the fact that I am different to most people he knows.

[MsMollimizz]

My Granny was bapist and I went with her for a few years...
Mom told me I can be any religion I wanted to be...
Yea !
I went camping with her, one time she even helped me with a spell !
I needed a clay flower pot and amongst all the left behind messes
she actually found a whole one for me for me to get hubby to lighten-up !
I suppose it worked...?

Gentle Light
MsMollimizz

[AnaisStar]

Im a recovering Catholic.

My parents split when I was very young, and I moved from OH to FL with my mother. My father and his family stayed in OH. So I traveled back and forth growing up.

My father and his family were very Catholic, so I went to Church every week, was baptized, made/took communion, did my confirmation etc. Even attended Catholic school for a bit.

My mother was not religious at all, but I learned more about the Craft when I was with her. I felt more drawn to this and did learning on my own or from my mother. With my mother it was more spiritual than religious. I never believed in the teachings of the Catholic Church, or really in "GOD" as they taught him. I believed in a higher spirit, consciousness, what ever you want to call it though.

I let go of the idea of God, organized religion and Catholicism when I was about 15 and pursued my practice of the Craft. However now as Im older Im reestablishing a relationship to the idea of a "God". I just started reading "A Course in Miracles" and Im learning how I can work with him and everyone else on my path. Learning all it all fits together. I would not say Im a Christian or a Christian Witch or anything like that. But Im open to the idea of a "God" and having a relationship with him on my own terms and ideas. To me it/he is still this great conscious power that I can tap into, learn from, etc.

[Lillady]

I was actually Christened Catholic but raised between that and Christianity. My inner feelings never agreed with their beliefs though. I always wondered how can you follow something out of a book that was written by man? How can a guy rise from the dead? How can a guy walk on water? I always felt a connection to nature from as far back as I can remember. When I became 12 I learned about what Wicca was and I already knew some about witchcraft. I just kept researching and reading about its history etc. I thought to myself, this is exactly how I feel! So I kept with it. My aunt who took custody of me after my mom passed when I was 15 and who is an overbearing Christian basically condemned me from my beliefs, I couldnt say the word "witch" without her making me repent. I am being literal there too by the way. I finally got away from her, she actually kicked me out for something totally different, she told me I was too much like my mom, hello I am her child! So here I am at 33 and happier in my religion and beliefs than ever before. When it comes to religion it is like skin, you have to be comfortable in it.

[Marigold]

In Europe, you will find many who have no problem melding Catholicism and folk magick. In fact, they are quite compatible. The answer is to not see things in dichotomies or in opposition of each other. So often the concepts are the same, just labeled with different terms. Imo, the problem with the US is that unless you have had the blessing to have been raised in an environment that understands that, all you hear are the simplistic either/or explanations.

[Klia]

I grew up in a Christian (Presbyterian) home. I questioned the religion my whole life, but still believed in God. I always thought that if I didn't, I'd go to hell. Well what's the point in believing in something because you're scared of it? I believe Christianity is based on fear. The old testament is nothing but evil that God did and human evil as well.

I was pressured into getting baptized by a Baptist friend. She told me no matter how much I believed in God, I'd still go to hell if I never got baptized. Regardless, it is one of my regrets in life. I never should have done it - another scare tactic thanks to Christians and their Christianity.

It was a little uneasy feeling to convert to Paganism, but it doesn't scare me like Christianity. It pushes me to be a better person - thanks to reincarnation/further lives. My life is a domino effect. Whatever I do is a cause and effect to other things. If I give out happiness, I get happiness, etc. I feel like as long as I trust in the Divine and do my own thing, the Divine will be pleased. I am not predestined.

Religion is suffocating: full of rules and harsh consequences. Spirituality is freeing. You believe in what you want, not what people tell you or force on you.

Hope this helps, doll.

[Vroomer]

Presbytian, too! But dad was Catholic. So, started there, first.

As a six year old in Catholic Mass, I used to think they were saying "Lord have a pear" and not "Lord hear our prayer." Well, that's what they get for mumbling the response to the priest.