How many faiths have you been in your life?

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That’s good to hear. It was not that way as I was growing up but YMMV. I hope you are learning a lot more about the Catholic Church. For us converts it’s exciting to meet others who may be interested in the same information.
 
I was baptized as a Catholic in 1969, confirmed as a Catholic in 1983, stopped going to any church in 1995, then born-again as a Catholic in 2001. I had always thought that the Church was just a bunch of laws that I did not want to follow but was forced to by my parents. This was in spite of the fact that I graduated from a Catholic high school and a Catholic college. I quit going to church when I started living on my own. A friend of mine took me to a Christian music festival in 1999. A Baptist gave me a Bible at the festival. For some reason, I decided to actually read it (I had never actually read the Bible before). After reading it all the way through, I repented of my sin, confessed first to God and then to my priest. The Bible showed me that the Catholic Church was right. I finally understood what it meant to have a personal relationship with Jesus. I thank the Baptists (and the Holy Spirit, of course!) for bringing me back to the Catholic Church.
 
I was baptized Catholic, then in 1996 became a jw unfortunately!
I have recieved absolution for that. Praise God! Then i left that false belief in 1999 for good. i came back to the faith in 2003
full time 🙂
 
My mother was a nominal Baptist. Sometimes we attended church,sometimes we didn’t. My dad died in Vietnam and I have been told that he was Baptist but among his effects was a rosary, a Saint Christopher medallion and a Miraculous Medal that he was wearing when he died.

When I was 16 I would spend weekends with this wonderful elderly Catholic couple and go to Mass. There were many Catholic magazines and books kept in their spare bedroom that I read. I had an intense emotional reaction for the Catholic church. The thought that Jesus would share his stable mother with me was a very powerful

The Priest informed me that due to the fact that my mother was against my becoming Catholic that I had to wait until I was 18 to convert.

As I got closer to 18 my mother began to put tremendous pressure on me to not convert. I also had a Baptist friend that made a serious attempt to redirect my faith. One time at her church youth group I was ambushed by her youth minister and asked a bunch of rude questions that I did not know the answer to. It has been over twenty years and I still resent and am angry at this youth pastor.

I also became disgusted that God didn’t answer my prayers to cure my mentally unstable mother or provide me with a nice, normal home life. So, I denounced God. For awhile I was agnostic, but I needed God, so I began to read about other faiths.

I am actually thankful for the time that I was seeking although it was painful for me. My journey has given me a deep respect for the faiths of others that I wouldn’t have had without such a time in my life. Although I read about many religions I didn’t convert to any.

My husband’s mother had escaped from the Nazi’s in 1939. Much of herfamily had died in the Holocaust. He became interested in his Jewish roots and we began to attend a synagogue. If there had been an Orthodox synagogue close by, I would be Jewish now. There is much about Judaism that I respect, but I couldn’t get into reform Judaism. I also had problems with the re constructionist(I think that was the term) Rabbi who taught in another synagogue that we attended.

I had a friend who was a Christian. She never tried to convert me but was a beautiful ambassador of her faith. After she moved, I decided that wanted what she had, that sense of peace. So, I had the classical born again experience where I asked Jesus into my heart. I do believe that it was a true experience.

With my normal zeal for doing things correctly, I decided that I needed to attend the most strict church possible. So, I began to move toward fundamentalism. I began attending a very tiny church in Iowa. Let me say first that the people were very eager to follow the gospel and I respect that. But much of what they believed made no logical sense to me.

I began to study the bible and I couldn’t find that it said all alcohol drinking, gambling, card playing or dancing was a sin. I didn’t find hard and fast verses for the OSAS belief, and every time I brought up a verse that contradicted what the pastor said, he refused to acknowledge what my verses were and just repeated his verses. This drove me nuts as I was honestly desperate for answers. My pastor’s interpretation of bible verses made the bible contradict itself, something he claimed that it didn’t do.

When Mel Gibson’s Passion of Christ came out, my pastor told us not to watch it for several reasons but mainly because Gibson was Catholic! This angered me because I knew that Catholics were Christian.

So, a long story short. I began to research Catholic beliefs merely to defend Catholics to my pastor and the result was that I was welcomed into the Church last Easter.
 


With my normal zeal for doing things correctly, I decided that I needed to attend the most strict church possible.

What a wonderful story, deb! thank you so much for sharing. I relate to the qoute above. In my searching, when I temporarily didn’t trust the Catholic Church, I had a similar idea that “I should join the most STRICT Church possible”, which in my case was Baptist.

But that is so wonderful, and that through your pain, greater spiritual friut has come. I agree, were it not for the horrible teasing that I endured as a nerd in my youth, I may have just assumed that my worth as a person in merely based on superficial characteristics. and were it not for the great pain and stress that I endured while I searched for the true religion, I would not at all appreciate the wondrous treasure we have with our Catholic faith.

I think this is one of the most beautiful things in Catholicism: that through pain and suffering, God can draw wondrous good.

Again, thank you, Deb. I pray that the F, S, and HS, and Our Dear Lady bless you abundantly!

In her love,
scott
🙂
 
My father was an atheist though I later found out that he was baptized into the Catholic Church as an infant. His favorite hobby was to drive from one random protestant church to another and ask for money. They would usually give him some too. Petty con man, I know I know. Anyway, even though he was an atheist he would frequently talk about God, usually to try to prove that God was somehow stupid. It was strange for me because he didn’t believe in God but would talk about God as if he did. During lightning storms he used to love to go outside and curse at God, calling Him a turkey and telling Him to shut up. These weren’t the most bizarre things that he did either.

My father began going regularly to the “Church of Christ” (whatever or whichever that is). He was doing this I suppose because they were a constant source of income for him. He would always tell us at home that we weren’t suppose to believe in God, “because God is bad.” When I was about 7 some moron, I mean mormon missionaries came calling and my father talked them out of some money for letting them in and showing us kids a video. It was about little Joey Smith who hallucinated a lot, kind of like mutthamut. Anyway, after about a week of coming everyday, the missionaries told us that we were ready to be baptized. They told us that if we were baptized and were good little morons, I mean mormons for a long time then God would forgive us of our sins and our skin would turn to be like white people. I remember objecting to the entire thing because to my recollection, I had yet to commit any sins (I did not yet know about the mormon pre-existence heresy) and because I did not believe in God and thought that Smith was a loony. There was no reason for me to be baptized as a mormon. However, by the time I was 8 my father could not resist the money from the mormons anymore and made us get baptized there.

I remember that this caused a bit of an argument when the Church of Christ people and the mormons happened to be at the house at the same time. The other mormons at the Church or temple or whatever it was didn’t like me so much. I was the wrong skin color for one thing. The other thing was having a conversation with me usually meant hearing about all the things in the mormon church that were so stupid. I objected to everything. I remember reading the book of mormon and shaking my head and laughing at almost every page. I would often go around and tell other mormons that they looked just like someone out of the book of moron, I mean mormon and they would thank me greatly. They were so stupid that they never saw it as an insult.

I lasted at the Church of moron, I mean mormon for less then a year. I just couldn’t take them and they sure couldn’t take me bringing up science of all things during their brainwashing, I mean worship service. From there I was totally happy to believe whatever my father taught us at home, well most kids are aren’t they.

When I was 9 a very amazing thing happened. I changed. I changed from little kid that did not believe in God to a young adult that did. I remember the day that it happened. I is still difficult to describe so I usually tell a story to illustrate it but I will spare you all. Suffice to say that one morning I was eating Corn Flakes with milk and God told me to believe. I have ever since.

After that moment I became thirsty for God. I was hungry for new knowledge all the time. Most people do not believe me when I tell them that before I was 10 I had already read the Bible, book of moron, I mean mormon, the bagavad gita, the vedas, the teachings of the compassionate Buddha, and the koran. I also started behaving a little like my father. I would go from one protestant church to another. Usually there were in order from closest to farthest away. I have even been to Hindu services for Ganapati and some guy named Swamigi. He was supposed to be God in the flesh but didn’t know my name. I figured If he was God then he should at least know my name or know how to get it without having to ask.
 
I wouldn’t last too long at any of these churches. A lot of protestant churches wouldn’t even let me in, wrong skin color and all. Other didn’t approve of me writing down what the ‘pastor’ was saying. The thing that always got me convinced to not go back or convinced them to not let me come back was asking questions after the service was over. It seems that they hated this with a passion. I did finally find some black churches to go to and was very warmly welcomed there. (just for the record I am not technically black). Some of the black churches liked to focus on the positive message of Christianity but they were ill equipped to answer questions. They told me I should pray about it and that was at least a lot better answer then I ever got at a white church. Usually, though I would find one or another thing that would turn me off to them. One involved an incident when the ‘pastor’ passed out a collection basket and when it came back he looked in it and passed it out again saying “people, people, give your preacher 5 more dollars.” Another time I left a black church because their communion was some flowers for the flour of bread and “the wine of the lord” was a thimble full of milk that you had to pay $2 for. The head guy there gave some explanation for it as to why this was what the Bible was really talking about but I suppose you can guess how much I bought into that. It did remind me a lot of the Hindu service though.

As I was growing older I was becoming more and more picky. Any tiny little thing and I would determine that the church I was going to was full of it. I was hungry for meat and didn’t want to settle for a tofu or veggie burger. One thing that I heard at just about every church, office space acting as a church and back yard that I went to (other then crazy people hallucinating and calling it a message from God or a psychic power) was people talking bad about the Catholic Church. Every time I heard the word I was interested but would loose interest as soon as people started talking. I must have heard every negative thing about the Catholic Church out there. Most of the time it was just crazy conspiracy theory stuff, Catholic and Jews lumped together were trying to take over the world and kill everyone off. They told me that the Catholics changed the bible. When I heard this, though I had not actually read a Catholic Bible yet, something inside of me jumped all over the guy saying it. I didn’t know what I was saying but I spoke with authority with words that weren’t mine, not really. I remembered thinking that all of this garbage had to be lies because no one in their right minds would do or believe what these people said Catholics did and believed. After a while at all of these churches I eventually came to the conclusion that no one in their right mind should do or believe what that church was doing and I would go out and look for a new church.

I was changing religions a lot I suppose by protestant standards but for myself I don’t think that I was. I was looking for the Church that really did have the answers to my questions. I was looking for the Church that really did have the authority from God that the True church should have. I suppose I was looking for something of sacredness. I remember feeling the idea of sacred ness and reverence at the hindu ceremonies and I suppose I was looking for another religion that did something like that but wasn’t full of bull. I still had yet to go to any church that taught about Jesus. I know most were supposedly Christian but they never mentioned Jesus at all. If they did it was only to say that Jesus was either the first muslim, only a figure, really the child of some Roman soldier, the child of god’s rape of Mary, the savior of the world (but this was never explained to me why he was that no matter how many times I asked), or the everyman. Some churches would teach that the Bible was completely true no matter what (oh but even though it says Jesus drank wine it didn’t really mean that); or that somehow the language was too difficult to understand and that walking on water might just mean walking near the water. They never, NEVER, not even one time talked about the teachings of Jesus and would never, NEVER answer questions about his teachings to me. I got more answers about Jesus’ teachings from the Hindus but only in how they compared to Krishna or Swamigi. All the muslims could tell me about Jesus was the he was a muslim and told people to accept islam. You can guess how much I think that is bull seeing as how I already know that islam started 600 years later. They are kind of like when the morons, I mean mormons say that when Jesus said he was giving away the keys to the kingdom, somehow he was talking about 1800 years later and that the second rock really meant Smithy boy and not the guy right there whose name was Rock.
 
When I was a little older I of course still believed in God but had not yet joined Christianity. I meet a Jewish man that lived not too far from me and he told me that he never went to church so I asked why. He explained that he was the only Jew in the area and so he had to keep the commands of his religion on his own. He had a very strict prayer schedule and diet even more so then the Muslims. I remember that he couldn’t wear a wrist watch because his diet made his body chemistry a certain way that the battery in the watch would die very fast so he had to carry an old fashioned pocket watch that I thought was really neat. I really wanted to know more about what he believed so we had long conversations. I all stopped though when I asked how I could be like him and truly live out teachings and religion. He said that I couldn’t because I wasn’t part of Israel. He explained that I had to be born into his religion and there was no conversion that was possible, not really. He also explained to me that I could follow the commands of God for my race, to always do the right thing and not do the wrong thing. I could appreciate his honesty but note how he avoided my questions about Jesus or Christianity. I also didn’t like how my skin color was again an issue. True, it was not the same kind of thing that the protestants had in their racism but it still smacked me as just wrong.

I finally did convert, truly, to Christianity when I was 13. I decided to visit the church were everyone I knew told me that only bad people went. Even the anglicans told me not to go. Before that fateful day I remember that I was feeling abandoned by God. I had looked for Him for so long. I knew that Church wasn’t just about finding the place where I fit in with the people. I knew that there was something out there to make me a true believer and also a follower of God the way the Jewish man was. He really was devout in his religion and cared about living by the rules that God had given him. He told me that God spoke to him in the commandments. I wanted to know what God was saying to me and I know that all of the, JUST ACCEPT JESUS messages were not God speaking to me.

When I was 13 I first walked into a Catholic Church. It was like I left the world behind and entered a different realm. Even just entering the building affected me. I could describe for hours all that took place during that first Mass where I was just a spectator. I remember that I felt crushed. My heart pounded in a way that it had never done before or since. I felt as if invisible chains grabbed me. My mind was alert, my ears hearing, my eyes seeing. I suppose I could describe it a bit like in Buddhism when a Buddha becomes AWAKE. All the theology I had up to that point in my life crumbled away. Not just crumbled away, was obliterated. I don’t think it is possible for me to express just how massive and powerful an affect the Mass had on me. If there was ever a connection to God, this was it. It was totally unlike the similar looking episcopalian thing. This was real and I knew it. I had finally found the real thing and instead of wanting to address every issue that my mind could think up, my mind was instead having no issues but only joy. I also felt small and unworthy to be there. I was a new person. My life would never be the same again.

After Mass I stayed behind and threw every question I could at the priest. He answered all of them in about 3 hours. He spoke to me like I was an adult and best of all, my skin color never was an issue, not even a little. I was like the priest (who was white) just didn’t notice. Race wasn’t part of God’s plan in this Church. I have been a Catholic every day of my life since. I will never change because that can never change. Catholic is my race now and truly I believe that God lead me to all of those other churches so that I would know what they were and never have to question what the True Church of God teaches. I was like God was forcing me to corner the market as it were on all theology and find myself after going through a very big maze and always taking the wrong path and backtracking, to finally end up exactly where God had always wanted me to be.

I had to study for two years before the priest would allow me to be properly baptized as a real Christian. Even before that happened my entire life had changed. My entire family disowned me. To this day I do not really have contact with them. I went to stay with a Catholic family and there was I instructed. Everyone I knew before my conversion would no longer speak to me. I eventually moved to a different city and eventually to a different country all together. Catholics really are a people of their own, The people of God after all. The Church did not neglect me either and has always taken care of me.
 
So to finally answer the original question, you may think that I have been many religions in my life but I believe that God kept me pure from them and all the while was leading me. God conquered me and I pray He conquers every human heart. I believe that God choose me for His Church before I was even born and as such, I have always really been Catholic. When I finally did learn that my father had been a Catholic for a least a part of his infancy and that my mother only learned to read and write because a Catholic priest taught her really was the final irrecoverable proof. Catholic really was my culture and heritage. Even if my parents turned their backs on it, I will listen to God.
 
I was raised Catholic. At age 17 I was sexually molested by a 65 y old priest. I was estranged from all churches for 17 y. I adopted a son and baptised him Catholic. I started going back to the Catholic church but I was only going through the motions. I started going to the Nazarene church because I brought my son to playgroup at their church. They never talked to me about God or put any pressure on me to join the church, but I became curious and started going to their services. I was a member for 5 y until my son had to get his first sacraments at school. I started attending Catholic mass, but then got really angry, depressed, mistrusting because everything that happened to me was deep in my subconscious and all these emotions came out suddenly related to the sexual abuse. I was angry. The priest at the church couldn’t deal with my emotions and he kicked me out of the confessional. I became more upset and pulled my son out of the sacramental program. The bishop said that he would pay for any counselling needed for those abused by a Catholic priest. I started going to counselling and started going to daily mass. Now if I miss mass I feel that something is missing. I completed RCIA because after being away for so long, I wanted to really learn about the faith. I renewed my faith at the altar of our church with the support of the bishop and priest in our parish. I stopped going to the Nazarene church for a year, but recently our parish priest really hurt me emotionally. I needed the fellowship of my friends from the Nazarene church but did not want to leave the Catholic faith because of the sacraments, so now I attend mass everyday and go to Nazarene church service and bible study. I find beautiful ways of worshipping God in both faiths.
 
Baptized Latin Catholic as infant
Raised Latin Catholic for about 20 years.
Attended Eastern Catholic parish for 2 years.

Ceased going to Eastern Catholic parishes. Started going to Orthodox parishes. Became Orthodox, one week ago.
 
I was raised Catholic. At age 17 I was sexually molested by a 65 y old priest. I was estranged from all churches for 17 y. I adopted a son and baptised him Catholic. I started going back to the Catholic church but I was only going through the motions. I started going to the Nazarene church because I brought my son to playgroup at their church. They never talked to me about God or put any pressure on me to join the church, but I became curious and started going to their services. I was a member for 5 y until my son had to get his first sacraments at school. I started attending Catholic mass, but then got really angry, depressed, mistrusting because everything that happened to me was deep in my subconscious and all these emotions came out suddenly related to the sexual abuse. I was angry. The priest at the church couldn’t deal with my emotions and he kicked me out of the confessional. I became more upset and pulled my son out of the sacramental program. The bishop said that he would pay for any counselling needed for those abused by a Catholic priest. I started going to counselling and started going to daily mass. Now if I miss mass I feel that something is missing. I completed RCIA because after being away for so long, I wanted to really learn about the faith. I renewed my faith at the altar of our church with the support of the bishop and priest in our parish. I stopped going to the Nazarene church for a year, but recently our parish priest really hurt me emotionally. I needed the fellowship of my friends from the Nazarene church but did not want to leave the Catholic faith because of the sacraments, so now I attend mass everyday and go to Nazarene church service and bible study. I find beautiful ways of worshipping God in both faiths.
Dear Deborah,

I am so sorry to hear of your painful experiences. I pray that you can find the healing you need.

In Her Love,
scott
:gopray:
 
  • Was baptised Episcopalian. My mother was nominally Episcopalian and my father was an agnostic, free-thinker. When I was about nine years old, my father decided that he needed religion in his life, and went seeking. He investigated Eastern religions and several strange sects of Christianity before settling in to my mother’s church. At that time I was about 13. Was forced by my parents to attend Episcopal services and to go through confirmation, which happened when I was 14. I resented it, though, because I had been raised as a free-thinker and I didn’t really believe any of the religious stuff, and I didn’t like that just because my dad underwent a conversion, I was supposed to as well. As soon as my parents stopped demanding I attend church with them, I quit.
  • I spent the next 15 or so years, until I was in my late 20’s, professing nominal Christianity, but I was quite the party animal and I was also interested in Eastern religions, the occult and neo-paganism. At around age 27, I dropped all pretense of believing in Christianity. At 29, I started attending a Zen Buddhist temple for meditation. I didn’t quite feel at home in Buddhism and continued to read.
  • While investigating Wicca, which wasn’t for me either, I stumbled across a smaller, lesser-known neo-pagan movement called Celtic Reconstructionism, which is an attempt to revive pre-Christian Celtic religion in a modern context. I spent the next nine years or so practicing this religion, and even founded a “grove” in my city which is still active (now without me)
  • I was aware that the Celtic countries had converted to Christianity with very little to no violence, and that always stuck in my mind. On two visits to Ireland, I saw how integrated Catholicism is into the culture (even in these modern times, in comparison to in the US where religion is really separate from the main culture) and I found myself attracted to much of what I saw, read and heard about Catholicism.
  • I began reacquainting myself with the basics of Christianity and very slowly began accepting it in my heart.
  • In the past few months I have removed myself entirely from the pagan CR grove I had founded, and have begun attending Mass weekly.
 
My parents belonged to a Bible church of some sort when I was born. I know they also went to a Baptist church at one point. When I was about four or so, I think, my parents considered becoming Beachy Amish Mennonite. They then decided against that.

Somewhere along the line my family got involved in a home church which later became affiliated (?) with the Traditional Anglican Communion. I was baptised into it when I was five years old. That church later broke up, for the most part, and my family started going to an Episcopal church. It was a traditional church, and we went to the Rite I service (which had the thees and thous). We went there for years.

My family left when the church got a woman deacon. We started going to another conservative Episcopal church, but had to leave and went back to the first church.

When the Episcopalians decided to accept gay priests who had partners, my family left the Episcopal church and started going to an Orthodox church. We spent a year there, then just stopped going to church. I was fourteen or fifteen at this point. My parents have since lost their faith.

Around the time we stopped going to church, I started public school. I questioned my faith, dabbled slightly in others, but thankfully none of that stuck. Towards the end of my sophomore year (first year in public school) I started going to a Bible church with a friend of mine, but that didn’t last.

About a quarter of the way through my junior year I was invited to a Methodist church by a friend of mine who later became a boyfriend. I felt like I belonged, so I went there for two years.

Now I attend a Foursquare church when I am home, again because of a friend inviting me and feeling like I belong. God has used the people at this church to teach me a LOT of things.

When I’m at my (Catholic) college, I either go to Catholic mass or don’t go to church at all.

My faith is Christian, and I have never been anything else. The denominations have changed a lot. g
 
Umm not really my choice for a couple of faiths but here they are.

Baptised in a non-denom church (didn’t attend that church)
Church of Unity
(Parents divorce)
Church of Unity part of the time
Roman Catholicism other part of the time (what I wanted)
Then Christian Science part time
Roman Catholicism other part of the time (what I wanted)
Roman Catholicism full time 👍

and finally: Roman Catholicism at Franciscan University of Steubenville. 😃
 
I suppose I ought to update my entry. I got pretty fed up with Christianity in general (even amongst the Episcopalians) and decided to just return to Judaism. So I’m back where I started!

And it feels good. Judaism appears to be the most culturally relevant mode of religion for me.

So the funny thing is we had baptized our daughter in the Episcopalian Church and as my partner is still Roman Catholic (at least nominally he does not go to Mass), I take her to Mass weekly and on the days of obligation. I also take her to Temple weekly and will at the Yamim Noriam. I figure I’ll do that 'till she’s old enough to decide if she wants to go or not (she’s 2). So my daughter might well make a tortuous religious pilgrimage of her own when she’s grown!
 
How many of you have converted more than once in your life?

I see a lot of posts where someone may mention they were over 5 different faiths and they still are thinking about changing again.

Any speculation as to reasons for this?
Not yet. I speculate that the reason many people convert more than once or twice is that religion is an emotion to them. While most of us ride out the highs and lows, some bail during the lows and embrace a religion that feels good.
 
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