What is your religion?

[XemaSab]

Seems like we've been talking about the role of faith in a Democratic society, so where are we at?

Of course, though "other" is not an option due to space constrants, feel free to share your views.

[LeftCoast]

1. Wiccan

:hi:

[Patiod]

2. Quaker (Society of Friends)

[slackmaster]

6. Society of Friends is cool!

One of my favorite flavors of religion.

[intheflow]

9. The Friends church in my neighborhood

just put added rainbow flags to their signage. Very cool!

[libhill]

17. Well, I'll be ah ding danged

I'm agnostic myself, but that's the type of Christianity I can take my hat off to - all inclusive and non-judgmental. Kudos to those Quaker folks.

[AuntiBush]

81. I come from a long line of Quakers!

:hi:

From early, early on in America's history.

[slackmaster]

3. Proud third-generation Atheist/Agnostic

My grandfather dropped out of Christianity in 1918 when Mennonite church elders failed to back up his Conscientious Objector deferrment for World War I. (They had egged him on to claim C.O. status in the first place.)

His second wife, my paternal grandmother, was raised Agnostic.

My father never went to church when he was a kid.

My mother is nominally Christian. I went to church and Sunday school as a child, later sang in church choirs. Learning a mainstream Protestant form of Christianity did me no harm whatsoever.

By age 16 or 17 I had found my own Agnosticism.

[Tux]

4. UU Deist

What? No UU option?

[Name removed]

72. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[havocmom]

5. No check off for Pantheists?

Pity that.

What about Deists?

Lot of space given to mainstream stuff while lumping all others together as ?

[XemaSab]

15. Sorry!

Tried to break Christians down into enough categories to get a good picture, but forgot U/U and deist!

Next time I'll remember.

:-)

[toddaa]

23. Sheesh, we're taking over and don't even no it

Maybe we should start a Pantheist/Deist group on DU.

[intheflow]

7. Unitarian Universalist Deist Taoist.

I also consider myself a "cultural Chrisitan." Which is to say, it's hard growing up in America and not having some Christian beliefs sneak into your psyche.

[DearAbby]

8. I am Atheist

[Chovexani]

10. Wiccan

Hellenic Wiccan, to be specific. It just feels right.

[Behind the Aegis]

12. Very cool!

We should swap links and things!

[Chovexani]

19. Hey there!

I remember chatting with you on some thread once about it. :hi:

Right now I'm reading the Mysteries of Demeter by Jennifer Reif (among other things). It's pretty interesting, even though I primarily work with Apollo and Athena.

[Behind the Aegis]

35. Athena rocks!

I have representations of her in every room in the house, except the bathrooms. I found a rare, out-of-print book on EBay about Greek archetypes that I enjoy. My partner bought me several statues of the gods for my birthday a few weeks ago. I got so many, I don't have a place for them yet! :)

[Chovexani]

73. Cool!

Unfortunately my living situation ATM doesn't allow me to have very many statues and things like that (living with fundie family). But as soon as I'm out of here...look out! ;)

One of these days I'm going to have to road trip down to the Parthenon in Nashville. I keep seeing pics of it online and I just HAVE to see it.

[Behind the Aegis]

74. You will love it!

I have some nice pics from there, and it was not too long after they put in the full 40-foot statue of Athena Parthenos. You will be overcome when you walk into the great hall! You will have to let me know...I'd love to hear about it!

[Behind the Aegis]

11. Other

Pagan, with Jewish roots, which I still honor, as well.

[The Witch]

13. Jewish

By birth/race. I suppose that Jewish values/ideals are close to how I feel. However I believe in the power of human beings.

[libhill]

14. Agnostic

But willing to change my views given some solid evidence of the existence of some sort of Deity, which so far, has not been forthcoming. And don't give me that Josephus/Tacitus/Suetonius crap as "evidence". The reference to Jesus in Josephus has long since been exposed as a later insertion by Christan apologists. And those other two references are too vague to amount to much.

[Kazak]

16. UU Naturalist

But I picked Atheist/Agnostic, though I'm not comfortable with those terms.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

18. Ex-Catholic freethinker.

In awe of the universe and humble enough to believe that I'll never understand it. In other words, an agnostic. But, Taoism, Buddhism, does make a lot of sense.

[Selatius]

20. I'm more of a Deist, but I picked the last option because

I can relate pretty well to Agnostics. Deism is a belief in God as revealed through nature and reason combined with a disbelief in scripture, prophets, superstition and church authority. It's a free-thought philosophy. When I look at the sheer complexity of the universe, the laws that govern it, and the sheer magnitude of it, I can't help but see an engineer behind it all. (No, I don't believe in creationism, btw)

Just because a book says so or the church says so doesn't necessarily make it true. You were given free will as well as the ability to reason. You weren't given them just to throw them away.

[usregimechange]

21. Don't use fundamentalist definitions to define yourself!

[XemaSab]

38. What are you saying?

I'm confused.

[immoderate]

22. Jewish Atheist

Most Jews are atheists, or some form of agnostic. But the next time they come for the Jews, they will ignore my protestations.

--IMM

[libhill]

25. If there is a next time

They'd better be prepared for a fight. And I'm not even Jewish. But, as the wing nuts are so fond of saying, "when you take my gun from my cold dead hands".

[immoderate]

29. I'm fond of saying...

I'm the freepers' worst nightmare -- a liberal with a gun. And like most Jews, I got the mantra from birth, "never again." But that assumes they'll try it again.

What I'm getting at here is being Jewish is only part a religion. I am an atheist. Yet, my culture, my sense of humor, my choice of breakfast foods is influenced by this tribal identity. And I'm sure those outside who make those assignations will see me as Jewish as well.

--IMM

[libhill]

31. Yup-

I understand what you mean. Not unlike, as some one else posted, many of us brought up under the influence of Western Culture, still have some "Christian" ideas / values stamped on our brains, regardless of whether or not we consider ourselves agnostic/atheist. In any case, let's keep our powder dry.

[immoderate]

51. Got your back, buddy.

--IMM

[Marnieworld]

You forgot Hindu and atheism/agnosticism is not a religion

At least put none as the choice.

[Marnieworld]

24. You forgot Hindu and atheism/agnosticism is not a religion

At least put none as the choice.

[XemaSab]

26. There was only room for 10 choices

Sorry.

[Marnieworld]

27. and you used 5 choices for christianity

just saying

[XemaSab]

28. point taken

n/t

[LittleClarkie]

50. Maybe just one Christian option

with instructions in the OP to declare what kind, ie Fundamentalist, Moderate, Liberal, C and E, etc.

But it was going to be quite difficult to include everything, I think.

Let's see. How many can I name.

Deist
Taoist
Buddism
Muslim
Wiccan
Druidic (or is that too close to Wiccan?)
Mormon
Jehovah's Witnesses
Christian Scientist
Bahai
Universalist
Jewish
Native American

Hmm, that's the best I can do. Is shamanism a separate religion, or would it go under Native American religion?

Some might say that Christian Science, Mormonism and Jehovah Witness would be Christian, but they are generally separate from Christianity, as they are going their own way for the most part.

An aside about my background: my grandmother kept changing religions. I think that's why I'm interested in the subject. In her lifetime she was:
Lutheran (helped found the church I go to now, in fact)
Pentecostal
Christian Scientist
Jehovah's Witnesses

We ended up having to sit though a Jehovah's Witnesses funeral. Five minutes about grandma, 40 minutes about their religion. They seemed quite happy to have a captive audience. Bleh.

Anyway, I've never felt more Christian than when I've had to defend my faith against those who would make me feel somehow second-hand for not being a Fundamentalist and/or a Republican.

[XemaSab]

53. You forgot eastern orthodox AND vodun

j/k

:-)

Thanks for participating.

[LittleClarkie]

54. Isn't Eastern Orthodox pretty much another Christian denomination

or no?

vodun? That's a new one on me.

Oh wait. I forgot voodoo as well. There's another one.

[XemaSab]

55. vodun=voodoo

:-)

[LittleClarkie]

58. Speaking of which

I'm still trying to figure out where my dad got the ring I found with this imagery on it:



Was my daddy a voodoo daddy, I wonder?

Either that or the world's oldest heavy metal rocker.

[XemaSab]

60. That's a SICK ring!

Speaking of Athena....

[bunkerbuster1]

30. Raised a liberal Christian, belong to a UU church today

Still consider myself Christian; the UUs seem closer to my idea of what Christianity ought to be than any other denomination.

That, and I like having ten syllables in my denomination's name.

[ck4829]

32. Muslim since February of 2004.

[PsychoDad]

70. Alhamdulilah.

Hello there Brother/Sister :pals:

Wasalaam.

[havocmom]

33. Some time ago, there was a thread asking how many DUers were ordained

clerics. Somewhat amazig how many replied that they were. It was not limited to Christian clerics though so that took the cap off.

When you ask about religion and most choices are of the Christian variety, that is sorta narrow. Most of the world's population is NOT Christian.

If you want to know about various Christian denominations or expressions, better to ask it that way. When you ask a general religion question and limit 50% of the poll selections to one particular religion it tends to annoy a lot of people.

If you wanna know about Religion, giving Christianity one slot out of ten possible is still gonna leave a great many other choices out. We need to help spread the word that Religion does not = Christianity.

People would be better served by a little understanding that there are other ways of being spiritual, pious, and leading a decent life than taking one route. A lot of what Jesus taught was taught long before him in other parts of the world.

[XemaSab]

37. A huge percent of the world's population

isn't Christian, but a huge percent of the American population is, and I was expecting most of the people responding to be Americans. So far the only option with no takers is Christmas/Easter Christian, which isn't what most of the polls I've seen indicate.

[havocmom]

39. Maybe ya should've included "Talk the talk but don't walk the walk"

Christians ;)

Nah, those kinds never admit to it and generally post at boards other than this one.

[XemaSab]

41. Ooooooh.... you're right

my bad.

:-)

[Jack Rabbit]

34. Unitarian Universalist

. . . when I attend church.

[damntexdem]

36. You got my philosophy, not my religion.

I'm Unitarian-Universalist.

[Zhade]

40. Atheism isn't a religion. This poll is flawed.

NT!

[edhopper]

43. Very true...

But I think it is okay for the purpose of this poll. It would be more accurate if that option said "No Religion"
btw Atheist here.

[Zhade]

44. It's not okay, it's a misrepresentation.

I'm sure it's an unintentional one, but the fact remains that atheism is not a religion, and the poll asks "what religion are you?" and offers atheism as a choice.

Bzzt. Wrong. Not a religion, no matter how much some believers laughably insist it is.

(Not mad at you, just irritated every time my LACK of religion is described AS RELIGION!)

[edhopper]

46. Hey, stop being so touchy

nobody is trying to interfere with your belief in no god. You are allowed to believe and follow whatever religion you like.
(sarcasm here)

[Zhade]

52. HA! Nicely done.

NT!

[Stinky The Clown]

42. My Religion: "Lapsed Participant"

I call myself a 'lapsed participant' as opposed to a lapsed Catholic. I was raised Catholic, but no longer practice and no longer hold with much of the man-made laws of the Catholic Church (meatless Fridays, Mass every Sunday, Lenten give-ups, birth control, abortion, etc. etc. etc.). That said, I still pretty much believe in Jesus and Mary and Saints and a Trinity and .... and .... and ......

So I guess now I'm a member of the Church of Stinky the Clown, with only one adherent .... me.

Which is fine.

The liturgy's easy to remember.

[sarcasmo]

45. Atheism, no church mythology for me Thanks.

[scarlet_owl]

47. Roman Catholic. I converted this year.

[LittleClarkie]

48. Yo, fellow ELCA Luthans, where are you putting yourself?

Spong is a bit too out there for me, so I couldn't put myself under "liberal" Christian. I opted for Moderate Christian.

[Qanisqineq]

59. I was raised ELCA Lutheran

And I found it very liberal:
- evolution is a fact, if you want to believe God had a small part in helping it along, that is fine
- being gay is not a sin, God made you that way and loves you
- was never preached to about abortion
- our pastor told us that most of the stories in the Bible are just that - stories made up to teach a lesson, much like Aesop's fables
- during confirmation classes we learned about other religions and the history of our own; nothing about how other religions are wrong or anything, just to understand their beliefs
- and numerous other more liberal ideas

I now consider myself agnostic/atheist but have great respect for my mom's pastor, the one that confirmed me and taught me so much more about life than just about religion. I still consider him a friend and confidante that I can trust and he won't preach to me.

My point of this post is this -- I was just curious if most ELCA churches you know are similar? Most everyone I know that was raised ELCA is moderate to liberal. With all the fundy Evangelical Christians out there now, I cringe every time I hear Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.

[LittleClarkie]

65. I found out so much more about my church

during the election. I decided never to take of the K/E button, because I realized I was taking it off when I thought I might encounter Repubs. Deciding that was chicken of me, I vowed to wear it everywhere, even to church.

I thought I was in church with a bunch of Republicans. I should have been ashamed of myself. About 70 to 80 percent of my church is Dem. I ended up getting quite a few of them buttons, bumperstickers and yard signs. And this is right in the middle of a very Red county.

It was good to find out that I belong there more than I ever realized before.

So yeah, I'd say my experience was similar to yours. They're very welcoming, that's for sure. And I was told similar things about the Bible, that alot of the stories were meant to get a point across, and one should not get bogged down in how literally true the stories are.

I've also been taught there that evolution and creation are not mutually exclusive concepts (why couldn't God have used evolution for creation; what's a day to God anyway?). Not to mention the symbolism of numbers in the Bible. Most of the time, numbers are not to be taken literally, but have their own meanings. The use of the number 40 for instance. 40 days or 40 years is pretty much short hand for "a long time" and 70 times 7 is another way of saying infinite.

As for Revelation, I've been taught that the Beast was actually Caesar, the mark of the beast was the mark they'd put on someone to show they'd worshipped the Emperor that day, and that Revelation was written in that strange coded language so that if the Romans got ahold of the thing they wouldn't be able to make heads nor tails of it. It was meant more to encourage the Christians of the time than to predict the future.

I was surprised to find out that American Baptist is the liberal wing of the Baptist denomination. I had no idea there were liberal Baptists.

[Qanisqineq]

68. Oh, I remember learning about the numbers thing

Like someone(s) in the Bible lived until 900+ years old and that couldn't be taken literally. That the 7 days in Genesis could not be taken as literally 7 24-hour days. And someone getting pregnant at a very old age (I don't remember whom or how old) -- don't take it literally either.

The whole Revelations thing, I never learned a thing about it. In fact, I always thought it was just a Catholic thing -- I mean I seriously only heard about it in horror movies and there was always a priest involved! Then one day in my mid-20's I looked it up in the Bible the church gave us and there it was. Boy did I feel dumb.

One other thing I don't understand... I was raised in ND, a very red state when it comes to presidential elections, yet practically the entire town I grew up in was ELCA Lutheran (a bunch of Norwegians -- uff da!) with a few Presbyterians, Catholics, and Missouri Synod (?) Lutherans mixed in. They all seem moderate to liberal yet why do they vote for republicans?

[njdemocrat106]

49. Catholic

I respect everybody's personal beliefs, but when you refer to any faith as myths, I get spittin' mad.

[uppityperson]

56. Secular Humanist. n/t

[Solly Mack]

57. I worship me. Daily.

and any sucker willing to join in worship of me must first send in the 19.95 monthly worship Solly donation...


I'll think of you each time I make a deposit. I'll even include a "How to Properly Worship Solly" manual if you include a SASE with your donation. However, I promise nothing and prefer you not bother me with your petty concerns-just send the money.

[Lochloosa]

61. Atheist/Agnostic should be seperate as they are not the same thing

Atheist here...

[Swamp Rat]

62. other

[AllegroRondo]

63. Musician

[kineneb]

84. I'm with you,

I used to have a t-shirt with drawing of Beethoven on it and "I Believe in Music" printed around the picture.

I did check Buddhist, as my life path(s), although many Buddhists would argue that it isn't a religion in the normal sense.

[rainbow4321]

64. UU n/t

[NYdemocrat089]

66. I'm Catholic

n/t

[gort]

67. Church of the Agnostic

Basic Tenet: Don't tell me how to pray and I wont tell you how to vote. va

[XemaSab]

69. Kick!

[jayctravis]

71. Lutheran would be "liberal Christian"...

right?

[Radical Activist]

78. Yes if you're ELCA

No if you're Missouri Synod.

[Name removed]

75. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[elshiva]

76. OTHER-Jewish-Episcopalian

[mandyky]

77. None of the above - I am NOT religious I am spiritual

I do not atend church although I have attended AA and Al Anon for fellowship. I have a mixture of beliefs, some Christain, some Eastern, and some New Age. Unitarian and Unity churches I could probably attend. No fire, brimstone, salvation or baptism for me (anymore).

[WillyT]

79. How About... NONE OF ANYBODY'S FUCKING BUSINESS !!!

Sod off !!!

ALL YOU ALL!!!

:fuckyou:

[rndmprsn]

80. strangely enough...

i'm a born again evangelical christian who is proud to a liberal/progressive democrat...there is absolutely no inconsistency in this either.

the teachings of jesus christ tell us to care for our fellow man, lift people up not look down, feed the hungry and care for the infirm and disabled...he teaches us to value work over wealth and beware of the false prophets/pharisees.

the sermon on the mount is one of my guiding principles in life and the values that my religion gives me is COMPLETELY consistent with being a good liberal/progressive...i bear witness about this to my less progressive brothern and sisters.

i agree with another poster...this is really a personal thing.

[WillyT]

82. I'mmmmmmmmmmmmm A Lumberjack And I'm OK....

My religion wanders around my head.

Sometimes.


Maybe.

What's your fucking point please???

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...............

nigh-nigh

[JanMichael]

83. atheist

married to a very nice theist.