... and before, you were?

[Élistariel]

I was just wondering what religion everyone was before they decided to take the pagan/wiccan etc. path. I was a southern baptist, sort of...
I would post this as a poll, but that didn't seem appropriate.

[Silver_Alhena]

Roman Catholic.

I hated it, not just for the religion in itself, but mainly for the kind of people who were members of the Church.
There has always been a lot of bigotry and sectarianinsm where I grew up, and strangely, I get less hassle about being a pagan than a catholic!

[Theres]

i was born CofE, but never really bought into it, even as a child.
then i was an agnostic witch for along time before finding Wicca.

[Flar's Freyja]

I was raised Catholic and began seeking out other paths after I left home. Ironically, my first husband was into yoga and transcendental meditation and while I learned from him, these things did not become part of my path until more than twenty years later. I've been Jewish, Pentecostal, Assembly of God, Baptist, Methodist and used the twelve step program as a spiritual path before returning to Catholicism for a while before finding my way home to the Goddess :)

I learned a lot from all of these religions and have concluded that there are many paths which all lead to the same God. Since spirituality is not what we believe but is how we live, I believe that individual practice is what brings spirituality to the path.

[Armitage]

I was baptized Catholic, but my mom didn't make us (me and my sibs) go to any church or anything, so I was brought up fairly Agnostic. I guess I was something of a born-again for a bit too, but that fit me about as well as a Barbie shoe. I was also Wiccan for a while, and I'm not exactly sure what to call myself now. :p

[shnen]

Mennonite, baptist and Pentecostal... yes, my mom dragged me through all of them... :rolleyes:

hated them all... so fake... then i started developing what i thought was my own religion type ting, to find out it already existed, and haven't been happier since! :)

[Flaire-FireStar]

Baptist... she still drags me to the church sometimes. :rolleyes: They just got a new minister too...

[PrincessHLHofMW]

Catholic....i was an alter and all!

[Danustouch]

From birth to second grade- pretty much nothing.

Second grade to ninth sophomore year in highschool- Congregationalist Protestant Christian.

From Sophomore year, to 1994 - Nazarene Evangelical Christian.

[Mithrea]

Grew up going to a Presbyterian church every Sunday until they decided the kids were too much trouble and asked us to leave. (Especially the little chubby red head who "refused to stop questioning her bible lessons!")

Then, got baptized in an American Baptist church because this boy I hate did it and I couldn't let him one-up me like that. Plus my Mom really wanted it.

But I would never saw I ever actually "were" either of those.

[buttercup]

Roman Catholic.

My husband is Catholic and my kids attend the catholic school where I work. I was very involved in our church until about 3 years ago when I took a very big turn in how I viewed my spirituality. I haven't had any negative experiences with the catholic church or christianity in general and in fact I attend mass with my husband and kids. I still find beauty in the mass. It simply isn't my path anymore. But it did lead me to the one I follow now.

[Yvonne Belisle]

Catajew = Cathlic and jewish i never tried to reconcile them I had too many problems with both but one parent was of one mind the other was of the other I had both growing up hence I combined it into my own phrase. There is no offence ment to anyone practicing either faith

[FaeRain]

Throughout my childhood I was dragged (literally...I remember once my father pulling me back into the house while I was trying to escape vacation bible school!) to Pentecostal Holiness churches. I never was one though. I had always felt another calling.

To this day I can't set foot in church...my husband + I were married at a b+b instead.

[Phoenix Blue]

I was an Atheist for about fourteen years, between 1982 and 1996. And I was all of eight years old as of November 1982. . . **smiles** before that, I don't know that I thought much about spirituality in any respect.

[cherrywind]

I was nothing. My dad grew up in a very strict Roman Catholic family and grew to hate all of Christianity. My mom said she was Protestent, but I don't even know what form. Religion was never emphasized in my family, but both my parents were always open to allowing us (the kids) to find our own if we so chose.

This is also the same father who buys me tarot decks for my birthday :D. I've always been thankful that I've had really accepting parents. My father was even the one who gave me my first book on Paganism.

[LunaWitch]

Protestant Lutheran
from birth 'til about 19 years old.

and I was not even a C & E person.

I could bore you all with the long story about when I left the church and became Pagan, but the very short version is;

Church = Greed
and never ask questions in sunday school that your pastor can't HA!!!, I mean WONT answer.

and 20 billion other reasons.

needless to say, not a fan of organized religion.

[Haedis]

I considered myself an agnostic from the time I could grasp the concept until age 11, whenI discovered Wicca. It made an incredible amount of sense to me at the time, but now I no longer consider myself Wiccan though I still value a lot of the teachings and practices.

[MistOfTheSea86]

Originally posted by Yvonne Thomas
Catajew = Cathlic and jewish i never tried to reconcile them I had too many problems with both but one parent was of one mind the other was of the other I had both growing up hence I combined it into my own phrase. There is no offence ment to anyone practicing either faith


Oi Vey:D

[MistOfTheSea86]

When I was little I remember telling these two girls that angels were devils sent from hell to make them kill people-.-

I didn't like those kids lol, but as I got older I started to question things and then I delved a bit into christianity because I was still going through my "God can make me heterosexual" Stage. As time went on, the Christian religion became something that I did not like. It seemed to me that they spreaded(Is this even a word??)hate and made people hate their fellow man. I remember a phone call Simplystrange and I had. When she told me of Egypt and how she interested in Reincarnation. Thats when I started to get curious and I have been researching alternative paths ever since. Now I am a Pagan Buddhist and very happy about it:)

[End of Ramble:D]

[Valnorran]

Episcopalion. A pretty cool path, it just wasn't mine.

[Phoenix Blue]

Quoth MistOfTheSea86:
Oi Vey:D
:lol:

[Azure]

Well, my Mom's family is backwoods conservative variety of Methodist, and my Dad's is Southern Baptist. Tons of my relatives are preachers on Dad's side. Since my Dad was in the service, it was pretty much generic Air Force chapel Protestant.

But I never really felt at home being a Christian, and by the time I was three I had run out of patience with it. We were living in Europe then, and going to all sorts of old temple sites.

I tried hard, to please my family, for a long time, but by 11 or so I knew I was Pagan without question. I attended Church through high school, but that was the end of it. I respect most Christian paths, but couldn't be one.

[WtchyChick13]

Oh very interesting post.

I grew up Roman Catholic but when I was a kid, I hated it. Then when I was a teenager, I went overboard with being almost Born Again and would go to church 9 times a week. (No comment from LdyStarlite please!) lol

Then I went through an athiest stage and then in '93 it was like I was hit by lightning and ended up in Salem, Mass. I was always interested in witchcraft, even as a child. But obviously, couldn't persue it. On my trip to Salem, I went into every witch store I could, came home with a ton of books and was hooked!

To top it off, my boyfriend at the time had a friend who was Wiccan and was able to help me with some of the beginning stuff.

The rest, is history....:p

[AradiaSupernova]

from birth til 6 years old, nothing

from 6 until 10, Apostolic

from 10 until 13, went to various churches because I was losing my grasp with Christianity

13-15, "in search of"

15-if/when I decide to change my path, Wiccan :)

[Wind]

*birth till seeing dogma- roman chatholic
*after i realized how i was blindly follwing a faith i didnt agree with- doaist/buddhist
*after seeing everything i have ever felf and belived in written on the pages before me-pagan

[Psyche Ague]

I grew up Roman Catholic (just like everyone else, apparently) and questioned a lot, but I realized when I was about 12 that I didn't really believe anything that the Church was telling me. I became Deist for awhile, then Wiccan until I realized I wasn't really Wiccan, that I was Pagan. So I sort of took the Green Witch path for awhile until I found true happiness with Buddhism. I still, however, consider myself a Pagan for many reasons.

[WandererInGray]

Originally posted by Azure
I tried hard, to please my family, for a long time, but by 11 or so I knew I was Pagan without question.

*grins* That's what happens when you throw yourself into Holy Waters at such a tender age, Az. ;)


Me? I was nothin'......just a farm girl who luckily lived too far away from town to be a regular at church. By high school I associated churches with weddings, funerals and some creepy movie with Lou Diamond Phillips that I can't remember the name of.

I called myself Wiccan for a few years at the end of my collage career. Then got thwacked pretty firmly from Kali and decided Hinduism was a much better study. Now I also study Buddhism and it makes me very happy as well.
*smiles* Like Psyche Ague though, I still call myself a Pagan, and a Kitchen Witch because they fit.

[Rubi Waters]

grew up Catholic!
1st through 8th grade at catholic school. :eek:
I questioned everything.....I was a very shy kid but felt strongly about somebody answering my questions...which of course thier answers always were "just because" or "the bible said" I refused to make my confirmation in 8th grade ..so I guess that's where my turn really started. I found excuses not to go to church with parents. AFinally they just stopped asking. spent many years (age 13 to 29) searching......the last 3 years have been my pagan awakening. I have found home :)

[materra]

Well, hmmm, My Mother was a Christian kitchen witch, and a water witch...we didn't attend church a lot. When we did, we went to a small Union Congregational Church. Sweet, small and as typical a tiny church as you could find. But, in our family the women were witches. We spent many Sundays picking herbs, tilting tables, reading cards, finding water and giving equal time to Mother Nature. I studied the Bible, but I also studied the other holy books, and how to read signs, still do in fact. Now, I am studing oriental skills. I guess I am pagan with a really nice grasp of other religions.

[Altheia]

I was raised Independent Baptist and went to church every time the doors were open. I "walked" through that for about seven years until I turned seventeen...I just couldn't take all of the fakeness anymore, and I was hell bent on not becoming one of "them" I guess you could say. I did not want to be one of those people who went to church and praised God until they were blue in the face and then as soon as church lets out, they are cussing up a storm and obviously forgetting that they were just in the House of God. I did not want to be a "play Christian", so I decided that it just was not for me. Considering the fact that I live in the buckle of the Bible belt, it was not easy leaving the church where I was a member of three years. It became easier after moved out of my house after my junior year of high school and started living with my sister who is Pagan. So I guess you could say that I was lost for about a year or so inbetween leaving the church and moving in with my sister. I am still new to Paganism, but I am loving every minute of it. It's a lot easier now because I live in a house with four other Pagans. It's great. That's my schpill on the subject :)