Please No Debate Just wondering, How Many......

[hoosierarcher]

Here are Christians?
I am; but I am also learning about Judaism as it is my Ancestral religion.

[BUSH]

I am, sadly backslid.

[rwc1969]

I'm a believer!

[klickitat]

I too am a believer, but who is a poor excuse for one.

You mentioned that you were looking at Judaism. That is good because you will never understand the New Testament and Christianity until you understand the Old Testament and how the entire thing points to Christ.

This is my opinion and I do not mean to offend anyone. This is the only statement I will make on this topic here and will not debate it. To any one who is Jewish, I respect you as G*d's wife with all due respect.

[huntermj]

I'm conflicted. Raised Roman Catholic. I believe the "Book" and would defend anyone's right to worship as they believe. but i have have little faith.Though i do pray from time to time. but i read your question and then walked into my kitchen and saw corn, beets, onions, potatoes and turnips that i pulled from the garden today, i have more faith in those veggies then i do an afterlife. They nourish me now. I have more faith in a collective conscienceless. Like i said, I'm conflicted. yes you could put some big holes in my belifs, i alrady did that. still woking on it.

[rudyumans]

I am a Baha'i. I believe in Jesus, but also in all the Other Ones.

[your_comforting_company]

I have a little Christian upbringing, but mostly my religious views are my own. I believe in a "creator" and a "world unified in harmoniously functioning as a greater organism". My beliefs somewhat reflect those of Native Americans, tho I've had no formal training in any religion.
I was raised by a family that thankfully allowed me to think for myself. I take in all that my senses will allow and that my feeble mortal mind can comprehend, and look upon the world and it's mysteries with open, awed eyes. I'm grateful that my beliefs were not force-fed to me by my parents and peers. They allowed me to believe what I think is right. That said, I could have just as easily been a murderer, as the nice guy you've come to know.
Can the world we live in be some random cosmic accident? hmmm. Somehow I think there is a purpose for all this, and whether you are buddhist, jewish, catholic, or whatever, as long as you believe there is something out there greater than "humans" (whatever the hell "human" means these days) I think we are on the same page.
It would be sort of complicated to explain it all without going into a 4 page essay, so I'll just answer the question "yes".
I Thank the Good Lord (whatever you percieve him to be) for all my blessings. I believe in my heart, that he has many names.

Taken from "Desiderata":

...Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you concieve him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul.

[nell67]

Raised Pentecostal,hardcore bible thumping,tongues speaking,filled with the Holy Ghost sermons.
married a JW... Let my kids decide for themselves what they want to beLIEve.

Yea,I beLIEve in the Father,Son and Holy Ghost,I do not beLIEve in the gooip mongering that went on in the church I was raised in.

Sometimes I think I made a mistake for not taking my kids to a formal church setting when they were growing up,2 have been baptized into the Baptist faith,my daughter describes herself as wiccan......

[panch0]

Raised Methosist and married a Catholic Girl. I still consider myself Methodist but go to the Cathlic Church with my wife. We don't always agree, but we don't fight over it.

[Rick]

Baptist boy from a long line of Baptists in a house full of Catholics. My ggg uncle founded the third Baptist church in Indiana Territory (Illinois) and one was of two preachers that spent a week baptizing folks in the river near New Madrid in the days following the Great New Madrid Earthquake.

[Pocomoonskyeyes3]

Well quite honestly I am of no "formal" religion. I have looked at many different ones, Many say basically the same thing...Be a good person.My beliefs are my own, although I would say closer to Native American(who woulda' thunk it?) than to anything else.... A small amount of teaching/training, in that. I do believe in a Creator. That's as much as I'm gonna' say about Religion....

[crashdive123]

Raised Methodist.

[smhg]

Here are Christians?
I am; but I am also learning about Judaism as it is my Ancestral religion.

I am a Christian. My husband and I pastored a small Brazilian church in NC before moving to Brazil. My ministry school teacher is a Messianic Jew, so let me know if you have any questions as you study. I'd be happy to connect the two of you.

[Batch]

I was raised catholic and even went to Saint Don Bosco school.

I believe everyone has a right to their own beliefs. If you are the type that tries to impose your religion on others. I got a long pig recipe I think would go great with you.

[rwc1969]

I will expand my op to say I'm a christian. I read the bible once in a blue moon, pray regualrly, don't attend church, don't force my beliefs, and feel everyone should have the right to free religion, or no religion if they choose and I don't look up or down on em for it.

I was raised baptist in KY, went to the muddy river to be baptised, had a preacher who come barreling down the holler drunk off his *** to church every sunday in his big black cadillac. He would scream and yell and tell us we're all goin to hell unless we changed our ways. It was a very stressful and hypocrytical system where everyone got dressed up in their sunday best, prayed in church and then right back to gossiping and sinning all around afterwards. It seemed like everyone was just putting on a show for each other, or just doing it because they had to, and it had nothing to do with god, or jesus, helping one another, or being saved, etc. Luckily, it didn't damage my belief system other than I'm personally against organised religion. But, not against those who practice it. Looking back, maybe it had everything to do with god and jesus.

I thank the lord every day and pray forgiveness for all those who sin against me, and forgivess for my sins against them, in Jesus' name, etc, etc. and I mean it.

[LowKey]

Both of my parents were Methodist. We went to church probably on holidays but not much more.

I've studied several. Ascribe to none.
But I do lead a 'christian' life. That is all about how you act and react toward others, not whether you specifically believe in the Holy Trinity.

[Ken]

You've all heard of a "confessional booth," right? Here we go........

I was baptized, confirmed, and married in the Catholic Church.

I was a member of the parish council when I was 30. I guess I asked too many questions, and it didn't seem to bother the other council members when I confronted the pastor and he finally admitted that he grossly misrepresented the purpose of a major fund-raising drive that was underway. I told him that where I came from, we called that "criminal fraud." I resigned and lost all respect for that pastor and every member of the parish council who blindly supported what I knew was simply a theft in progress.

Then, I got divorced, and, in the Catholic Church, THAT is a sin that's apparently worse than molesting alter boys. So, my name is still on the parish roles, but I haven't walked into that church more than a dozen times in the last 20 years.

And then, my office brought a claim against Father James Porter. Remember him? His was the very first well publicized priest child-molester case. Yeah, I heard the word "ex-communicated" memtioned a few times when we tried to get the church to do the right thing.

Over the years, the evidence mounted and convinced me that there was a world-wide institutional conspiracy in the Church to cover-up for thousands of these evil men who had spent decades molesting children and destroying young lives while professing to be doing the work of God. It it all of them? No, but the cancer is widespread throughout the highest levels of the church. I despise hypocrites and I despise corruption.

And so, I will say that I'm a Christian. I believe in God and in Jesus Christ, and I talk to them in my own way whenever and wherever I feel I should. For me, God's altar is wherever I choose to pray.

[Sarge47]

Radically saved in 1979 & totally delivered from drugs & alcohol. I've studied history, the Bible, and other works to know, not believe that Christ is the Son of God as well as God the Son and was resurrected on the 3rd day. I also know that "religion" is NOT Christianity. I don't go to church, I am the church. I am a devout follower of Yeshua HaMashia (Jesus the Christ in Hebrew) enough to know that Christ taught love, forgiveness, & compassion. I do not preach my faith to others unless asked, and those that do challenge me are quickly sorry that they did as I give them irrefutable evidence of the Resurrection. I will not do so on this forum, however, because this is not the time or place for that. I belong to a Christian Leaders group called "Theophilus Journey" that was started by Glenn kaiser, a Pastor with Jesus People USA (JPUSA) out of Chicago, the same group that hosts the Woodstock style music festival called Cornerstone, at a 600 acre campground a few miles from where I live. Entry into that forum is not open, you have to be invited in and if anyone would like to PM me about wanting to become a member I'll see what I can do. One warning, however, these folks are some of the most well-studied, highly intelligent people you'll ever hope to meet, so discussing anything with them is not always wise. Jon Trott, one of the authors that printed the truth about Mike Warnke's bogus claims is from that ministry. I also hold that none of us who follow Him (Jesus) here are who we'd like to be, that's why he gave us the gift of love. Okay, now I gotta go back to being "crusty old Sarge!" (aren't you sorry you asked?)

[doug1980]

When I lived with my grandparents they were Baptist and I went to church every Sunday, but my parents have no religion really. Married a Christian who is very serious about her religion. I don't go to church and don't want to really. Now I have my own religion I spose. I just try to be a good person and hope that's enough.

[Winnie]

I was raised Methodist.