- Jul 16, 2013
- 778
- 283
- Country
- United States
- Gender
- Female
- Faith
- Presbyterian
- Marital Status
- Married
(I tend to ramble on in my posts, so I apologize if this becomes very drawn out and tedious).
Greetings to everyone here on this forum! Here is my background story:
I was raised in a non-devout Catholic family (we attended mass and went through the motions of worship, but there was hardly any instruction or even mention of God except in very general terms in my family). When I was about 17 or so, my father went through a conversion to a non-denominational church under the teachings of a particular pastor in Arkansas. I tried studying the Bible under this pastor and felt at one time that I had really gotten into it; however, over time the interest fell away. I remember my brother (who is an atheist) asking me about why I did what I was doing--wasn't it all based on a "feeling" without any evidence? I thought what he said made sense; therefore I put away my Bible, went out into the world, and found it very pleasurable and enjoyable.
I went to college, graduated, met someone with whom I thought I would want to spend the rest of my life. Basically I became quite agnostic though functionally an atheist--at some points really feeling more atheistic than agnostic. The person I met is an atheist. He remains liberal as I once was.
Meanwhile, in regards to my family, my father continues with his non-denominational church. My mother is largely agnostic--she tries to follow along with the non-denominational teachings which my father strongly believes in, but does not believe as strongly as he does. I'm not sure about my sister; we don't talk too much and not at all of religious topics when we do talk. My brother is a devout atheist (he despises all religion).
About three to four years ago, I went through a period in my life which is personal to me (though I will discuss if questioned), and I changed quite a bit (becoming even more liberal than I once was); yet there was also a spiritual element which began to develop in it. About this time, I began to become involved in historical research (of the civil war time period, of which I had an interest on and off since the eighth grade), and in September of last year I began some serious research into one particular historical person whom I became interested in for no particularly apparent reason.
One thought which occurred to me while researching this person was, "What better way to get to know someone who is very religious (since he was) than to try to understand their faith?" This person was a Presbyterian, so I started reading a book about the history of the Southern Presbyterian Church. I thought I would be bored to death and keep falling asleep during it, but to my surprise I found it intensely interesting. It kept mentioning this "Westminster Confessions of Faith" so I decided to get a copy of it and read it.
It was one of the most fascinating, compelling, and emotionally invoking things I had ever read. Just about everything in it made so much sense. After I had finished with that and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, I started reading the Bible and it was like I had never read it before. After a time of reading it every Sunday I felt a strong compulsion to go to church for public worship as well as private worship of God. I felt really drawn to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (on their official website, they have a Q&A page which to me really demonstrates a powerful message about who and what they are. I feel very drawn to that denomination), but there is no church that is close by to where I live.
So I am currently attending a PCA church (Presbyterian Church of America, which is supposedly similar to the OPC). I've wanted to move out east for a long time mainly because I enjoy the weather more out there than I do here. Now there are many more reasons for why I want to move there, and I hope to do so within one to two years; however, much of that will depend on whether I can find employment.
Well, that's about how I got to where I am right now. Which is in Henderson, NV where I've been for the past eight years. I've changed so much; before I was very liberal and now have rather conservative values. It is mainly because of this that I want to move back east; I hope to one day have a family and would not like to have that here where the environment seems so liberal.
I'm glad to have found this site and hope it will be informative and helpful.
Thanks to all who made it through reading this.
Sincerely,
Anne
Greetings to everyone here on this forum! Here is my background story:
I was raised in a non-devout Catholic family (we attended mass and went through the motions of worship, but there was hardly any instruction or even mention of God except in very general terms in my family). When I was about 17 or so, my father went through a conversion to a non-denominational church under the teachings of a particular pastor in Arkansas. I tried studying the Bible under this pastor and felt at one time that I had really gotten into it; however, over time the interest fell away. I remember my brother (who is an atheist) asking me about why I did what I was doing--wasn't it all based on a "feeling" without any evidence? I thought what he said made sense; therefore I put away my Bible, went out into the world, and found it very pleasurable and enjoyable.
I went to college, graduated, met someone with whom I thought I would want to spend the rest of my life. Basically I became quite agnostic though functionally an atheist--at some points really feeling more atheistic than agnostic. The person I met is an atheist. He remains liberal as I once was.
Meanwhile, in regards to my family, my father continues with his non-denominational church. My mother is largely agnostic--she tries to follow along with the non-denominational teachings which my father strongly believes in, but does not believe as strongly as he does. I'm not sure about my sister; we don't talk too much and not at all of religious topics when we do talk. My brother is a devout atheist (he despises all religion).
About three to four years ago, I went through a period in my life which is personal to me (though I will discuss if questioned), and I changed quite a bit (becoming even more liberal than I once was); yet there was also a spiritual element which began to develop in it. About this time, I began to become involved in historical research (of the civil war time period, of which I had an interest on and off since the eighth grade), and in September of last year I began some serious research into one particular historical person whom I became interested in for no particularly apparent reason.
One thought which occurred to me while researching this person was, "What better way to get to know someone who is very religious (since he was) than to try to understand their faith?" This person was a Presbyterian, so I started reading a book about the history of the Southern Presbyterian Church. I thought I would be bored to death and keep falling asleep during it, but to my surprise I found it intensely interesting. It kept mentioning this "Westminster Confessions of Faith" so I decided to get a copy of it and read it.
It was one of the most fascinating, compelling, and emotionally invoking things I had ever read. Just about everything in it made so much sense. After I had finished with that and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, I started reading the Bible and it was like I had never read it before. After a time of reading it every Sunday I felt a strong compulsion to go to church for public worship as well as private worship of God. I felt really drawn to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (on their official website, they have a Q&A page which to me really demonstrates a powerful message about who and what they are. I feel very drawn to that denomination), but there is no church that is close by to where I live.
So I am currently attending a PCA church (Presbyterian Church of America, which is supposedly similar to the OPC). I've wanted to move out east for a long time mainly because I enjoy the weather more out there than I do here. Now there are many more reasons for why I want to move there, and I hope to do so within one to two years; however, much of that will depend on whether I can find employment.
Well, that's about how I got to where I am right now. Which is in Henderson, NV where I've been for the past eight years. I've changed so much; before I was very liberal and now have rather conservative values. It is mainly because of this that I want to move back east; I hope to one day have a family and would not like to have that here where the environment seems so liberal.
I'm glad to have found this site and hope it will be informative and helpful.
Thanks to all who made it through reading this.
Sincerely,
Anne
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