I was raised in a non religious home. My mother said she didn't want us believing in fairy tales. She said that we can follow whatever we like. One day she took my three siblings and I to a Pentecostal church (this was about fifteen years ago). In order for us to be part of the church we had to be baptized. So I was baptized in water with my mother taking pictures while all of us didn't have a real conception of what we were actually doing.
I chose to study the Bible at about 16-18ish and read most of it. I was fantasized with Jesus but never knew anything about God. I knew about Christ and never had a relationship with Him. What I learned and chose to keep in my life was prayer. I couldn't hear God in any type of way, so I remember writing my prayers instead.
Years later, I visited the Roman Catholic Church with my friend for what about 13 years and counting. I chose to join the Catholic Church three years ago because I remember when I studied the Bible I wanted to be a nun and devote my life to pray and study only. Later I wanted to be a priest, but my hopes were dashed because I broke the rules of being a nun and only males can be priests.
Eventually, I stopped practicing Christianity all together. Our family split because of disagreements in the past and many family members died throughout the years as well as my grandmothers; so, I felt a inner need rather than an educational need to connect with my family.
That was spirituality to me. God did not provide a foundation or explained my origin as my family. Although we disagree (my family and I), for some reason ancestors included, there is something about knowing your family--not just blood related--that supersedes any deity one can believe in. Anyone can chose a deity and belief. No one can choose their family.
Years ago, my mother practiced witchcraft. She practices because of the interest and she has a strong aura that pulls spirits. If she made it a serious practice, I'm sure she'd be a well matured witch, for lack of better wording. I took the interest of witchcraft (or what people consider these days modern paganism) from her and really looked into it. I fell in love with ethnic faiths but I never traveled outside the states to experience different ethnic environments. I felt that was what is missing in my spiritual journey is changing my perspective from individual to global.
Religion (how I practiced my faith) became part of me and a choice I took up because I wanted to be with my family and communicate with them more. I wanted to see life in a global way. I wanted to contribute to society. I want to take care of myself, my health, my mind, and so forth. All the above. Many ethnic religions (or what Christians call in the past "pagan" religions) practice ancestral veneration so I took that up. I don't steal specific practices, but I like the idea of communicating with family members who have passed on. I am an animist (not religiously or by title, it just makes common sense), a pantheist (spirituality can't be divided) but not by title either), a witch (by practice not by heritage), and what throws it off nicely a Catholic (by sacrament not by practice).
These beliefs all chose me, I did not chose them. If I were to pick a faith to
live by it would be an ethnic faith incorporating ancestral veneration and worship to the divine with no personification as a deity or person.
Many ethnic faiths are not evangelistic. They are private and hard to be a part of (not as a choice but something you are called to) because you have to gain the trust of practitioners who have been in their faith for years. I chose to look at Santeria because of the spirits of nature (as an animist, makes a lot of sense) or the Orishas call to me and it also has ancestral practices. Whats hard to get over is they do have a deity they follow--but no one has explained the difference between their deity and that of a Christian deity. It is of a completely different culture. Many Americans regardless the faith believe spirituality is free of charge. The customs are foreign and the language is completely different than English.
Here is more of a in depth view of my entry into paganism. That's my take.
Why Paganism chose me | ReligiousForums.com
Some people are born into a religion and choose not to question its tenets. Even staying in one's birth culture is a choice in this age of multicultural exposure.
What points of choice have there been in your religious life? What affected those choices? What were the outcomes?
This has made me curious about how other people experience choice in the practice or selection of their religion. What have you chosen?
