When I was a Christian, no on all grounds. I wasn't really taught how to think critically too much or how to ask good, thoughtful questions, basically as much was needed for reading the Bible. Retaining and retrieving information were the skills focused on and taught. And social acceptance I didn't actually have to worry about but was taught the world generally doesn't like Christianity and finds many faults and flaws with Christians (Chick Tracts often reflect this). But it was more of having some unacknowledged (at the time) skill in critical thought that brought me to a crossroads of accepting my own faith. And there were many issues I had with it at the time, including the realization that so much of what I was taught and believed was a lie, and ultimately I left it all behind.
But when I left that and went to neo-Paganism I was immediately pulled to all those darker things people told me to stay away from. Much like how I found the world to be (in contrast to how the Church taught me it was), I found all the dark side stuff wasn't what people hyped it up to be. A few years later I joined here and was exposed to many new things and ideas (also my first web forum, so there was a lot of new things in that regard and also without things in that regard, lmao). And ultimately it was some form of divination I learned about from a member here is what started guiding me in a different direction because whatever this method was exactly (something to do with a deck of cards) there was just no way it could be because it was assigning millions of people to very specific things. And that crack kept growing until it fractured.
As for the accepted part there's some layers to that. Such as being taught not to care from a very young age because it's Jesus I have to please, not the world. And then there's the bullying at school and social clubs and authoritarian parenting that led me to a predictable path of rebelling and not caring. But even then there is still some degree of caring. Like how I generally won't back done from a confrontation, I don't seek it out even though I do sometimes enjoy it because there is aspect of caring to not be regarded as a total ***** so I don't seek them out and have a threshold that must be met before I'll likely say or do anything (in these cases it's usually not really worth it anyways). And some of my views that can make things potentially bad for me I tend to only let out around familiar company. And though I was warned when I first became a neo-Pagan to wear my pentagram under my shirt I openly wore it anyways, the first time I stepped out as female was one of the scariest times in my life and my already hyper sensitive senses when into this crazy, berserker overdrive mode.
I guess to the outside world and acceptance, I largely don't care but I'm far from immune to that aspect of being a social critter.
