For many church-goers, familiarity with churches other than their own

[MineralMan]

is very limited. Most people stick pretty close to their own churches and denominations, and have little exposure to what happens in other churches, even in their own communities. Back when I was a youngster, I attended a Presbyterian church in my small California town. It was directly across the street from the Catholic church in the same town. I asked some of the members of my church if they had ever attended a service at the church across the street.

Universally, their answer was no. There was virtually no knowledge of what a Catholic Mass was like in a church less than 100 yards away. They also didn't know what services were like at the local Methodist, Episcopal or Baptist church, even though those would have seemed quite familiar had they ever gone there. There was also an Assembly of God church in town, but it was also shunned as "that Holy Roller" church. Nobody would go there, for goodness' sake.

As a young guy, I visited all those churches during my high school years, usually because I was involved with some girl who went to them. So, I did get to experience the variations in Christianity, as far as my small town allowed. Later, I attended even more "foreign" churches, and even a few synagogues and one mosque, out of respectful curiosity.

But, most people didn't do that. Maybe they'd go to a wedding or funeral in some other church, but the ever-present danger of being exposed to new information generally kept them away from them the rest of the time. Curiosity doesn't seem to be part of most people's make-up, I guess.

And that was a small town, so there wouldn't have been an opportunity to visit a Greek or Russian Orthodox church, a black church, or some weird, splinter Pentecostal sectarian church. And Mormonism or Jehovah's Witness services? The very idea! The other regular mainstream churches were scary enough, I guess. Better stick with what's familiar.

Christianity has hundreds, even thousands, of denominations. Most people know only about their own denomination. Christianity isn't a unified religion. Not at all. Most people know very little about the breadth of beliefs and practices that constitute even Christianity. Often, they don't want to know, or are frightened for some reason.

More's the pity. People should get out more, I think.

[Thomas Hurt]

1. I had a similar experience growing up...

Two of my best friends growing up were sons of the Methodist and the Church of Christ pastors. I attended a 1st Baptist church when I was younger. I have attended services, funerals, even a couple of potlucks at Lutheran churches. Worked with an Orthodox seminary student one summer. I even attended a straight up fundamentalist non-denominational church for a few months. Have had several Jewish colleagues through which I have learned some about the Jewish faith. Same with Catholic and Mormon friends and co-workers. The people I met were all good folks and my time spent there was interesting, gave me perspective.

Even though I may have some personal disagreements with some of their churchs' practices they were all worth getting to know.

[rurallib]

2. As a kid I was raised Catholic. We were told that to even so much as to set foot

inside another church would be a mortal sin and a ticket to hell.
When I got into HS the desire to go into any church including catholic churches had pretty much passed.
Most of the girls I dated were either lapsed catholics or non practicing protestants (funny how that happened) - so going to church with the girl wasn't a big thing.

Since then I have ventured into many churches, have been in a synagogue but not a mosque. I tend to look at them now more as places of business than religious edifices. Just going in to see what the store for the methodists looks like, as it were.

[Cartoonist]

4. My Catholic school wasn't that obvious

Or so I recall. But we never discussed other denominations. The subtle message being that Jesus was a Catholic.

[rurallib]

5. may be the difference in our ages - I was in Catholic schools late 50s to late 60s

and we had a very doctrinaire monsignor as our parish head.
My guess is that details like this varied widely by parish

[kwassa]

3. I grew up Unitarian ...

and as a young teen we went as a group to a variety of different churches.

I remember a Reform Jewish synagogue that had plush seats like a movie theater. We still had hard wooden pews, though very modernesque.

The most exotic to me was the Russian Orthodox church with icons and clouds of incense,

The most fun was the black Baptist church with the electric band on stage and people full of the holy spirit dancing in the aisles. Unitarians are so boring.