How did you learn about Jesus? (non-christian responses too please)

[liberalitch]

My parents were very spiritual people (my mom still is... my dad has "gone on to his reward" as my mom says), but they never pushed religion down my throat. They did not take me to church or sunday school until I was old enough to understand what was going on.
One night I asked my older sister to tell me a story (I don't even know how old I was.... really really young), my sister loved to do this because she has a vivid, active imagination. It was close to easter (that I remember) and my sister said to my parents "I'm gonna tell the greatest story ever told".... It was understood in my house that that meant the story of the life of christ.

She told me about what christmas meant to christians (until then it wasn't all santa, cookies and presents to me, but I believed that it was just the time of year when you let your loved ones know how important they were to you) and then she told me about Jesus... you know the person.
A poor jewish carpenter who could see how the secular world wasn't holding too much promise for his people, especially under Roman rule. Also about how he wanted them to be happy and free in their hearts and minds even if their bodies couldn't be free. He told them that the absolutely most important thing was love. Our single function in life is to love and care for one another and with that you can do anything: heal the sick... even bring the dead back to life.
I was crushed to learn that not everyone understood this and as a result he was seen as traitor and was excuted. She also said that you can't kill love like that and so jesus came back to show us that.

Maybe the RWers should talk to my sister.

[EVDebs]

1. Ozark Mt. Daredevil's songs

If you wanna get to heaven...
You gotta raise a little hell !

Also, A Satisfied Mind helped lead me to the book of Romans and God's free gift of grace (Gen. 15:6 and Romans did the trick).

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bobdylan/asatisfiedmind.html

[Kerrytravelers]

2. I was told by my parents and grandparetns that Jesus loves everyone,

no matter what anyone else would ever tell me. Jesus didn't worry about where you live or what you looked like or what church you went to. Their concept was one of spirituality that I still believe to this day. No matter what religion you practice, or don't practice, there is a spiritual connection to everyone. When you study world religions, you see the same stories (the leader, the opposition, the end of the world, the next life, etc.) Christians have the 10 Commandments. Every religion has something similar. There is too much commanility to believe that one religion is right- in particular, one demonination of one religion- and everyone else is all wrong.

[liberalitch]

25. God is too big to fit in one religion!

[Mojambo]

3. I saw a really creepy portrait in the living room of my Grandparents

After I learned more of Jesus I wondered why anyone would paint such an intimidating portrait of this man.

It was really scary looking.

[noiretextatique]

4. he's was the white man hanging on the wall of every black church

i went to from the time i was two until i opted out at age 10. i also saw him on the walls in the homes of some of my relatives in texas.

[liberalitch]

26. Do you practice religion now?

Or have you just developed a sense of spirituality?
What are your beliefs?

[noiretextatique]

41. actually yes

i could never accept what was being sold in the churches i grew up in, but a few years back i found religious science/science of mind.
i had already been studying metaphysics and various eastern belief systems, so it was a good fit.
as to jesus, there is a concept in religious science called "the christ consciousness," which is the consciousness of perfect oneness with god, and therefore all. it is the consciouness praticioners of the study strive for, and as such, i did study the teachings of christ. however, the focus of the study was more about how to be like christ (to think and act like christ), vs. worshiping the person, or the myth.

[Sequoia]

5. My mother and grandmother

from that song, "Jesus Loves Me". One day I was going to get a prize from my grandmother (must've been 6) and it was a choice between a doll and that sepia picture of Jesus hangig on the wall. I wanted the doll but felt guilty (search me)and thought I should choose the picture instead, but I finally said, "Doll". A few years later she sent me a little picture of Jesus when I was at the very fundie boarding school which I endured for 9 long brainwashing years.

[Tux]

6. Church of Christ

They said he done "miracles" and taught people to care for each other then was killed and "came back" to his followers and rose into space (fly high enough with the right speed, outer space is the destination, not heaven). I realized that very few people do as he taught so I ignored Christianity, tried Zen, Atheism, Wicca, Buddhism, and now a UU Deism (been that the whole time really but didn't have the terms) yet Jesus did teach some nifty ideas. Too bad most people ignore them.

[NMDemDist2]

7. I lived for a year with my devout Catholic grandmother who dragged me

to Sunday School at her Church.

I remember sitting in the class one Sunday (at 7 years old) and the nun telling us you can't go to heaven unless you are baptized in Jesus' name (or whatever the Catholics do -- I can't remember)

anyway I asked the nice nun lady (she was pretty nice IIRC) but what about people who never heard about Jesus? "They go to hell or purgatory" says she. and I ask "But what about little babies?" says I. "Same thing" she tells me.

Mind you, I'm 7 years old. I started crying hysterically, terrified for the little babies and the people who were unlucky enough never to have heard of Jesus and haven't been back to a Christian Church since.....

Now in the intervening 43 years I have met some wonderful Christians and some real idiots who claim to be Christians.

But that's how I learned about Jesus.

[liberalitch]

27. And what's supposed to happen in purgatory?

Does jesus walk up and say "Hi, Messiah, Damn glad to meet you... Let's do lunch."
Then my next question is: If you have lunch with jesus.... are you supposed to pick up the tab or does he?

[DanCa]

8. From

My grandmother may she rest in peace who neverly attended church in her life. Than when I tried to join my moms church I found out why.

[liberalitch]

28. PLEASE TELL... Don't leave me hangin'

[DearAbby]

9. Both my parents were agnostic as far as I can tell..

the subject of religion never really came up in our conversations. I learned about Jesus from schoolmates, inviting me to their church. Also alot from the little afterschool meetings they would have at their homes...always with the offer of cookies and milk afterwards!

My Parents never discouraged me from attending, I was often confused, never felt what the others felt, and had alot of questions that they would rather I didn't ask.

[Nevernose]

10. Grew up in the South, so going to church was a social event

All of my friends were Southern Babtists, so in junior high or so, going to church functions with them is pretty much all there was to do in my little town in East Texas. There was a whole lotta Jesus goin' on, too.

Later, as an adult, I became interested in religion in general, did some research on my own on the subject, and formed my own pseudo-Christian beliefs -- but that probably wouldn't have happened if my folks hadn't been atheists who taught me the value of critical thinking.

[jobycom]

11. Learn what about him?

I was raised Catholic, so I said prayers to him before I knew what I was saying. I became Protestant when I ten because I didn't want to get up an hour earlier for mass anymore, and then I learned he was a really nice guy who could be your best buddy as long as you believed in him. When I was eighteen I learned that he was one of many gods, many stories, and I believed none of them any more than the others.

When I was in my mid twenties I learned that he was a metaphor for whatever people saw in him, so that he could be a savior to the hopeless, a lord to the weak-willed, a justification for evil, or a means of mind control by those who shout his name loudest.

What he is to me now is an interesting historical question, and, if half the stories about him have any truth, a really great man, like Francis of Assissi or Muhammad or Jimmy Carter. As a symbol, he means so many things to so many people he's pretty much useless to me. I have my favorite image of what I hope he was like, but that image is based on what I believe is right and wrong, and it seems to have more to do with what I want to believe than with anything I can learn objectively.

[sickinohio]

12. My Dad - he's a pastor of a

Baptist Church (the preachin and shoutin kind - straight from the mountains of VA) - and can you believe that HE VOTES DEM - he believes in the separation of church and state!!

[atre]

46. Separation of church and state was one of the seminal views of Baptists

...until the conservative takeover of the convention in the 1970s. In fact, the conservatives have essentially done away with every of the foundational elements of the Baptist faith, including separation of church and state, the priesthood of the believer, congregationalism - control at the local levels. Some are even falling behind Calvin on the determinism issue.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

13. A picture

hung on the wall of the house where we lived. I couldn't have been over three, if that old; we didn't live in that particular place after I was three. Anyway, there was a picture of Jesus knocking at a door. I remember his expression of peace. I sang in the church choir even back then, and thought God lived in the stained glass window in the ceiling of the sanctuary. Don't recall learning Jesus's story until later, but the picture is still in my memory, perhaps because I now realize the door is to my heart, and that the Peace that passeth all understanding can come to one in this lifetime.

[seventythree]

14. Sunday School

How do you remember the first books of the New Testament? Mathew, Mark, Luke and John -- bless the horse that I sit on. In junior high I drove my pastor nuts with my questions -- if God doesn't care what I give to the Church, why should you? Why aren't dinosaurs mentioned in the Bible? Many years later he wrote me in care of my mother after he had moved on -- always remembered the kid who asked all the questions. Best answer to my question about the trinity -- it's like water, ice and vapor -- all the same thing.

[no_hypocrisy]

15. Believe it or not, that he was a notable Rabbi.

And on the jocular side, he was a nice Jewish boy who went into his Father's business.

[Turn CO Blue]

16. From my grandma, a dyed in the wool Texas Dem... nt

[Generic Other]

17. A Sunday school lady told me everyone would be white in heaven

and look just like him. Even a poor little halfbreed mongrel like me.

Oh, and that all of my heathen yellow ancestors who never heard of Christ were going to hell. Ah so.

[liberalitch]

31. I hope in her next life she got to live in another skin....

color.

[proud patriot]

18. Godspell record , a childrens bible and movies

:hi:

[SeattleGirl]

19. From my maternal great-grandmother

Great Grandma was a very religious and spriritual person, who read the bible all the way through more times than I can remember. When one of my siblings and I were very young, Great Grandma would read us bible stories. Her favorite (and one of mine) was to story about having the faith of a mustard seed. She gave me and my sister each a clear locket, edged in gold, with a mustard seed in center. I wore that thing all the time. The Jesus that Great Grandma taught me about was kind, loving, and reached out to the unfortunate, the poor, the lepers, the prostitutes, everyone who wasn't the "right" kind of person. I used to have a painting of Jesus in a garden, knocking on a door (some of you may know the painting). It represented him knocking on the door of our hearts. Jesus could also kick some serious ass, though, as he did with the money changers in the temple. Anyway, I have long had a very positive idea of Jesus, mostly thanks to Great Grandma, and also to Sunday School.O8)

[Fire Walk With Me]

20. Forced to go to church and sunday school by hypocrites

And actually read and investigated the bible at age 18, found great philosophy and personal/cultural ideals, lamented at the behaviour of those who say they follow Christ (guilty of the last myself, of course). Checked comparative religion in college after ditching Catholosicm (sp?), liked Zen and Taoism, recently interested in Bhuddism. I still honor the teachings of Christ and the higher ideals of the religion, and hope that there can be some greater unity among the the various denominations.

People really gotta get over themselves for anything like that to work. I've had to do some of that myself, and have seen that the characteristics of the gods, such as "perfect conduct and clarity" are sadly lacking in ourselves, but the ideal is set, and may be striven for.

[Bouncy Ball]

21. A friend of my dad's gave me and my brother a children's book

of Bible stories when we were kids. The guy was Catholic and apparently pretty concerned that we weren't being raised going to church or anything (even though my parents were Christian, they were very private about it and more into lounging around drinking coffee and reading the paper on Sunday mornings than going to church).

So my brother and I read these stories that just sounded crazy to us and we loved them and all the illustrations. Some guy got his hair grabbed by a TREE! Some other guy built a huge boat because God sent a flood to kill EVERYONE but him and his family!

Then there were the stories of Jesus--helping the poor, tending to the sick, not shunning those other people shunned, performing miracles, saying these incredible things.

I loved that book.

[expatriate]

22. Non-Christian here

I had no religious upbringing at all until I was sent to an Episcopal school for kindergarten, as my local public school system had no kindergarten and I was definitely ready to attend kindy.

Let's talk about culture shock. Most of the kids at this school were from very churchgoing families and all attended the same church. They had known each other since birth. They were vicious to outsiders. The teachers were as bad, and sucked up to the minister's kids and the kids of the vestry members, etc.

I was completely bamboozled by the chapel services we went to each week, and had no idea what in the world all that was about. Once I made the terrible mistake of saying I didn't believe in God, to have a teacher take me to the front of the auditorium and castigate me in front of everyone in the school and say how sorry she felt for me because I was going to Hell. I was four years old, and I'd gotten a good taste of that Christian love. I couldn't understand how they could talk about how Jesus loved everyone and we were supposed to do that too, and then how they could turn around and be so horrible and vicious.

Oddly, however, I was the one kid in religion class who tended to come up with the "right" answers. On one occasion, the minister asked who Jesus' father was - all the good little churchgoing Episcopalians kept insisting that it was Joseph. I finally ventured "God?" and I thought Father Witcher was going to have a stroke from joy. Someone had actually listened to what he was saying and understood. Another time he asked us to draw a picture of God, and the other kids immediately began drawing old men sitting on thrones. I drew a big yellow starburst, outlined it in orange, and then colored the very perimeter of the picture black, as if it was a nova seen from space. Father Witcher asked me what it was, and I said "Power. Isn't God power?" The class heretic was the only one without an anthropomorphic concept of God.

He asked for the picture, and I hear from time to time that he still has it and still tells the story.

Thus the little atheist found out about Christianity. It was pretty goddam traumatic when I think about it. No wonder after some years of trying to be a believer, I reverted to type.

[Zorra]

23. I was sent away to catholic school at 4 years old. I learned about

Jesus from cruel, psychopathic old hags that made me go to church every day, wore weird black and white robes, and hit me with sticks.

[Dee625]

24. Sunday school

I was taken to Sunday school 1-2 Sundays a month as a kid. Looking back on it now, I'm pretty sure that the reason we went to SS/Church at least once a month is because my mom thought you had to do that to be respectable. My dad grudgingly went along - he always fell asleep during church and it was my job to poke him awake.

When I was around 12 (don't remember exactly), they put you in a more serious class. Instead of coloring, the teacher actually taught Bible lessons. The more I listened, the more questions I had. I was extremely shy so I didn't ask them but pondered on my own. Logically, what she was telling me, what we were reading in that book, was not possible. But this was an adult who I was sure was very honest and genuine.

I came to the conclusion that she was just mistaken and didn't understand logic. So from about the age of 11 or 12 on, I just totally ignored the subject of religion. Sure, I took my grandma to church a few times, attended weddings and such, but I took none of the religious part seriously. Since I never spoke about it to anyone until a few years ago, I just figured that there was something wrong with me that I couldn't buy what I saw as fiction.

I know now that my conclusion was one of childish simplicity. I really should read and study religious works or something, but I can't imagine anything more boring. :-/

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

30. Sunday school also at a Methodist church. n/t

[GreenPartyVoter]

29. Conservative evangelical churches

[liberalitch]

32. Me now....

Like many of you I was turned away from christianity by... you guessed it! christians!

For a long long time I was adrift.... I didn't believe in anything.

Then my dad died, I thought maybe if I prayed at least some of my pain would go away... it did not. That was probbly more painful than my father's death... I felt abandoned.

Then one day I was sitting in garden in my neighborhood.... there was a Buddhist monk sitting on another bench in a safron robe, reading. I did not even notice I was crying... he came over and asked if there was somethinghe could do to help. I said that I didn't know. He sat down and said he would sit there until I did know. We sat and then the sun went down and still we sat. Finally I was talking telling him about my dad, my sense of abandonment that I had been forgotten by god. He said "how often to you remember god?"
Then it became apparent to me that in order to have relationship with god... you must have a relationship with your own soul. I immediately felt better. We are still good friends (though he has returned to Vietnam) and now I am practicing buddhist (in part because he is the first man of god (spiritual leader) to actually be just that!

[hunter]

33. My mom's reaction to the Viet Nam war: Radical Christian Pacifism

She eventually landed with the Quakers after a very turbulent and wild ride through many churches. Her father was a pacifist during World War II, which was not a popular position, and my mom learned to be very outspoken about her religious beliefs from him. As a kid she saw her dad getting beat up by the police while he was protesting the Japanese internments.

My mom is entirely unable to sit still in any church where it's not considered proper to openly argue with the pastor. She believes that a heated discussion session should follow any sermon or homily. In a Catholic Church she gets very, very restless -- you can just look at her and see how badly she wants to stand up and say something.

My dad's religion is "live and let live, peace be with you." He is a gentle man who is skeptical about any sort of religious fanaticism. So far as I can tell, he really doesn't need to go to church. My father-in-law is like that too. Both men have an inner peace that I envy. I am more like my mother.

None of my grandparents went to church. All four of them were heretics of various sorts. My dad's dad knew more about the Bible and Christianity than many theologians I've met, and he would have some very heated discussions with my mom, especially around Christmas time. My mom still regards Christmas as a pagan holiday all dressed up for church.

I always wanted to emulate my grandfather so I read the entire Bible when I was seven years old. My mom thought this was some sort of blessing, and told me how smart I was, when in fact it was just another one of my many perverse and freakish Asperger's syndrome behaviors.

Unlike my mom, I have learned how to sit still in church, so I am fairly comfortable as a radical left wing social justice Catholic. The community I live in is supportive of that, so I don't have any serious problems. If I lived in a Catholic Community where the church leaned to the right I would have some very serious problems. As it is, I'm very low and insignificant on the list of kooky people our Bishop has to deal with. If he's irritated that none of our money goes into the Chruch's slush fund for funding anti-gay marriage initiatives and child molestatation lawsuit defenses, he hasn't said anything to me, and he does have my phone number.

[sweetheart]

34. the power of groupthink

The lesson i take from jesus is how a culture can kill an enlightened
person in such an ugly way and then rationalize murder as a divine act.
So it seems, that we are the descendents of this same culture, one
that murders great hearted folk, so that imperialists don't feel
threatened.

The other lessons of jesus life are forgotten for his crucifixion and
the lie of the church, that a man who was disenfranchised and unwelcome
in the culture of empire, can only be welcome when dead.

The lesson of jesus is that there is nothing intelligent, wise, holy or
sacred in crucifying an enlightened person, nothing at all.

[Walt Starr]

35. I learned about Jesus at the age of twelve by reading the Bible

King James Version.

Genesis to Revelations.

It's also the time where I rejected Christianity as a viable religious choice in my life.

[DARE to HOPE]

38. Genesis to Revelations in the King James version...wow! I'm impressed!

I was about 20, in college, read the New Jerusalem version, which was "modern" with a LOT of notes. (Admittedly skipped a lot of Kings and Chronicles.)

And it was then that I noticed, on my own! JEDP! (There were one or two actual exegetes in that church lounge, I must admit.) That is, what Bible scholars talk about, the real ancient sources of what we know as "the Bible."

I mean, you could miss it at first. Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 3. Hmmmm. But then you get into the Noah stories, and you can't miss it! TWO stories of Noah, one with 2 of each animal, and the other with 2 of each unclean animal, and 7 of each clean animal!

So then you look back at the beginning, and you see how DIFFERENT chapter 1 is from 2 and 3! Different in style, different in century, different in information. And you see the power and the beauty of the ancient poem of creation in chapter one, read to us Americans from space at one point.

And then you look at the tender little REALLY ancient stories of the Mighty God bending down and fashioning His little "mud man," blowing into Adam (means "earthman," "mud man") and Eve ("life") the very breath of life! And you feel the struggles they endured, trying out reason with a wily serpent for the first time. And then--notice how God BROKE HIS OWN RULE! Adam and Eve DID NOT die! They were simply expelled from the Garden! And look Who bowed down and sewed actual little clothes for these, His little folks! :-)

Of course, if you keep reading, you notice that God again shows mercy, does NOT kill Cain, even for MURDERING his own brother! (If you also happen to notice Abel was an itinerant Jewish shepherd, while Cain represents the corn growers similar to the Egyptians, all the better.)

In fact, Cain complains that others WILL kill him--so God in His mercy and lovingkindness puts His own mark of protection on Cain as a warning to leave him alone. Wow--a long way from "eye for an eye."

Now, the big question a budding biblical scholar would ask: WHO was Cain's WIFE????!!!!

The only answer the fundies can come up with is: his sister.


There are richer ways, far more profound, intellectual and interesting, to read the Bible. And it is FULL of Love and Hope, in some really surprising ways. :-)


One of the thrills of my life was to see actual pieces of the oldest copy of scripture that we humans have (100 BC) when a portion of the Dead Sea scrolls came to Chicago. I gazed into the glass case at that shrunken piece of Deuteronomy, where the Ten Commandments are repeated--with the help of the signs on the wall, and of my PhD husband (who reads all those ancient languages) I was able to make out "I AM the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt...." Therefore (you shall behave in this way....)


Dear friends, I think in our modern America we have a hard time thinking of what "ancient" really is/means. We need more respect for all that brought us here, I do believe.

[Walt Starr]

43. My absolutely FAVORITE version is the Jeruslaem Bible - Student's Edition

I have despised ever version of the Bible I have read that had the word "New" in the title.

[DARE to HOPE]

45. You can see the JEDP in the Revised Standard, and some others, too...

The RSV was always considered the premiere translation, following the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls, but keeping the powerful KJV language where they could. After all, it has played such a role in our history, much of it committed to memory and oral.

"Yahweh"=the LORD God, His formal Name, in RSV "El"or"Elohim"= just God (s or pl)

(El-Hebrew, Al-Arabic means they are the same God, Franklin Graham!!)

"Good News for Modern Man" was good for bringing the NT 2000 yrs closer.

But then the "Living Bible" came along, not even a translation, mushing everything together for the purpose of their own conservative politics. The "New International Version" followed, killing all the subtle, really spiritual stuff, and initiating the great Fundie Revolt we are now experiencing.

Yeah, the Jerusalem Bible proves the progressive nature of R Catholic exegetic practice at that time (10 years after Vatican 2.) My student copy was the first Bible I ever scribbled all over. :-)

[Walt Starr]

47. LOL, the "Living Bible" and "The Book" are better titled as

The Bible for Dummies

:evilgrin:

[BeHereNow]

36. April 23, 1995

I asked, He came.
I've never been the same.

BHN

[DARE to HOPE]

39. Amen, bhn.

[DARE to HOPE]

37. We went to church and Sunday School every Sunday I was growing up...

It was my Mom's Methodist Church then, from her own mother and family history. My Dad became a Protestant in the foxholes of WWII, and was the real believer. Sundays were always celebration days--friends, family, newspapers, music, no work except for making dinner, and popcorn or cereal at night. :-)

We also had this four inch thick Bible story book, with beautiful paintings for pictures. Devoured it all. I also read ALL the fairy tales ever written--never had a problem distinguishing "truth" from "parable."

Early on, I felt God's loving presence. A sunbeam shined into the downstairs room I was playing in--I think I was not quite two. I knew it was God. Later I tested praying through little things, like looking for something I couldn't find. It was when I was about 11 we avoided a really bad accident, one 18-wheeler passing another on a 2-lane highway coming right at us, through my Dad's quick turn of the wheel--we ended up 8 inches from the telephone pole in the ditch. I still remember with a flash the certainty I felt that God had literally scooped us up with His own hand! (I have had that experience twice more that I am aware of as an adult.)

Due to my Dad's job, we lived in Europe for some six years, and I was in both Notre Dame and St. Peter's the year I was confirmed. Had an excellent confirmation pastor, in our inter-Protestant church (he was Presbyterian) who answered all our challenging questions with respectful, adult answers.

But by college years was looking for more--found the Lutherans at college in Wisconsin. Read Luther and other theologians. Rejoiced in the hymns, straight from the Reformation, which contain poetry in depth describing intimately the relationship between Jesus and the Soul (the individual.) All the power of that came out in the Gospel-based sermons, the experience of communion (a hug and kiss from Jesus) and the heaven-inspired organ music of JS Bach (known to convert hearts to Christ all on its own.)

I went to graduate school, studied poli sci and all the philosophers. Had my own struggles with doubt: why was the church of Love so filled with struggle and even hate, especially of women. Why is there suffering? Why is there evil in the world? And why do human beings even need to think about God? I could tell you about hours of prayer (as on Good Friday and other times) when all at once the clear words would bubble to the surface.

I really do believe in the power of baptism. And I do believe that the Holy Spirit promised in the Bible guided me to know and love, and feel the love of Jesus, from the time they sprinkled my head as an infant.

[BeHereNow]

40. Amen Dare to Hope-

I hear ya.
BHN

[Zhade]

42. By living in America.

So many people are arrogant and in-you-face about him that one would have to be Helen Keller AND living in a cave not to have heard about him.

(That's NOT a slam against the good, decent Christians who aren't like this, who are likely the majority.)

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

44. At a funeral when I was three

It was the seventies--long hair and beards all around. I asked my mama why Uncle David's picture was up on the wall. She told me about Jesus later, and how it's something my family doesn't participate in.

[triguy46]

48. My wife.

[brooklynite]

49. Never Did...

I walked out of Unitarian Sunday School (in hindsight, I'm not really clear why they bothered to try having one) when I was seven.