[WillowTheWhisp]

Originally Posted by garinda

I equate true Christianity with Socialism!

Crikey! I thought I was the only one who did that.

There's this thing our church refers to as The Law of Consecration which is a sort of idealised way of life where all do as much as they are capapble of doing and none take more than they need and share their excess with those who do not have enough or are not physically capable of earning their own living. Needless to say it hasn't come about yet but it was tried at one time. We're probably just not ready for it yet but I think if done with no selfish aims or feelings then it would be an ideal way of life.

I wasn't educated in a faith school. I was sent to Sunday school by my parents when I was very young but I rebelled against that one Sunday because they never went to church. What I really wanted was for us all to go like I saw my friend's family doing every Sunday. I really envied them that bit of family together time. We just never seemed to do anything much as a family. Anyway one Sunday I was complaining about being packed off to Cambridge Street Methodists after we'd moved to Accy because I didn't know anybody there and they didn't exactly make me feel welcome (the other kids I mean) so my Dad said "You can either go to church or go to bed!" It was mid afternoon but I chose to go to bed. That was the last time the subject was brought up. I was about 5 or 6 years old.

At school we had an RE teacher who referred to "Genesis myths" and cast doubt on the virgin birth and performance of miracles so I certainly didn't have a Christian upbringing. She did encourage us to investigate different churches first hand and I went to quite a few different denominations but none meant anything to me.

I didn't attend church again until I was working with a girl who went to Cannon St Baptists. I remember being in the bathroom getting something out of the airing cupboard and saying something into the void along the lines of "OK, let's suppose there is a God and if you're there and I pray to you what's that all bout then?" and from that very vague start I ended up teaching in the Sunday School at Cannon Street!

My mother was half Baptist but had never attended church so I suppose there was a bit of Baptist in me but it vied with a bit of Catholic too - both of which had arguments for who was right and who was wrong. At one stage I was teaching in the Baptist SS in the morning and attending Catholic Mass in the evening! And the curiosity about other churches that had started when I was at school investigating all and sundry continued until the day I came across a colleague who was LDS and I'd never come across them before.

I asked him oodles of questions and borrowed books to read, went along to a few church meetings, read more, got interested in their choir, read more,talked to their missionaries who at the time I thought must have been brainwashed and indoctrinated so I can understand where people are coming from who think that way, read more. Eventually I was at the point where I wished I knew what I did believe.

It took a little while for it to dawn on me that I did have my own beliefs and that the only place which fitted in with that was the LDS church. There's a little more to it than that but I don 't want this to come across like me preaching. It's just meant to be an explanation of why I don't think faith schools are responsible for how people end up, well not in my case anyway or I should have ended up a total atheist.

I've been LDS (otherwise known as Mormon) for years now and although I'm still interested and curious about other people's beliefs and respect them all I doubt I could be converted to anything else.