Send in your own religious family history and I’ll try to post it. Here are a few of the family religious histories I’ve received so far.

Says reader 360: “Well, my ‘rents were non-practicing Catholics…Even now I dislike Christianity and find Buddhism more relevant and refreshingly non-divisive. So I guess I am planting a new “religious tree” for myself. I would like to hear from people who are who they are IN SPITE OF the religion they were born into.”

Writes Barb: “I’m a practicing Catholic and as far as I know Catholicism is solid in my family background…it is my solid foundation. I consider myself more spiritual as opposed to religious. I’m open to all faiths and their beliefs…”

Thanks to Interfaith for this: “My parents are both Jewish and their ancestors are Jewish as far back as we know. The interesting thing is that they seem to alternate, generationally, between secular and religious. My grandparents rebelled against the superstitiousness of the ‘old country’ and were quite secular. My parents mostly followed that, with a few steps toward the religious, and my generation is becoming ever more religious.”

Writes Anonymous Also: “I was raised by non-observant Evangelical parents. I went to Sunday school as a child, (Evangelical Baptist), and can remember many a Sunday hiding behind a building hoping the teachers wouldn’t find me in time for class. (Sometimes they didn’t.) Today, I follow a Humanist/New Age path, and am perfectly content.”

Says Joey: “Four of my great-aunts were nuns. Actually at least two left the nunhood, though…my maternal grandmother (despite four nun sisters) is now Pentecostal. My older brother is now, as I call him, “the Pat Robinson of Atheism” (apparently the Christian school my parents sent him too wasn’t that effective), and I’m…something. My parents raised me and my six siblings non-denominational Christian.”

Writes CM reader Bird: “My father was a non-observant Jew, the grandson of Russian immigrants. Both of mother’s parents were Jews who were born here, but her mother converted to Christian Science. My mother raised me as a Christian Scientist. My father was very tolerant of the religion, but he did insist I get medical care as a child. He never went to either synagogue or church. I became a devout Christian Scientist and even had ‘class instruction,’ the advanced level of teaching, until I saw it was not helping and in fact was harming my mother. She had cancer and felt horribly guilty turning to doctors–so guilty that it created a mental illness. At that point I left the church and went for years missing that ‘something’ in my life. My husband (originally Jewish) and I now go to Unitarian Church, and that’s how we raised our kids. It’s not terribly spiritual, but does give us a sense of community and a humanist faith. Strangely, most of my immediate family converted from Judaism to something else–mostly Quaker.”

Reader Bob Campbell finds his story “boring,” but I disagree: “My mother was raised as an Episcopalian in East Providence by parents who came from casual (or lapsed) Catholic backgrounds. My father was raise Methodist in Memphis by faithful Methodist parents. His brother became Episcopalian, but his sister remained Methodist. The uncle’s children are Episcopalian…I found a month ago that my mother did not get confirmed as an Episcopalian until after I did when I was 12, (she waited until 41). My wife is Episcopalian, brought up by Episcopalians, no children. My mother and stepfather and two sisters are very casual Episcopalians, returning to the observance of our maternal grandfather and his sister, who were non-observant.”

Each tale is its own snowflake!

Says Julie: “My Mother converted from Catholic to Lutheran when she married my Dad. Her mother didn’t speak to her for three months and some relatives didn’t speak to her for years. This was a really big deal in the early 1950’s. She felt guilt for many years and is now a Congregationalist and happy. I tried almost all mainstream Christian churches at one time or another. Raised my kids in a non-denominational church. Now I don’t attend church. I read a lot of spiritual books and web sites…My oldest thinks he might be an atheist but hasn’t really decided. Of course I try to discourage that.”