The Only One Who Could Ever Reach Me Was The Son Of A Preacher Man

LOL

http://www.nndb.com/people/357/000024285/slobodan-milosevic-1.jpg

We had a great, close family and I had a genuinely really happy childhood, but everything began to came crashing down in adolescence.

We also contributed "LOL" and "HI DERE", don't be so reductive.

xpost

My aunty was (something like) a granddaughter of an ex-archbishop of Canterbury (I don't know which one as not sure of her maiden name). She turned out ace: upper-class bohemian type who is inordinately clever.

http://www.yessaid.com/pic/piglet1.jpg

plus another two people i know in real life, neither of whom are at all religious! hurrah for THE LAPSED

Tori Amos, I didn't know was one.

http://pub.tv2.no/multimedia/na/archive/00237/Kelis_237215y.jpg

But I think part of that may be down to the very nature of it - at least of Anglicanism (can't speak for other brands of Protestantism, and obviously Catholics aren't supposed to participate) - that the Anglican clergy is at least supposed to be educated. That intellectual attidude gets passed down. Also, Protestantism is supposed to be about personal experience of God, so it leaves latitude to examine this faith - and perhaps reject it.

Sorry, my thoughts are ill formed at the moment and I'm not sure where I'm getting.

x-post

xpost

so wrt to the truism that when catholic kids lapse, they tend to LAPSE (and inevitably return, or at least cannot fully get away from, the fold), but that a protestant upbringing is merely preparation for a gradual and vague slide into atheism, doesn't really apply. so i've personally often felt more affinity for those raised catholic (esp as my parents were basically anglo-catholic in belief).

anglican clergy children do tend to have more intellectual curiosity - if they're clever to start with, anyway. it tends to manifest itself in very esoteric areas though (greek mythology usually a favourite), none of which include anything remotely to do with pop culture. they tend to have read a lot of victorian novels by the time they hit double digits.

I do also see what you're saying, Lex. Lapsed Catholics often understood the kind of *wrestling* I did with Christianity being woven into the fabric of my life (and the usual goth/Satanist/wiccan sort of stages) in a way that those gentle Anglicans who had lapsed into a gentle sort of atheism that they weren't really bothered about could never quite seem to do.

it tends to manifest itself in very esoteric areas though (greek mythology usually a favourite), none of which include anything remotely to do with pop culture. they tend to have read a lot of victorian novels by the time they hit double digits.

Ha ha ha, this could almost exactly describe an ex-boyfriend of mine - whose father, funnily enough, went to the same Seminary as my mum.

This also doesn't really apply to those raised by happy-clappy fundie Evangelicals. Amongst whom the division between clergy and congregation is much less formal anyway - anyone who shows a bit of enthusiasm for it and says the right things can become a 'worship leader' or have a turn at teaching teh Bible etc...

But that's just me.

now i'm less religious. like 'laughing about it' or soemthing.

The synagoguge was very large, so I always felt like the son of some minor public figure.

I guess I did wind up rejecting religion, but not in a particularly violent way.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v719/gofugyourself/GFY112005/jessica-simpson-dress.jpg

ashlee simpson:

http://www.funnyhub.com/pictures/img/ashlee-simpson-performing.jpg

xp yeah felix from the jaxx's dad is a vicar. he was classically-trained. lots of clergy children are.

What felt weird was when my mum was here visiting me, and wanted to go round and figure out where the churches were and visit all the local clergy and everything. (For some reason she never got the nerve up to go and say hi to the Refuge Temple across the road.) She said she wasn't going to go to church AT ALL while she was here. But she went on Christmas Eve morning anyway. And then kept saying on New Years Eve day how odd it was, not to be going to church. I swear she gave me a sermon instead, just because she missed it. :-P

I'm an atheist.

My dad came from a long line of Presbyterian and Dissenting and Wesleyan and More Protestant Than The Protestants Ministers - and he is a dedicated atheist.

My mum came from a long line of Atheists and Freethinkers - and she is an Priest.

Go figure.

I'm just confused.

When we moved to new england it was at a time when real estate prices were super high so the church helped with a down payment, but my parents still owned the house.

must be kind of weird though, for those who did.

http://a509.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/13/l_073052cbf733d605cd96b3611b44f0f4.jpg

Great guy, wish I'd kept in touch.

I am not religious at all.

i never really noticed this!

waiting around forever after services were done and being the last car out of the parking lot every fucking week was near-traumatic. i still get twitchy on Sunday afternoons.

Actually, I think you'll find its Thingee Simpson.

I liked cleaning up after communion - retrieving the communion cups from the cup holders in the back of the pews. And pouring sweet juice down my throat. (not much has changed, there!)

My father kept a key under the altar - perhaps a key to one of the doors of the church? - and I was the only one small enough to crawl behind, and under, the altar to get the key. I loved it! It was the best secret hiding place ever! Thinking about it now, of course, makes me nervous about the implications of LOVING being under the altar.

The God=boss part is always going to be weird, I think. being a ministers daughter meant lots and lots of attention. And maybe i was savvy enough, at six, to figure out that all these people were paying attention to me because my father was in charge of their mortal souls.

My parents conducted a very seventies, churchie type club for married parishioners - the Ball and Chain Club! Which would be referenced in conversation - "You need to go to bed because the Ball and Chain Club is coming over!"

Anywhoo, my three brothers went to St. Thomas choir school around the same time as my father having this church. St. Thomas is about as high church as you can get, without moving to England. When my parents divorced, and my dad moved back to Scotland, I horrified everyone in the tiny Church of Scotland parish by genuflecting.

I was baptised Protestant, confirmed Episcopalian. An Episco-Prot.

my brother is graduating from Yale Divinity this year. it will be fun to see where he ends up - because he is a great preacher, already. He truly uderstands what a parish is - he's a good shepherd, and all that, I guess.

Until he is "placed" - or hired (the Anglican Bishops have a lot of sway in where and how anyone gets placed), I have been enjoying going to lots of different churches. (Waiting to go to my brother's church!)
I like the UCC in Northampton - because it was founded by Jonatahn Edwards, and there's a fierce statue of him in the sanctuary. "Sinner's In The Hands of An Angry God!" The pastor has written some great treatises about Jonathan Edwards and his image in the sanctuary.
I like the free thinking Unitarians - but I miss the churchiness.
Not so fond of the Catholic church - probably because I'm not Catholic. But the pageantry is good.

I call it "church shopping". And I think seeking an experience, a portal, a temple....is a valid activity to pursue.

Discussions of hymns are sort of de rigeur in my family. It can be very off putting to an interloper. Singing the doxology, in three or four part harmony, is expected. (or, maybe, graciously encouraged.)

"The Churches One Foundation" was one of my first memorized hymns - and it still haunts me because of the marriage part. I get it now, but at the time I could not figure out how Jesus got married and died for his bride. Mary confusion! Plot summary please!

I'm a HUGE fan of "Come Labor On".

he was a pastor in kansas and mass. when i was younger, but we moved to AZ 15 years ago and he's still a pastor there.

i graduated from NPU and everything.

where did you grow up?

i think that chic plus thing only lasted one year.

i was going to go back and work the skatepark with my dad this past summer but moving out here got in the way.

the big scandal in 03 was that they were going to change the name starting in 06 but i think they got talked out of it. one of the main reasons: at the time, chic.com was registered as a porn site. i'm not sure why they ended up keeping it.

but i miss the organ n' hymn church music of my youth. all this praise chorus, read the power-point screen shlock doesn't do anything for me. (though i still enjoy hearing my mother play the drums).