What a vulnerable and open share about such a sensitive topic as religion. I did go through confirmation as a 15 year old protestant and had a catholic friend who did hers at 10. It is such a long time ago but I had a vague memory of the catholic ceremony being somewhat more stern. We on the other hand went to summer camp and had fun and there were never a question of going to hell if your did not believe in the 'right' way. Most of us did the confirmation because that´s just something you did, and you got presents from your parents and a party and yes if you ever wanted to get married in a church you had to be confirmated. So even if I belong to the Evangelical Church I do not consider myself a Christian.
In Finland we have a state religion and somehow I feel that is one of the reasons we have a more relaxed attitude to religion in school, in congregations etc.
Evidently there are the adventists and several odd so called free churches, and yes we have a christian party but somehow religion which is a subject at school is not as inflammable as it seems to be in the USA.
Not even the theological scholars at my University would say that everything in the Bible is facts. And the whole notion of whatever was written so many thousands of years ago, that that would all be facts, well it is very strange to me.
I really really appreciated what you opened up to in your article, beacuse it also explains what is going on in the US and how deep religious beliefs ran from hundreds of years back. The Calvinists, the Catholics, Adventists, Pentecostals... phew...
I remember in the 1970-80 we had young men (probably pentecostals?) coming to visit our school and how odd we all found them. But them being Americans they were also kind of exciting to us in post war Finland.
What a vulnerable and open share about such a sensitive topic as religion. I did go through confirmation as a 15 year old protestant and had a catholic friend who did hers at 10. It is such a long time ago but I had a vague memory of the catholic ceremony being somewhat more stern. We on the other hand went to summer camp and had fun and there were never a question of going to hell if your did not believe in the 'right' way. Most of us did the confirmation because that´s just something you did, and you got presents from your parents and a party and yes if you ever wanted to get married in a church you had to be confirmated. So even if I belong to the Evangelical Church I do not consider myself a Christian.
In Finland we have a state religion and somehow I feel that is one of the reasons we have a more relaxed attitude to religion in school, in congregations etc.
Evidently there are the adventists and several odd so called free churches, and yes we have a christian party but somehow religion which is a subject at school is not as inflammable as it seems to be in the USA.
Not even the theological scholars at my University would say that everything in the Bible is facts. And the whole notion of whatever was written so many thousands of years ago, that that would all be facts, well it is very strange to me.
I really really appreciated what you opened up to in your article, beacuse it also explains what is going on in the US and how deep religious beliefs ran from hundreds of years back. The Calvinists, the Catholics, Adventists, Pentecostals... phew...
I remember in the 1970-80 we had young men (probably pentecostals?) coming to visit our school and how odd we all found them. But them being Americans they were also kind of exciting to us in post war Finland.