posted
I've started reading Magic Street (just started it, so no spoilers, please!) and there's this bit:
quote:Neither he nor Nadine were much for going to church. When his mother came to visit, they all went to church together, and the kids seemed to enjoy it.
Thinking about this... I was always pretty bored with church as a kid. I mean, I read The Bible Story books and loved them, and tried to be a good kid and all... but church itself was really, really boring.
Maybe it's because we went to a white, middle-class, Presbyterian church... but I was always really bored during the services, I'd try to keep busy by counting how many times the letter 'e' appeared in the program or by tracing designs in the stained glass windows. Even the hymns I found dull -- I loved singing, but hymns were always sung so slowly that I didn't enjoy them much. (I still have this problem... why is it that when you're in the choir, you can sing songs at their normal tempo, but when you're out in the pews, you have to sing hymns in such a lugubrious tempo?)
Anyway, so I'm curious... any folks here who actually DID enjoy church as a kid?
Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I loved church. I wanted to be around people, but had few social skills, so I loved the forced interaction. I got the be the smart girl in sunday school, and everyone knew my mother because she was Relief Society president, so I felt like a princess. On top of all of those rather selfish reasons, I did like the ... idealism of it.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Church could be fun when I was little, but I started to find it boring around 8 or 9, I think. Then I started to appreciate it again—to an extent, anyway—when I was about 16 or 17.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I didn't mind it mainly because after the children's time in the service, all the little kids under a certain age got to go downstairs and be little kids instead of making noise during the service.
When I got older, I didn't mind it because we had a cool pastor who gave pretty good sermons.
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I didn't go to "church", kids only went to Sunday School every Sunday from 10 to 11. It was a lot like regular school, except instead of lecturing us, the teachers would just have discussions with us. My third grade teacher was really cool, he let me build dioramas of bible scenes (my diorama of the burning bush could be plugged into the wall so the bush would light up!), and he was the one who recommended that I be tested for the gifted program in regular school. Other teachers weren't as cool, but most of them let me build structures out of the bibles while we were talking, so I was pretty happy. Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
| IP: Logged |
I used to save up an entire mouthful of spit during the service, then spit out the huge glob when I went outside.
Posts: 3354 | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I really disliked church as a kid (not a lot has changed). I didn't really understand what was being talked about. I didn't want to understand it, it was boring, so I wouldn't pay attention when people would try to explain it to me.
Sunday School was fun when we got to draw and use clay, though.
Posts: 367 | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I liked church as a child. I went with my grandpa (he was very involved) and as part of school.
Posts: 471 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Yes and no. I always was the smart girl in Sunday school, but I hated sitting still and quiet for the service.
I still remember when I was six and Timmy Miller and both got a prize for always memorizing our assigned verses (He because he studied them, me because I was a freak of nature). He always wore these little 3 piece suits, and had his hair parted sharply on the side and slicked down. His mother was one of my mother's best friends. He was my first marriage proposal.
Geez, I've gone into storyteller mode again. Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
I loathed church with the passion of a million burning suns. It was agonizing; it felt like someone was jamming balls of cotton into my ears with their toes.Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
I never went to churh, but do remember getting pretty excited when my next door neigbor invited me to go (I was probably 5). The church was giving away an Atari and bubblegum...Needless to say, I went, and was totally confused. Later that week my dad bought my sister and I an Atari, and I no longer felt a need to go to church. Posts: 1480 | Registered: Dec 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Next question: Do you think your opinion of church now affects your memories of church from your childhood?
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
I loved church. Sure there were occassional boring parts, and when I was very little 5-6, an hour was an enternity generally. But between the children's choir, and hymns, and the standing up/sitting down, I grew to really like it.
posted
Zeugma, that reminds me of what my 10th/11th grade Sunday School class did: we took the description of the building (was it a palace? I can't remember) in Heaven in the book of Revelation and built a model of it.
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
There's a description of a building? Heh, I don't think Revelations was ever a part of our bible study... Everything I know about it is from pop culture references to Horsemen of the Apocalypse and stuff. Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
katharina--I'd agree with your implied conclusion, except I remember very clearly saving up huge gobs of spit in my mouth and spitting them out after the service. I never did that anywhere else.
Posts: 3354 | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I liked going to church because of the reward afterwards: milk and doughnuts! I only went with my great-grandmother, and only sometimes.
My opinion of church is actually the same now as it was when I was a child - I don't get or enjoy the spirital aspects of it, but I think churches can do many good things for the community (like supporting Krisby Kreme and our dairy farmers )
Posts: 2409 | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote: Do you think your opinion of church now affects your memories of church from your childhood?
Nope. I specifically left my original church because I loathed it, the people in it, and most of its ideals.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
I liked Primary (kinda like Sunday School) when I was a very little kid, but back then LDS Primary was on Wednesday nights and we had Sunday School on Sunday Mornings then went back in the evening for Sacrament Meeting. Sunday School was OK, but I hated the evening service. I'd often try to get out of going.
When I was 12-18 I liked Church, but that was mainly because I really liked the singing, and I always felt more socially accepted at church than at school or elsewhere. I often found the speakers boring and repetitive, though.
I believe the like/dislike memories are pretty straightforward, but I don't doubt some of the reasoning for why I felt that way has been colored by my adult views.
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
As for the second question, church, for me when I was younger, was something that my parents basically made me and my sister do (we didn't usually fight it), I had church friends, etc.
As I approached college, it became more of a choice thing and after awhile I decided that the church that I grew up going to just wasn't for me, due to ideological differences and lifestyle choices. But I don't think that has affected the way I think of growing up in that church, it's more affected the way I see Christianity and church currently.
posted
I was once taken to an LDS service when I was about 15 or so, and wow, I couldn't believe how different it was! It was three hours long, Sunday School was only part of the three hours while the other part was in with the adults, and I had to wear a dress! I don't know how you guys did it as kids. Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I didn't mind church as a small kid. I got to take religiously-themed coloring books and color the whole time, and my brothers and I would make each other word searches and codes on the backs of the programs and then try to solve them. Once when our two wards were combined, I wrote a letter each to the bishop and his first and second counselors. The second counselor answered my letter and we corresponded for about six months. He was a really nice guy, and I always liked and respected him.
Church annoyed me though because I was constantly having to be taught by people who didn't understand what they were talking about. One sunday school teacher tried to tell me (when I was ten or eleven) that in the war in heaven 2/3s of the people followed Jesus and 3/4s of the people followed Lucifer, and then didn't understand when I tried to explain to her that that was mathematically impossible. Despite my smartest girl badge, she told me that I was being rude and insubbordinant and had no clue what I was talking about. I had contempt for her ever afterwards because fractions are (at best) second grade education, but then she was never the brightest bulb in the box.
Around the time I turned twelve, I lost patience with church because it was extremely tedious, always the same things over and over and everyone acting like it was brand new. Perhaps, I thought, they didn't have enough memory to realize that we talked about exactly this same thing in exactly the same way four years ago.
By the time I was fourteen, I felt that it was such a waste of time that I would sneak off and write in my journal rather than go to my scheduled classes.
Later, certain conflicts of doctrine really got to me, plus I began to notice that my Mom's religious beliefs were always leading her wrong, particularly in connection with her care of herself and my brother. And I noticed how much trying to be perfect made her feel depressed and how much I felt the same way.
So I stopped going, and it was like being released from prison.
Sometimes I think of going for one service to see if it's like I remembered it, but I don't particularly want to. Maybe if I wake up early enough some Sunday that I'm not working.
Posts: 1751 | Registered: Jun 1999
| IP: Logged |
quote:Do you think your opinion of church now affects your memories of church from your childhood?
No. If anything I generally enjoy church more now than I did then -- I used to find it boring, and now I don't.
However, I don't go to church very often.
Added: For the last year or so I'd usually go with my parents when they were going, which happened periodically. I don't go to church anywhere but the area I grew up in.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
For the second question... if anything, I was spoiled. I've tried going to the church part of church as an adult, and it was pretty boring. Just a reader standing at the front of the room interspersed with singing. I missed the discussions (and the building things out of the books!)
I outgrew Sunday School, but never really grew into church... but I still basically believe in what I learned as a kid, so I just think it to myself. Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I liked church when I was a small kid, then I grew to dislike it from the time I was about 12 until maybe 18. I still went every week, I just wasn't too interested in what was going on, despite my full participation.
I think that the real problem is with the educational theory we have all inherited from the 1800's- namely that it builds character to sit still for hours at a time and listen to people speak. I think that this is actually a pretty poor way of teaching and likely the reason many people dislike school as well.
Posts: 4548 | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged |
quote:I think that the real problem is with the educational theory we have all inherited from the 1800's- namely that it builds character to sit still for hours at a time and listen to people speak. I think that this is actually a pretty poor way of teaching and likely the reason many people dislike school as well.
posted
I never "got" church as a child. I was raised Catholic and just tried to comply with everything required, to invent sins for confession, since I had no concept of what sin meant, and to be still and quiet and not pass out during Mass. (Our buildling had inadequate circulation, and I always would get dizzy and nauseated from lack of oxygen during services.) I found no spiritual meaning or interest in the services at all. I think I was just a little pagan, by nature.
When I was 12 I started going each summer to this Methodist camp which was well-run and great. Each evening at sunset we gathered outside on a hillside with stone benches overlooking a waterfall and sang hymns in a reverent way. It was awesome to watch the sun go down and the spray of the falls in the dimming light, and sing those beautiful simple harmonies of the protestant hymns. "The Old Rugged Cross" became a favorite from then.
On Sunday mornings we had church in a buildling with wooden pews and no walls, with woods all around. The sunshine poured down on the greenery, and birds hopped, squirrels chattered, and chipmunks scurried on each side.
Once every camp session we went to "Wayside", a little spot far back in the woods with a large rough cross and stone benches for pews. Again we sang hymns reverently the whole time and did not speak. I loved Wayside, except for the chigger bites, which we painted with dots of fingernail polish to suffocate the developing eggs under our skin.
Each night there would be programs, often outdoors, sometimes gathered around a big bonfire, several with reverent themes. The grand finale was a pageant in which the search for the Grail was reenacted, with Galahad translated into heaven from a burning bridge holding the Grail, as the climax. It was forbidden to speak during or after the ceremony, before we slept. Instead we again sang hymns at key points in the pageant. The kindest, best, and most loving counselor in the camp was chosen each time to be Galahad, and it was a great honor.
These were my first ever spiritual experiences, the first time I felt true reverence, and the awe of the beauty of the world and the mystery of being. I think the presence of nature all around, probably coupled with the great increase in exercise (we swam twice a day, as well as camping, boating, horses, nature hikes, etc.) as well as the larger amount of sunshine in the optic nerves from being outdoors so much, was what made the difference. That and the true spirit of love and caring from our counselors and camp directors.
There are always going to be good and bad things in life, groups that are excellent and others that are not so good. I think learning to pass over the bad, to leave it behind and just seek and hold fast to the good, is one of the most important things I've learned that helped me grow spiritually. When I look back on childhood experiences, I realize that some things weren't helpful to me, but other things really were great. I used to let one bad raisin spoil the whole pudding for me, but I'm glad I finally realized that I could still greatly enjoy the pudding while leaving the raisins on my plate untouched.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Jacare Sorridente: I think that the real problem is with the educational theory we have all inherited from the 1800's- namely that it builds character to sit still for hours at a time and listen to people speak. I think that this is actually a pretty poor way of teaching and likely the reason many people dislike school as well.
Amen! I have a horrible time sitting still and listening to talks or lectures. I just can't pay attention to someone speaking for that long. I have a hard time staying awake and paying attention through sacrament meeting, and general conference is about ten times more difficult.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I didn't DISLIKE church as a kid. I liked to fill out the kid things, but I didn't understand the services. I liked sunday school, but I didn't make very many friends. I had a good time doing things at my best friend's church, though, they did a lot of fun activities, but I didn't really learn a WHOLE lot.
Nowadays I don't spend much time at church, but that's partly because my work necessitates that I stay up late, and I have a hard time getting up in the morning in general.
My experiences in church services as a kid did little to influence my religion now, but my experience at my church did. The people there are good people, and they created a community. Now I'm closer to agnostic, but I believe that the community created by a church can be a very important influence on people's lives.
Posts: 4816 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
The few times I was dragged to church by some school arrangement, I was bored out of my skull. My thoughts tended to turn to Molotovs and flamethrowers.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I was always bored during Sacrament Meeting in the chapel (the equivalent of Protestant services, I think, where the minister gives a sermon?) ... My parents kept me calm by letting me use the pew as a desk, to draw during the meeting.
However, I really liked going to sunday school afterwards with kids my own age. I was raised to really know my stuff, doctrinally, and it was a chance for me to shine. And since I rarely had many friends at school, it was a chance to hang out with other kids my own age who liked me
To this day, though, I can usually only get through Sacrament Meeting by drawing cartoons to entertain my wife. (The Can O'Hippos I drew for her last Sunday got a laugh ... as did the ad for "Hogs and Dogs Ice Cream".)
Posts: 1539 | Registered: Jul 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I didn't love shul. I didn't hate shul. I was kind of neutral. I didn't understand most of the prayers (in Hebrew), but I liked the soda and egg kichel at the end.
I usually didn't understand the Rabbi's Drash (sermon). Come to think of it, I still don't. It is my goal to grow in my religious understanding so that I can finally understant what he is talking about.
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote: I think that the real problem is with the educational theory we have all inherited from the 1800's- namely that it builds character to sit still for hours at a time and listen to people speak. I think that this is actually a pretty poor way of teaching and likely the reason many people dislike school as well.
posted
I liked Primary and Sunday School, until I was 10 and 11 and I thought it was totally obvious that I was way too old to be in there. When I finally got to go into Young Women's (you have to be 12), I loved it, and loved my entire teenage yeares.
Sacrament meeting was always hard to sit through, though, but like Geoff, I used the opportunity to increase my skills of an artist. I used to write books during sacrament meeting, actually, and illustrate them.
The one exception was fast Sunday. In LDS churches, the first Sunday of the month is set aside for fasting and then rather than a pre-determined program, the service is opened up for anyone who wants to to bear their testimonies. I always really liked testimony meeting, partially because I liked hearing what all my friends and their parents thought about and partially because all the little speeches were short enough to actually pay attention to.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
I never went to church with my family. My cousins however did go to church, and occasionally if I'd stayed over Saturday night I went to Sunday School with them.
Until I was 6.
That time, it was around Easter, and the Sunday school activity was making paper hands to go over your own with big bloody nail holes in the palms.
I had nightmares for weeks.
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Most of the time on Saturday my grandmother would not go to church. But, when we were in New Jersey we had to and when I lived with my other grandmother I had to go. I hated wearing a dress. It was such a relief to get out of that thing. Church smelled cool though. Like nice smelling wood. But the older I got, the less I believed and the more excruciating church became. Especially camp meeting. I hated camp meeting. I hate port a potties. Then there was being baptised, getting water in my nose and having to sing in front of the whole world when I was a little kid. But, communium was cool. We got these strange crackers and grape juice.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
"it felt like someone was jamming balls of cotton into my ears with their toes. " "I think that may be the second-weirdest thing you've ever said, Tom. "
Did it turn you on, too?
And, uh... I don't remember whether I liked church or not. I just remember a lot of random stuff. Someone sneaked in a little plastic gorilla one time (like 1" tall) and I remember them showing it to me. I was like four. I think it was my big brother.
I used to wish we could have roasted chicken skin instead of bread, and kool-aid instead of water. And I liked those circular vents in the ceiling. when we moved to the next place, the celing was shaped like a darth vader helmet in my mind.
when I was a teen until I was 32, I would struggle extra much with evil thoughts whenever at church. But then I found out I had OCD. I knew there was a reason the Stephen King books people used to try to describe for me sounded kind of boring.
Posts: 2010 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I loved my Sunday school teacher and continued to visit her for years after leaving the church. Actually attending church, though, was one of the dullest things I've ever done.
When I was 12 I joined a choir that traveled around the province singing in a different church every Sunday. Over the 5 years I was in it I heard literally hundreds of different ministers and developed a great appreciation for the ones that were engaging speakers who could really reach their congregation (even if they were a captive audience). Which is to say, I've enjoyed some very talented orators, but never been remotely interested in their source material and so remained unimpressed with my time spent in church.
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
While I don't go to church anymore (and don't plan to any time soon), I think my current opinions are more positive about it. I don't want to go to church, it's not a place for me, but that doesn't mean it's not a good place.
Posts: 367 | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I loved going to church as a child (Catholic). Though, part of the reason was that church was one of the few times I had alone with my dad. My mom and brothers never went to church but he would get to play sports with them and take them to games. Church was our one-on-one time.
I never really liked Sunday school but I was famous with our elementary school librarian for constantly checking out the school's copy of Bible stories which I read in bed, under the covers with a flashlight.
I left the church when I was in junior high and am now just becoming reacquainted. I think mass is a beautiful experience and while I can't put my finger on the reason, I always feel moved when I attend. (unless my priest starts hitting us up for money cause he wants to sponsor an anti-abortion billboard. that tends to break the allusion)
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I didn't like it much. It was just too boring for me, maybe I just heard too much about Jesus at school? So I hated it when I was under 10, but around that time I started as an alter boy and for some reason I started enjoying a lot more(here come the jokes ). I enjoyed church then for a few years(whenever my mom could pull me out of bed, for some reason I still didn't want to go).
When I went to high school we had mass on Wednesday mornings. By the time sunday rolled around I was all massed out(TWO hours a week for God?!?! Pshhh! Whatever!), however I did enjoy the mass on Wednesday, but stopped going on Sundays.
During college I completely stopped going to mass. My views on religion started to change. I now don't really practice any religion, I'm agnostic. Whenever my mom drags me to church now(I've moved back home after 2 years of college after accepting a job offer close to home) I'm not too comfortable there. I find the readings and gospel interesting but that's about it.
Posts: 204 | Registered: Dec 2004
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
![[Embarrassed]](redface.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Hail]](graemlins/hail.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
). I enjoyed church then for a few years(whenever my mom could pull me out of bed, for some reason I still didn't want to go). 
