church

I grew up catholic in Scotland in the 60's and I used to think that children couldn't sin. I was forever naughty, but safe and happy in the belief that all children were free from sin and therefore I could keep being naughty until I was an adult. What I now know is that naughty little girls grow up to be VERY NAUGHTY big girls...

silk

When we were 11 or 12, we were confirmed in to the Catholic church. Part of this is that you choose a saint's name, to go with your own name...to this day I'm still not sure why...I think it had something to do with what God would call you...Anyway, on the day, you had to go up in front of the bishop, state your chosen name, and then he would tap you on your cheek. (again, don't know why!) All the older kids who had already been confirmed used to tell us that if the bishop didn't like you, or if you had been bad a school, he would smack you across the face. Someone told me that one guy, Noel, who was the "bad-boy" at school, got a black eye because the bishop hit him so hard! I really really believed it, and I was quaking in my shoes when it came to my turn, in case the bishop knew about all the times I had been caught talking in class...

Mairin

As a small Catholic child attending Benediction I used to believe that during the ceremony they were burning INSECTS (i.e.incense) and wondered why insects would smell so bad when burned.

MiMi

When I was a kid we all went to a very conservative independent baptist church. We were taught that people of other faiths: catholics, methodists, etc., were wicked and ultimately bound for hell. It was around this same time (i was 6 or 7) we were told the story of Sodom & Gomorah. How they were wicked and engaged in all kinds of immoral sexual acts. Since the term 'wicked' was also applied to other churches, I remember every sunday we would pass this large methodist church on the way home and i would strain my eyes trying to make out the forms of people engaging in a mass orgy through the church widows and thinking how much I'd like to get in there and have a good look! I don't know why but for some reason I was also sure there would be trapeze artist preforming in there as well.

tim

My father (a Pastor) would always talk about the Jews being the chosen people. I never could understand that everyone knew this, yet we were baptist.

I thought that we should all move to israel and convert so we could be chosen too.

TcCoven

I used to believe that religion was something that was in another language. I was raised a Catholic. When I was young it was in Latin at church. My mother is Mexican so it was Spanish at home. It was a long time before I knew otherwise.

Judy

When I was too young to go to confession, I'd watch my parents and others go behind the confessional curtains, and imagined that there were stairways that led down to a dungeon-like large space . . . but I don't think or don't remember what I thought went on down there.

Roger Mexico

I used to believe that an egg would magically appear in one of the special little gold boxes at the front of the (Catholic) church I went to. It was supposed to be like magic. But then I started to wonder if the priest just put it in there when no one was looking.

Anon

I am an Anglican/Episcopalian. When I was little, I thought a lady could not be a priest. I never did see a lady minister until I was in high school, and then again, she was of another faith. When I was in college, the Episcopal church had a lady priest. I was so surprised! I still find it difficult to believe that a lady can be a priest.

Hilary the baker

When I was a child attending Catholic church my Mom would tell my sister an I not to let the communion host touch our teeth. It was Jesus's body and if we bit it we would be biting Jesus and He had already suffered enough when he was hung on the cross.

Annmarie

I used to believe that if I were a bad boy then God would open up this trap door in the earth, hurl me down into the fire, lock it up again, and give the key to my mother for until I was a good boy again.

Kiffin Gish

Someone told me a story once about a bad guy who broke into a Catholic church and stole the eucharist (white circular bread thing). Supposedly the eucharist started bleeding all over the altar. I believed the whole story.

Anon

I never thought this, but when I was a kid a guy my age told me that the New Testament was just the New Testament until the next Testament would be published. Then what we know as the New Testament would become the Old Testament. I asked him he was wrong and asked what they'd do with the current Old Testament. I never got a good answer to that one.

Lee

My six year-old cousin thought that virgins were people who went to Church, and went around declaring that she wasn't a virgin.

Anon