Do you regularly attend church?

If you care to share your denomination, that might also be interesting.

For the record, I do not attend any church and consider myself an 'independent, self-directed christian' who is willing to match the actions of *my* life against any of the religiously insane nutters.

one night for choir, one night for handbells and one night for a youthgroup function and 2x a month for Deacons and Sesson, then "Yes" I attend more than 1x a week. Not to scare anyone here, it's a very liberal church and my frequent attendance does not mean I'm a closet freeper or fundie. ;)

.... with nuttery!

Honest religion is completely consistent with, and closely mirrors, honest liberalism.

- one night for choir rehearsal, weekly to sing at worship, one to take my child to youth group, and two different leadership meetings - usually they are twice a month. Some days I find myself making three trips to church between all the dropping off and picking up!

me with a 'your funeral is next' type of look.
Raised Catholic. Seen enough if Church. Hope I don't offend to many but I have some really, really bad memories from those days.

for regular church attendance, and I'm personally not at all crazy about organized religions in general. However, I understand that attendance and faith are important to many people, and so long as they don't judge me for my lack of faith, I don't judge them for theirs.

not completely, but its getting harder to believe. I feel more peace out in nature, in the forest or at the ocean.

But, hey, that's just my 2 cents.

I "attend church" every day.

Wicca?

... some kind of neo-Pagan, though. What I feel/believe has yet to be defined well by anything I've encountered in my wanderings.

I've been to church 3 times in the last 10 years. If I had my way I'd never be there but you have to suck it up sometimes.

For me, church is going to a Slayer concert or an Eagles game.

I'm an atheist. That "pretty much" sums it up.

In the several years I've lived here, I went to church a few times a week. While the people were friendly, they were also distant at the same time. Only socialized amongst the small group who have always lived in this town together. I would join committees hoping to really do some good for the community, only to be shut down without being given any consideration at all. They would call me only if they needed people to cook and clean for gatherings(which was all the time) and while I didn't mind doing my share, it would have been nice to have been a guest at one of those gatherings just once. It's been almost 2 years now since I went there, but I've been to others for funerals, and weddings. That's it.

:rofl:

15 years I was imprisoned in the cult of Christianity by my well-meaning, but like so many others, sickeningly ignorant parents, I find organized religion and Christinaity in particular absolutely evil and amoral. When I step in a church I get the chills. Jesus Christ was a good (and utterly human) man. Unfortunately the McDonald's Happy Meals of Religion that has blossomed up from what he preached is filled with evil, sick people.

Does that count?

I went to church every Sunday with my parents up until I was 19 and left home. I figure that's about enough to last me a lifetime. I know all I need to know to hold my own in discussions with fundies.

in general?

Back in August, the priest allowed some Catholic doctor to get up and lecture us about stem cell research. I walked out but I'm still Catholic and still go to mass.

I attend a Vineyard church. Small-ish congregation, just a couple hundred people. But they care about poor people--we have a food pantry we run. And our pastor has been teaching very strongly about social justice the last couple of weeks. It's the sort of place anybody could come and be welcomed, no matter what they believe or what sort of life they live. You can be real--don't have to put on a show. They know how to really love people without strings attached. They keep things simple--not a bunch of rules. Some people who attend there come from more conservative backgrounds, but the overall direction of the church is definitely progressive. And they stay out of politics, which I also appreciate.

I really love the people in my church. Even the ones I clash with. It's a terrific church. If there were more churches with the same attitude, maybe people wouldn't dislike Christianity so much.

Tomorrow I will take a hike and talk to the mountains like the Native Americans that lived here for over 3000 yrs. I have a relationship with god or goddess what ever though I have no real knowledge of god. To me all of nature is a part of the divine.

I find organized religion a real turn off.

It is a wonderful parish. We really try to emulate Christ in reaching out to EVERYONE. Love, acceptance, and social justice is what it's all about.

Attending mass weekly helps me make it through the week.

as a member of the first-string choir, which sings every Sunday and more often during periods such as Christmas and Easter. We rehearse one night a week and before the main service on Sunday.

I also volunteer in our programs for feeding the homeless and am in the course of a four-year study curriculum for lay people known as EFM (Education for Ministry, although it has no connection with being ordained). It looks at the Bible, church history, and theology from a scholarly and symbolic point of view.

I also belong to a so-called Cross of Nails group (our church is a Cross of Nails Center, i.e. part of an international organization advocating peace and reconciliation, based in Coventry, England) and participate in a "discernment committee" for someone who is undergoing the initial compulsory year-long period of introspection and evaluation that is the first step in being considered for the priesthood.

This adds up to my being in the church building a two to four nights a week, but I attend services only once a week.

I'd like to add that we're not dogmatic (this disturbs some members), and that we're very GLBT-friendly and into interfaith activities. For example, we're sponsoring Scout troops for Somali children, not to convert them to Christianity (their parents would not allow that), but to help them adjust to American life and avoid some of the problems that have occurred in Europe.

implies that I do occassionally (say Christmas Mass or somehthing). Other would also work, but looking at the poll, nobody would see that I was forthright in my "never" :)

Never.

Conservative Judaism. Regularly.

One of those old-line Catholic Democrats like Rose Kennedy.

even taught Adult Sunday School. However, I got to the point that I could no longer square what I read in the Bible with the congregation's stance on *, the WOT, and so-called Republican morality. I miss church

Twenty years hence I still miss the sense of community church provided me. But if it were not for the fact that pastors in my church had not condemned me to eternal damnation for marrying a non-white non-Christian I would probably still be drinking the Kool-Aid. There is no way the most wonderful person I have ever met is destined for hell.

Tithing in the form of charitable donations: substantial.

Prayer and meditation without political interference: priceless.

I respect other peoples' inclination to attend to church, and I wish that non-church goers would get a little more respect in return. Being religious and/or attending church does not make one better. A lot of it is just facade.

That would be PROGRESSIVE Baptist!

also teach Sunday School at my Franciscan Catholic Church. The Church I attend is Liberal. We welcome every-one.

A bunch of judgmental, condescending people whose sole criteria for morality is cigarettes and profanity. I can't stand church.

and i love episcopal mass -- all those men in dresses -- and swinging purses on fire.
all though every one is so anti-incense any more -- i love it.

parading every where with really loud choirs --

it's all just too grand for words!

but I can't find a church that isn't a right-winged mouth piece! So we stay home...

You can come to Ascension Catholic Church. We welcome everyone. Today we are showing the Al Gore movie: An Inconvenient Truth.

but we live in Missouri. You church sounds wonderful though! That's the way a church is supposed to be - welcoming everyone. Hope you enjoyed the movie today.

find a place to worship in. I didn't get to see the movie, but I was helping with our Seniors who wanted to see the movie.

ask them what their most liberal parish is. They'll know.

If your favorite denomination doesn't have a liberal parish, start "shopping" among the ELCA Lutherans, Episcopalians, UCCs, United Methodists, and UCCs. If you want a real laissez-faire church, try the Unitarians or Quakers.

You just have to attend a lot of different churches by trial and error, and eventually one will feel instantly like home.

I'm Catholic...but liberal. I admire women like Dorothy Day or Helen Prejean. I believe in Jesus because of what he stood for, and his sacrifice, but it really doesn't matter to me whether he was born of a virgin, the son of God, or just a mere mortal man. It's the symbolism of what Jesus stood for that really matters to me. I do He would be disgusted by most of what goes on in His name these days, including in the hierarchy of the Catholic church. Although I believe in heaven, the whole thing of getting there isn't big on my radar, it's more about the joy of conducting oneself as ethically and humanely as possible here on earth that matters to me. I respect others relgious beliefs or the absence thereof. After all, none of us will ever know the truth while we live here on earth. All I know is what I have faith in, but I think that's a big difference from knowing the truth (or fact).

I rarely attend mass these days.

I am active because I still have a left of center one in town. If it was a "Catholic Orthodox" one I would probably be doing plan B and not at mass on a frequent basis.

We were going to our cathedral, and we adore the rector there...but because it was the cathedral, we were also subjected a lot to the bishop, and I couldn't stand his anti-gay, anti-female rhetoric, although there are many gay members in that parish, and in the diocese. This particular bishop also acted horribly regarding the sex scandals, even though there were only a couple of instances in this diocese, and they were a long time ago and not on his watch...he really seemed to blame the victims. As a response, many longtime active members have left the church as a result, and I was completely disgusted.

We're supposed to be getting a new bishop as this one is past retirement age. But I'm really afraid in the current climate, and the fact it's a conservative diocese, the new one will be worse than the one we have now.

but not anymore because it got boring after awhile.

Recovering Catholic

And of the opinion that most religion is bunk.

Although "Christian principles" as defined in the Beatitudes are a good starting point for an ethical life.

And I'm Jewish.:dem:

Yep, I try to make most weekends but I do not feel bad if I miss one every now and then for reasons that come up. I usually go Sat evenings and help out as much as I can (sacristan, EM, etc...).

the Episcopalian Church that I went to wasn't that bad.

That was when I had a stable 9-5 schedule and once I was in grad school, I still made it in quite often. Now not so often as I would like to honestly, due to disability and lack of transportation.

I love the Episcopal Church, and am loyal to it, but am kinda smitten with the UMC and liberal RC as well....

I helped elect a bishop, so that oughta count for something and 3 years on vestry and those 8am and 10am services at the altar every Sunday for 3 years...leading the Psalm and the Epistle and the Creed and "The Blood of Christ..." and the nice stately single gulp at the end of the Mass...

The world is my 'church'

My wife brought the baby for the first time. A little too loud for her. But that kid has more people looking out for her, and us.

you will rot in HELL!

I was raised a Catholic, attended a fundie Bible College in my 20s, and now I'm agnostic. And, yes, that is what's wrong with me.

Is the thought so inconceivable?

:sarcasm: LOL.... good point, why can't "No", be an option? and this is in the wrong forum, it's GD, not GD politics, the last thing I can stand is going to church and being browbeat about politics, I don't want a general poll about if we attend being in the POLITICS forum...

I say so-called because there are so many misconceptions. The biggest African American denomination historically has been the Baptists, and that's the church I attended regularly as a kid. But the black Baptists are nothing, politically, like the arch conservative southern (white) Baptists. Martin Luther King was a black Baptist, and I remember how much my church talked about civil rights back then. When I was away and school, my old progressive pastor died and on visits home, I discovered that they hired some money hungry playboy who asked us to pray for president Reagan. After that, I went to my original church only for funerals, etc.

The other historic black Churches are African Methodist Episcopal and some congregations of Methodist, which I've attended usually connected to some community function or another. (What's up with the those Methodists standing up and sitting down all through the service? I hear it was devloped in England in the 1800s to keep people from falling asleep!)

In the last 50 years or so, it seems Pentacostal churches have been much more popular in the black community and they tend to be either apolitical (totally focuses on the charismatic experience) or conservative, although I did like to go to Rev. Herbert Daughtry's very progressive House of the Lord Pentacostal Church in Brooklyn.

I now go to Catholic mass about 2-3 times a year because my SO was raised Catholic (although she spent many years as a Sikh, following a meditation "master" and has returned to attending Catholic mass just a few times a year).

I don't consider the black mega-churches you see represented on tv as having any relationship whatsoever to the historic message and role of the black church. TD Jakes, Creflo Dollar, whatever -- their pigs who preach "prosperity doctrine," which, deconstructed, means "send me money and God will make you rich like me." Ughhhh. Paging Reverend Ike!

I went regularly while I was growing up, though. Attended Sunday school through junior high and participated in high-school youth activities. Haven't attended regularly since then (about 35 years now).

Raised in a non-denominational protestant church.

That's all these churches in my area of Los Angles spit out.

On Sundays, I'd rather sleep in a bed than in a church pew.

Only Christians attend church. You may want to edit your question.

I checked "other". I am a Buddhist (by philosophy) who plays music for a very liberal United Methodist church. They think I'm OK, and appreciate the "classical" church music I provide for the service prelude and offeratory. My musical background is in Early Music/music history, so I really like traditional (18th century and before) Christian music.

Making a "joyful noise" for whoever will listen. Enlightenment through the works of master composers.

into flames.

Actually, the whole thing made me want to vomit. I hate everything about churches -- the musty smell, the awful "artwork," the mass delusion, the sexism, the denial of reality. UGH. x(

kitchen.

"Church, A waste of a good Sunday"


I attend the church of HEINEKEN...................

that's my pew across the way there...it's really a cathedral