Pastor's Kids Leaving the Church...

[ADoyle90815]

I think one PK that I know has gone Quiverfull since last I heard, he and his wife have had a child every year or every other year since they got married. Basically, that PK was raised fundie-lite and seems to have become more fundie since leaving his parents' house.

My grandpa was a hardcore Catholic who force-fed his children Catholicism and as a result, my dad and uncles quit going to church as soon as they moved out, and now they only go for weddings and funerals. My grandpa wasn't physically abusive to my dad or uncles, but he did force them to go to Confession, and most of them went to Catholic schools. While my dad did get a BA from a public university, he still feels that he was cheated out of a good education as the public schools were better than the Catholic school he went to.

[Jana814]

While my dad did get a BA from a public university, he still feels that he was cheated out of a good education as the public schools were better than the Catholic school he went to.

Interesting. Where I live the schools (public & private) r about the same academically.

[nokidsmom]

I wasn't a PK but my dad was so heavily involved in church council activities, that we had to toe the line nearly as much as the PKs. Especially while he was the council president, now that was a BIG deal. It got old for teenage me really fast and and I got a really good look at the silliness and hypocrisy.

I left the church the very second I left home. I only go back for weddings, funerals, special occasions, the very sporadic church goer that my parents railed against while I was going up. I consider going back every so often but my beliefs have changed so much that there's not very many denominations that would fit anymore except maybe a UU church.

[Mama Mia]

Just from personal experience and the experiences of others I have known and we aren't pastor kids but kids raised with church/God being the very center of life, this isn't really that true. What happens is, is that you get to college, you start meeting people who believe differently than you do, you start studying things from a perspective that you have never been exposed to and then you realize that the faith that you thought you had wasn't really your faith, it was your parents faith. So you either go adopt a different sort of faith that might not include going to church or realize you have no faith at all. And this isn't a bad thing. If the only way a person can keep their faith is if everyone else is doing it so they do it to go with the norm, then the faith isn't really their faith.

That's a very interesting point. It seems, to me, that keeping kids so incredibly sheltered and unaware of other views would be more likely to make them reject their parents teachings once they were finally exposed to alternate views. If you are learning about other faiths / philosophies from a young age it would seem like it would be easier to integrate and adapt new ideas into the views and beliefs you were raised with, instead of having a huge culture shock all at once and rejecting everything your parents ever said.

Don't know if I said that in a way that makes sense.

[formergothardite]

That's a very interesting point. It seems, to me, that keeping kids so incredibly sheltered and unaware of other views would be more likely to make them reject their parents teachings once they were finally exposed to alternate views. If you are learning about other faiths / philosophies from a young age it would seem like it would be easier to integrate and adapt new ideas into the views and beliefs you were raised with, instead of having a huge culture shock all at once and rejecting everything your parents ever said.

Don't know if I said that in a way that makes sense.

From my personal experience and from the stories I have heard from others who were raised like me it seems like a lot of them do reject their beliefs once they realize that the people their parents have been preaching to them about being all evil aren't actually evil. It is like the one Bates daughter not wanting to sit next to someone with green hair. She has been raised to believe that people with green hair will be bad, but if she actually sat next to someone with green hair and had a conversation with them she most likely will see that they aren't bad, hateful people. Which is exactly why her parents didn't want her to do so.

[1004srs]

I am not a PK, but my Dad was fairly involved in our church. I joined the military, went to college, etc...... I am way more religious than my parents. I have experimented with other religions, but Catholicism seems to be the best fit for me.

[dawbs]

I found that PK's are often extreme with religion, once adults. They either stop altogether OR they work incredibly hard to fulfil the role set forth for them--that of full time 'minister' or pastor's wife.

Definitely not universally true, but applies to my anecdata.