RateItAll: The Opinion Network

I don't personally have anything against the Lutherans, but not my choice of churches.

My background is a mixture of German/Protestant (and some German Catholic) and Irish Catholic, but I was baptized a Lutheran (never confirmed) and that was the church I was compelled to attend as a kid (I'm adopted, and my adoptive parents were Lutheran). Not that I was a juvenile atheist or incipient heathen, but church was not a place I particularly wanted to be, and I never paid much attention to their doctrines, rituals, theological interpretations, etc. On Sunday mornings, I wanted to sleep late, watch cartoons, and play outside with my friends. There's a story I've been told by my family; I don't personally remember it. I was 4 or 5 years old, and was made to attend "Sunday School." In the middle of the teacher's lecture, I got up and starting putting my coat on. She said, "Mr. EDT4, where do you think you're going?" I replied, "I'm sick and tired of this Jesus business; I'm leaving." Not to sound blasphemous, but in retrospect I sort of admire my childish spunk. I think the church was Evangelical Lutheran, and I don't know that it was any better, any worse, any more progressive or regressive, than any other church. I don't remember any fire-and-brimstone sermons (thankfully) but I don't remember it as a particularly positive force in my life either, or as a succor against the complex problems that I increasingly found myself confronted with. When I was approximately 15, we moved to a different town, and the only Lutheran church in the area was Missouri Synod, which was considered much more conservative. The pastor was...how shall I put it?...a little too theatrical and over-the-top for my tastes, and in an unprecedented act of independence, I told my parents I wasn't going to church anymore. I didn't want to hurt them, but I had had enough. I've re-united in recent years with my birth mother, who was baptized Lutheran, was compelled to attend the Congregational Church as a child (as I was compelled to attend the Lutheran), and converted to Catholicism as a teen. I've gone to the Catholic church with her on occasion, and find myself comfortable with certain aspects of that faith, but I won't be hurrying out to convert to Catholicism anytime soon. As I've said, there are certain aspects of Catholicism I'm comfortable with and find soothing (sorry to all the doctrinaire Bible-believing Christians out there, but I think it's more realistic to follow a faith that has some degree of mystery involved in it, a certain enigmatic quality; I mistrust anyone who says, like Dubya or Osama or Jerry Falwell, "I talk directly with God, and here's what he tells me...") There are also a lot of aspects to it that I, as a thinking adult, am very uncomfortable with. I think what it comes down to is every faith has beauty and enlightenment within it, just as every faith has ugliness and narrow-mindedness connected to it as well. I guess the bottom line is that you have to take what you can from any faith that helps you, and make your own kind of accommodation with those portions of it which don't. Simplistic, perhaps, but that's the only path I can follow that keeps me from being a total atheist...

I was confirmed as a Lutheran, so I have a decent idea as to what my particular church was about, I suppose. They had almost a "Catholic Lite" kind of approach, but I saw too many people who go to church on Sunday and then do what they want all week. I was dissappointed enough to leave that church, but if they believe what they say, Lutherans are fine by me.

Well, very close to my belif of Christianity, Norways biggest religon

A pretty decent faith. Pastors tend to fear confronting their parishioners about the truth. They just ignore certain things that should be addressed. The main thing is there are too many Masons in the Lutheran Church. The Ministers know it's wrong but they ignore it. The Masons should be kicked out of the church!

Every time I think of Lutherans, I think of Garrison Keillor. Just a thought.

There seems to be different forms of Lutheranism in the US today. There is the ELCA which has embraced liberalism and this nausiating ecumenical junk, in their efforts to cozy up with the Catholics. Then there is the LCMS, which has clung to (for the most part) its biblical teachings of salvation by grace alone through faith alone. I mostly gave my bad rating because of the ELCA and not the LCMS. I just wonder what Martin Luther would say if he could see what direction the Lutheran Church has taken today?

This is my religion I was baptized into, I find Lutherans on the most part to be a very social, welcoming, and jovial bunch. Some of the things I have run into, I considered wrong, but for the most part they are all a considerably good bunch of people. Have been a part of a lot of Lutheran Churches all over the country, and have always felt good about this religion. It's cool no matter where you go, you get to meet people with similar things in common. One thing I know; it's almost a stereotype, but generally speaking, Lutheran is a German religion, and most of the people there are all German, and so there's a very similar culture and mannerism, between the religion and the nationality that ties us altogether.