My Race Begins-Part 1

The way we walk out our Christian walk has everything to do with our backgrounds, what we've read, who we've churched with, our perceptions of what God wants us to do, and probably a handful of other things.

I was raised Roman Catholic, but my protestant Grandmother and Aunt instilled in me a questioning spirit toward what I was being taught.  I think that was terrific as it caused me not to swallow everything that I was fed.

I accepted Christ at  age 17 and my life changed in a few ways but not really in a significant way for about a half dozen more years.  By then I had been exposed to the T.U.L.I.P.  and pretty much became a card carrying Calvinist.

At this time I met and married Don, another member of the Calvinist party.  Yes, we were serious members.  I was excited about my faith and tried to convert many people.  I had the truth and I wanted others to have it, too.  I was not shy about it.  I'm sure I turned a lot of people off.  I read my Bible, prayed, went to church and did the basic Christian things.  And I was a Christian.  During the raising children years I was a Dobsonite and Oprahite, devouring their opinions and insights.  I was also doing a lot of my own reading,  in the same vein of thought with some mystics thrown in.

Our parenting was very conservative as were our politics.  We home schooled many years.  But our spirituality was far from the norm.  We read people who opposed the traditional way of doing church, opposed the holidays and even opposed Christian Orthodoxy.  We were open to this because of our Catholic background.  If we had been fed a lot of crap when we were kids, fed Arminianism as baby believers,  we were not about to let that happen as we matured in the faith.  We wanted the Truth, we prayed for the Truth, we pursued Truth.  When you do that you end up with a hodgepodge of beliefs.  

So we have this unusual Christianity within a conservative political mindset.  I have just described to you my life ages 8 to 44, obviously the Cliff Note version.  Hopefully I have provided enough background for, as Paul Harvey used to say,  "the rest of the story".