Parental Influence on Political/Religious Choices of A2Kers

I had a hard time fitting into any of the choices so I picked other. I'm somewhere between choice one (maintaining both) and four (both are different). It's a matter of degree.

My parents were conservative Republicans by the 1950 and 60s definition of what that meant. They were traditional New England Congregationalists from a Puritan heritage.

I was certainly influenced by both of those things but I tend to be fiercely independent in both my politics and religion. My political leanings are fiscally conservative but socially liberal and my religious leanings are more liberal than the Puritan/Calvinist doctrines I was raised with, although I still tend to be pretty straight-arrow.

My siblings are all much more conservative than I am, and one is a holy roller while the other two are agnostic/atheist.

My parents were only slightly political while I was little, but I guess they leaned towards the conservative side. Since then my mother has become much more liberal but still holds some conservative views. My father... still isn't all that political.

I am much more conservative than anyone in my family.

My parents were very religious while I was young. The older I grew, the more I moved away from religion of all sorts. Eventually, my mom soured towards religion as well. We both still believe in something... just not really your stereotypical religious beliefs. Neither one of us actually practices any sort of religion.

My father is stilll pretty active in his church.

Religion was a way of life during my childhood; never gave it much thought. One day I learned that inhuman humans had killed millions of Jews for no good reason. 'God' had let it happen.
That day I stopped believing in the greatest sham or hoax the world has ever seen.
Since that day I have no religious baggage to carry; a wonderful feeling of freedom.
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My parents did not argue too much with my decision. My son thinks like I do, no problem there.

I was raised by wolve, I mean, southern baptists. On the surface, I have a totally different political and religious outlook than they had/have. But many of my current beliefs are built on things that they taught me -- things they probably weren't trying to teach me.

I checked other. My parents' politics were different, mother a conservative Republican, father a liberal Democrat. I take after my father.

My parents were both practicing Catholics, my mother with a conservative viewpoint, father more liberal. I became an atheist in my early to mid twenties. There were no repercussions, in that my parents were at the end of their lives then, with my father both physically ill and mentally ill, and my mother descending into Alzheimer's. This was long ago. I can only imagine what a conversation would be between them at their best and me as an adult.

When I was in graduate school in Detroit (1969-75), all the people I knew with one exception were either Catholics or Jews.

When I came to the Uni one day, a friend said he was glad to see me and asked whether I now practiced a religion or was I raised in one. I said I did not practice but was raised Catholic. He said that answers his question. I said I was going out and coming back again.

Anyway, we had search out Protestant days and invite-a-protestant to lunch days.

We figured that we gathered together because we were liberal which we were because of our Catholic and Jewish heritages and because both religions -- unlike Protestantism and therefore unlike America -- had ritual.

I was raised a catholic, changed to an agnostic in my mid-teens.

I'm a politics ignorant, mostly because neither of my parents have strong political views and are not tied to a political party. I've just recently started to pick minimum political awareness and starting to form an opinion but don't have one just yet.

So I'm not sure where I should've vote in the poll. I picked other.

Come sit next to me, JPB. We have similar views.

My parents were '50s Republicans well into the '80s and '90s. They didn't keep up with the times. They had typical "I-got-mine-can't-understand-why-others-can't-do-the-same-but-it's-not-my-problem" mindsets which profoundly influenced this '60s-70s girl to adopt more liberal social values while retaining conservative fiscal preferences.

Religion was another matter. Dad was agnostic, Mom was a closeted Protestant. Neither attended church. Mom had been raised by oppressive Pentecostal parents and never wanted to subject her children to the same environment. Her faith was a private matter which she never discussed. After she died we discovered religious texts we never knew she read. Dad was fiercely independent...a firm believer in ruling one's own destiny. I came to religion/church on my own. Most would consider me a liberal Protestant.

I have very similar socio- and political views as my parents. All of us siblings vote similarly on such issues. And, the brothers-in-law have similar views as well.

My parents are both die-hard Republican and devout Catholics.

They are the only Republicans or Catholics that I can tolerate. (Well, my mom anyway, my dad passed on)

You have a mother?

My folks (and brother) and I are all Jews and Democrats.

My parents were the only parents in my elementary school who didn't vote for Nixon in '68. We were also one of the only Jewish families in that district, at the time (they have since moved).

Among my folks, my brother and us, my brother is the most religious by far. He is an officer in his synagogue and they actually go, a lot, and not just on High Holy Days. My folks go less frequently, but still go. My parents and my brother also keep kosher homes. RP and I don't go much at all and are not members of any synagogue, and we don't keep kosher. Then again, we're not raising any kids. And, we're also about this close to being ovo-lacto vegetarians, so kashruth is a lot less of an issue.

I come from a long line of Democrats...mainly of the FDR flavor, and that flavor leaves a bad, bad taste in my mouth....blaughhh.

I am the only conservative in the family, and have been labeled a Republican since I was a small child....I have never agreed with any of them on any subject.

My personal political ideals run about 95% in line with Teddy Roosevelt, and of course I think quite highly of Goldwater.

I'm one who keeps political family traditions, and hold them dear. It means a lot to me.

(I'm also, like my parents, non-religious, but that means less to me, I dont have any combative attitude on that.)

Politics were never discussed in my home. So I suppose I'm different in that I sometimes try to formulate an opinion.

I was raised a Catholic but my understanding of it was that women went to church, but men didn't. Except of x-mas and easter that is. Then, they put a big check in the basket and that made it ok until next year. Boys went but only until they grew up.

I thought everyone in the world was either Catholic or Jewish, no in between. I was 17 years old when I met someone who I knew for a fact wasn't a Catholic. She was a PROTESTANT!!!! We were already friends when I learned this, and I felt like I had, unknownst to me, been exposed to some exotic species.

Until the age of around 14 or 15 I never missed Sunday Mass or Holy Days of Obligation unless I was sick, or the family was on vacation at that time, and if it was the latter, I couldn't wait to confess it. I remember confessing to the priest when I was about 10 that I hadn't been to church for 2 whole Sundays. He asked me why, and when I told him we all went to Florida, he told me that wasn't a sin then.

At 14 or 15 my mother and I both got the flu and were sick for a few weeks. When we got better, she just never mentioned going to church again, so I never went since I couldn't drive. That was my first inkling in all this time that there seemed to be 2 sets of rules.

Although I've never not believe in God, It's really only been in the last few years that I started thinking about beliefs, and instead of just taking them for granted, really started thinking about what I believed.

Actually, it's hard for me to use the word believe, because I don't think anyone can really know what the truth is. It really shocked me, and still does, when I learned that some people believe they are sure of some absolute truth.

Family tradition (both my parents and my father's siblings, and to a lesser extent my mother's parents and siblings) being social-democratic/Labour/leftist..

My reaction to religion was entirely conditioned upon my personal response to the religious experiences to which i was exposed as a child, and although it was understood that i would go through certain motions, i was never told that i should believe this or that, nor was i ever told by the adults around me that they believed anything in particular of a religious nature. I was 13 before i asked any adult in my life about religious belief, and that only represented curiosity--i had already come to my own conclusions.

As for politics, as i've often mentioned, i was raised by my grandparents. My grandfather was a conservative Democrat, and the Precinct Committeeman in the little town in which we lived. This was an overwhelmingly Republican area, but there were enough Democrats on the loose for my grandfather to justify his positions, and he was politically successful in a small town way. I frequently discussed politics and political history with him, even when i was very young. I would say that although i remain non-partisan, my grandfather's conservative Democratic views conditioned my own political views.

My parents were not active atheist, but they were totally indifferent to religion. They put me and my brother in catholic school, thinking the education would be better. But as soon as the nuns caused my brother and me to fear Hell they responsibly put us in public school.
My father was modestly interested in the vedanta version of Hinduism. I took a more active interest in vedanta and then zen buddhism. I am, from the perspective of the Abrahamic religions, an atheist, but my "atheism" is consistent with the indifference of buddhism (and perhaps my father).

My parents were secular Jews. The food in my home was "kosher style" (whatever that means), and my parents followed the traditions of Judaism in a casual way. I was sent to Hebrew school as a child, and, even as a kid, learned some things that did not sit well with me.

I started to question, when I was about 14, although the seeds of discontent with the religion started well before that. At 17 I became an agnostic, and an atheist at 24.

In the last few years, I have realized that we do not really know what is "out there", and although I believe that the concept of an actual god is quite a stretch of the imagination, I am not discounting the concept that there may be some force in the universe of which we are not yet aware.

So, if asked to pin a label on me, I would say, "agnostic". Actually, I had written a thread on the semi-tongue-in cheek concept of an "apatheist", meaning "I don't know, and I don't care", and find that that particular appellation suits me just fine. I find the concept of the "worship" of a deity totally obnoxious.

I was raised to believe that candidates from the Democratic Party were the only ones even worth considering. I was working in a very "blue" company when I met my husband. One of the first things that we found that we had in common was that we were probably the only two people in our office who voted for Barry Goldwater.

For many years, I have found that I am strongly liberal on social issues, and strongly conservative on fiscal matters. Therefore, there are very few candidates whom I can wholehartedly support. Most times, I grudgingly vote for the candidate whose views most match my priority issues.

My dad has been dead since the middle 1970's. I never really discussed politics or religion with him in any meaningful way. Years ago, my mom was a bit disturbed by my stance, but as time went on, it became less and less of an issue.