thread: 2005-08-09 : The New Open House 2: Religion
On 2005-08-10, Jim Zoetewey wrote:
I'm a Christian, specifically Christian Reformed. That's a little known Dutch Calvinist denomination formed by Dutch immigrants to the US around the middle of the 1800's. My family has been some variety of Dutch Calvinist for at least 300-400 years, coming out of what you might call the Dutch Bible Belt (i.e. Friesland).
I'm not sure how to best describe my faith at this point. I was a religion major in college, attended seminary in the hope of eventually moving on to get a doctorate in Old Testament Biblical studies (i.e. Hebrew and the social world of ancient Israel).
As it turned out, I left seminary before finishing and went off and got a second major and master's in sociology. I was particicularly interested in the sociology of religion and social movements, ultimately doing my masters thesis on the Promise Keepers' ideology.
In the meantime, I've done some reading (and taken the odd class about) other religions—particularly Islam, Buddhism, and the various religions of India. Recently, I've been paying attention to neo-paganism.
Despite a great affection for (and belief in) the theology of John Calvin, I'm not particularly dogmatic about it. It's hard to be. I'm very conscious of the many options out there and the methods of creating and maintaining belief.
I guess the upshot of this is that I still believe and intend to raise my children within Christianity, but, I'm quite aware that I could be wrong. It's a risk you take in every part of life.
