Are you of the same faith as your parents?
How did your upbringing affect your faith?
What was the general faith 'atmosphere' around you as a child?
I ask out of interest and because I can clearly see the roots of my faith in my upbringing. It is perhaps easy to suggest this question is most interesting where parents and children disagree on faith, but the process of growing up within a faith is interesting too. For example - Is there usually a period of questioning and doubting?
My father is Lutheran (pretty straightforward about it, too). My mother just calls herself a follower of Christ, but if you define her based on denomination/path, she'd be closest to Quaker and is of a mystic bent. They were divorced since I was four, so I was raised by my mother and spent vacations with my father.
From my mother (and I also think personality/genetics played no small role), I became very mystically oriented. Started having visions and whatnot when I was very young (about two), and since she always listened and took me seriously, I had no reason to force it out of my conscious mind or pretend I was different. I was not raised to fit into society in any way. She is very much of a "we're not of this world, no need to try" person. I was taught to be responsible and respectful, aware enough of society to navigate it, but keep my distance and honor what was the "real me." The heart of "me," was always my relationship with God, which was not defined for me. So I was able to grow and change and learn over time based on my intuitive spiritual experience, rather than being given a religion and expected to stick with it.
From my father, I developed a love of ritual. Going to the Lutheran church a lot gave me an intense love of tradition, of ritual- especially of communion and group prayer. What the rituals mean to me is different than many Christians, but I still love it. I also developed a love of the small church- I'm not terribly extroverted anyway, so the quiet and small church communities really work for me.
Today, I'm somewhat like them and somewhat not. I go to the Episcopal church and I still love the ritual and tradition and group prayer. It is very meaningful to me and is like moving meditation. At the heart of it, I'm a Christian Mystic. I embrace my experience of the spiritual world and God, and I don't really consider myself any particular denomination of Christian. I'm just a person that loves God and attempts to follow Christ's example. On my own, based on many of my experiences and a desire to incorporate a more structured path to process them, I became a Druid and so I consider myself earth-based spirituality as well as following Christ. The two are not exclusive for me, so there's no conflict. I guess I'm not a Pagan since I'm ultimately monotheist (and panentheist), but I come pretty close and I do believe in nature spirits and so forth.
There was never really a period of questioning/doubting, since I was always encouraged to explore all religions and choose what felt "right" compared to my experience of God. Early on, I began reading works in Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism (one of my favorites!), etc. If you grow up in that kind of household, you can't really rebel. There is nothing to rebel against.
There has been lots and lots of learning and changing over time, as I've explored many different religions and taken bits and pieces of what resonated with my experience of God and then chosen the traditions that fit the best (but still always with changing interpretation). But no rebellion. But then I'm not the rebellious type. I don't think I've ever been integrated well enough into any part of society to try to rebel against it. I just sort of float by doing my own thing, partially oblivious to the rest of it anyway. I've been told by some people that I rebel against mainstream US society, but it is unintentional for the most part. I just am what I am, and I don't think much about how it fits (or doesn't) with everyone else.
