Post by scottinal on Dec 9, 2009 12:27:05 GMT -5
I've been hanging out here at NLQ for awhile now, so I guess it's about time I introduced myself. For the basics, I'm a guy, 45 years old, married 21 years. I have 5 kids, 4 boys ranging in age from 19 to 11 and a girl, 7. My oldest son has a diagnosis of Down Syndrome. I am an overall geek and IT guy by profession.
Spiritually, I was raised in the Southern Baptist Church and was baptized there (twice, since the first time didn't take). Even though I grew up in the church, I had a pretty profound conversion experience at a Young Life camp in Colorado the summer after I graduated from high school. At the college I attended (a mostly secular private liberal arts college), I was very involved in college ministry and met my wife. And that is when I became a Calvinist, which would end up affecting the spiritual arc of my life for the next twenty years. After college I got married and went to seminary in California. I had intended to get graduate degrees in Historical Theology (Church History) and to teach college, but that didn't work out. I've never been in the ministry. We finally left the Calvinist church a year ago. Now we are on a journey trying to figure out who we are and what we believe and what to teach our children. Suffice it to say that I no longer call myself an evangelical. I/WE have become increasingly liberal over the last 5 years or so and the straw that broke the camels back for me was the election last year, when I got into many arguments with evangelical friends and family. I think I may settle down as a nice liberal open-minded Episcopalian who doesn't believe in hell.
I guess the final question is why I like to hang out here at NLQ. I originally came here at the recommendation of one of my favorite bloggers. Here I found many people and ideas that are a good match for where I am right now and what I am seeking. I love that here you will find atheists and skeptics, pagans, liberal christians and even evangelical/fundy christians, all interacting around the common theme of a desire to live better lives and leave behind the religious baggage/crap that was holding them down and making them miserable. That is exactly where I am right now and I know of no other place like it.
My wife and I were fairly soft complimentarians when we got married but we left that idea behind many years ago and I think we have a fairly egalitarian marriage. I know quite a lot of complimentarian types and even a few QF/P families, but we never got very deeply into that and for that I am most grateful. I consider myself a feminist, but I guess the last thing I want is to root out any remaining vestiges of the patriarch / male privilege that may be lingering / hidden in my brain. I trust y'all to point it out when I am being a dick. Oh yeah, I also want to learn how to raise my kids with the right attitude about themselves and other people who are different from them, to empower my daughter and root out as best as possible any sexist attitudes in my sons.
Two interesting facts about myself 1) I am a triplet and 2) I hope to start blogging at bear-with.me
Scott
Spiritually, I was raised in the Southern Baptist Church and was baptized there (twice, since the first time didn't take). Even though I grew up in the church, I had a pretty profound conversion experience at a Young Life camp in Colorado the summer after I graduated from high school. At the college I attended (a mostly secular private liberal arts college), I was very involved in college ministry and met my wife. And that is when I became a Calvinist, which would end up affecting the spiritual arc of my life for the next twenty years. After college I got married and went to seminary in California. I had intended to get graduate degrees in Historical Theology (Church History) and to teach college, but that didn't work out. I've never been in the ministry. We finally left the Calvinist church a year ago. Now we are on a journey trying to figure out who we are and what we believe and what to teach our children. Suffice it to say that I no longer call myself an evangelical. I/WE have become increasingly liberal over the last 5 years or so and the straw that broke the camels back for me was the election last year, when I got into many arguments with evangelical friends and family. I think I may settle down as a nice liberal open-minded Episcopalian who doesn't believe in hell.
I guess the final question is why I like to hang out here at NLQ. I originally came here at the recommendation of one of my favorite bloggers. Here I found many people and ideas that are a good match for where I am right now and what I am seeking. I love that here you will find atheists and skeptics, pagans, liberal christians and even evangelical/fundy christians, all interacting around the common theme of a desire to live better lives and leave behind the religious baggage/crap that was holding them down and making them miserable. That is exactly where I am right now and I know of no other place like it.
My wife and I were fairly soft complimentarians when we got married but we left that idea behind many years ago and I think we have a fairly egalitarian marriage. I know quite a lot of complimentarian types and even a few QF/P families, but we never got very deeply into that and for that I am most grateful. I consider myself a feminist, but I guess the last thing I want is to root out any remaining vestiges of the patriarch / male privilege that may be lingering / hidden in my brain. I trust y'all to point it out when I am being a dick. Oh yeah, I also want to learn how to raise my kids with the right attitude about themselves and other people who are different from them, to empower my daughter and root out as best as possible any sexist attitudes in my sons.
Two interesting facts about myself 1) I am a triplet and 2) I hope to start blogging at bear-with.me
Scott
