What are some of the things you've heard and experienced growing up that...?

Getting sexually molested by a 20 year old man who was high up in the church, therefore protected from any punishment (he had the whole clergy behind him, I had myself, no one believed me)

I thought if I prayed enough, God would make it better, thank goodness I turned around at that point.

When I was just five, some extreme Buddhist person I met told me if I didn't accept Buddhism, I would be thrown into the ocean with a rock around my neck when I die. (Which has nothing to do with Buddhism, but I was five at the time, so how could I know?). Then, from the church and my family, I was hearing about the Hellfire by the hour. So I was very confused and scared that no matter what religion I followed, I would be facing torment after I died. Not a good feeling for a five-year old.

Fortunately for me, there weren't too many ultra-religious types around during my childhood. I grew up in upstate New York, and, while most of the folks we knew went to church...occasionally...nobody was really fanatic about it.

There was/is nothing that made or makes me afraid to not believe in God. What made me believe in Him was a combination of getting to know Jesus through the gospels, and what I learned in tenth grade science class...mainly that energy cannot be either created nor destroyed, and that nothing comes from nothing...

I became a devout Christian all by myself. Indeed, as a teenager, I used to fib to my parents about where I was spending time so that I could take Confirmation classes at the Episcopal Church in my town, and I snuck out of the house to go and see "The Greatest Story Ever Told" when it was up at the theatre in my town. To the day she died, my Mom figured I spent that night with a guy...

Seeing my Brother (when we lived in Alabama) being harassed by the church for being gay and refusing to go to church. During my early childhood I was really influenced by religion. Now I see how horrible and evil it is, but still..