Ultimately, I ended up in the Unitarian Universalist Church. It took me months to realize that there wasn’t any dogma, but that it was a place where people with common ethical concerns got together.

There are people there who are atheists, agnostics, believers in god, and believers in Jesus – just not the conventional way. You take responsibility for your own beliefs.

That, of course, was anathema to my dad. He died 18 years ago, and practically on his deathbed, he was trying to save me.

Now, I rarely go to church, but if I go, that’s where I do.

Amen! I am most proud of the fact that I raised my daughter to be kind, compassionate, moral and ethical (and not in the S-Lying-Tology way) without the fear of hell and damnation. BTW, Thanks for writing to me, MK.

hmmmmmmm……..The only 2 I can really speak for is DeNicola’s off of 30ish & SE Powell and Mi Famiglia in Oregon City.

Mi Famiglia is kinda spendy and in Oregon City, but really worth it. They have a real brick oven, which is sorta rare in the Italian resturants I have been to.

I have also heard Nona Emila’s is really close to the type of Italian cooking my family and I do, but never have been.

You are very welcome! Thank you for the kind words!

Hey, next time I’m up there, what’s a good Italian restaurant in that area?

Hey your one of your family’s churches is on my paper rout! Pretty snazzy I must say! 😉

But then again, it is in one of Portland’s upscale neighborhoods. There is a Unitarian, Mormon, and Presbyterian all in this niche of upper middle class wealth!

All the churches around my neighborhood are all Catholic. But then again, I do live on the outskirts of what used to be Little Italy (damn yuppies and their New Seasons and Vegan Cheese and Wine Bars)!

The denomination that my parents were missionaries for was definitely not that strict in terms of dress, and the school my father had attended was pretty fundamentalist, but dancing and drinking were the big no-no’s.

When I was growing up in L.A., my father worked at secular jobs (it’s a long story) until I graduated from high school, then my parents went to Taiwan to resume missionary work. He was still very active in the church and was a deacon. I didn’t face the scrutiny that the Preacher’s Kid did, but I know I was being watched.

I went off to UCLA. Because I was so ignorant about sex, I actually read the Kinsey report. It didn’t give me much knowledge, but it did give me information. It was an eye-opener for me. It was at that time that I started to go to a Lutheran church. That was a HUGE change for me, and liberating. Those people actually danced and drank (in moderation, of course).

The part of the service that that really struck a cord with me was the line from the offertory, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me, Cast me not away from Thy presence” The message of inclusion resonated with me, where what I’d been raised with was of a much more fire and brimstone style.

Interestingly enough, as a part of the youth group, the pastor’s daughter was later the alcoholic mother who started the whole McMartin Pre-School mess. She died before the trial started. I don’t remember her.

When I transferred to another school, I pretty much stopped going to church, but one thing that really affected me was that I met a woman who had been raised an atheist and I found that not only were her morals and ethics better than mine and better than 95% of the Christians I knew, and at the time, I knew a lot of them. I only spent an afternoon talking to her, but I realized that Christianity wasn’t necessary for morality, as I’d been taught. That was really my first guidepost along my path to become an atheist myself.

Of course I was raised that way (can’t you tell?). and my parents’ dream was for me to go to pepperdine or some other church of christ affiliated college. That was before the cult of the international church of christ started infiltrating the original coc’s. Needless to say i ended up at a university that did not require girls to be in their dorm by 10 while boys got to stay out til 11. Also, back then girls couldn’t wear swimsuits without shirts and t-shirts covering them up. girls also had to wear tunic tops over their pants because the crotch is unbecoming. I could tell you much more. But I know you understand and have the same kind of details. i was an elder’s kid, not a missionary kid.

Thank you so much Dodo. I appreciate the info and your tender heart. You are an expert on a fascinating subject!

Indeed. Chicagoans were that way before it was cool!