My parents were catholic. Fortunately not the type that talk about religion and impose their views on everyone.

I do not belong to any organized religion.My spirituality is not associated to any creed.

Dysfunctioning personality disoredered Catholics

My dad is a devout catholic..

My mom is a lax catholic..

I renounced catholicism and became a Christian.  because catholicism is a false interpretation of the gospel of Jesus/ The Word of God..

My parents didn't go to any religious meetings or talk about religion when I was growing up. As an adult, I studied the Bible with an open mind and became one of Jehovah's Witnesses. 

(Isaiah 43:10) “You are my witnesses,” declares Jehovah, “Yes, my servant whom I have chosen, So that you may know and have faith in me And understand that I am the same One. Before me no God was formed, And after me there has been none.
(Acts 15:14) Symʹe·on has related thoroughly how God for the first time turned his attention to the nations to take out of them a people for his name.
(Acts 15:17) so that the men who remain may earnestly seek Jehovah, together with people of all the nations, people who are called by my name, says Jehovah, who is doing these things,

Did you become a JW?

Or your own variant of Cristian?

I man I know who is a farrier is JW. Very, gentle, honest, decent man.

When I was looking after Mum in her last 18 months, I was very isolated.

The JW'ds came, and because of the farrier, I invited them to tea and we talked.

This continued fortnightly until my mother died.

It didn't convert me, by I did find the conversations very interesting.

I can understand why people choose to become JW.'

Thank you especially for sharing how your faith changed.

Interesting.

Would love to hear more about that if you feel more inclined.

I investigated the JWs even bought one of their NWT translation.. But no i decided to stay with the Bible and keep to it..  I did not really fin a ""church"" because each denomination had their own stumbling stone doctrine..  I was very interested in a traditional Mennonite church but they are very small in number and non existent in my part of the world..  Anyway i discovered that the Body of Christ.. Code word for the body of believers existed independent of the denominations.. It is a ""church"" of belief / Spirit..

Hello AdamAPAD. They don't sale the NWT. They are free. As far as staying with the Bible, the NWT is a Bible and JW's follow the Bible. I studied out of the KJV when I first started studying with JW's. (At the time I thought it was the 1611 edition but later found out it was one of the later versions, 1769?)

Tex i paid 6 dollars to the JWs that sold their NWT to me at my very door... 

I even discussed predestination and Gods foreknowledge with them.. :)  this was before i had even heard of that guy Calvin and  his T.U.L.I.P doctrine..  

Something ain't right. JW's have never sold their Bible's or any other literature. There is the voluntary donation arrangement if someone wants to donate. What color is your Bible? There was a recent revision a few years ago. If you don't have it, you can get in contact with a JW or Kingdom Hall in your area and get one free.

Bible studies and Bible literature are provided free to the public. 

https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/free-bible-study/

https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/meetings/

http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2016362?q=free+%22bible+literature%22&p=par

15 As Jehovah’s Witnesses, we desire to reach as many people as possible with the good news before the end comes. For this reason, we stand out as unique with regard to the work we do in translating and publishing Bible literature. Millions of books, magazines, tracts, and convention and Memorial invitations have been distributed free of charge. We have produced various publications in more than 700 languages. Over 200 million copies of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures have been published in over 130 languages. Last year alone, we produced approximately 4.5 billion pieces of Bible literature. On our official website, information is available in more than 750 languages. What other group of ministers is doing a similar work?

I am not lying Tex..  The one i got was Blue.. 

They never produce a Blue one that I know of. For sure not in the last few decades. I know that they have had green, purple, black and now gray. How long ago was that?

It's interesting what you say,

because I think historically since the advent of the first Luther in Germany,

Protestantism has valued a believer's personal relationship with God through his or her own understanding of the Bible.

I'm not a believer myself, but I think this form of spirituality makes more sense to me.

Perhaps a part of my feeling about is a reaction to the historical tendency for institutions to become corrupt - not just religion, but any institution.

I person always knows on the inside when they are being truthful with themselves.

probably more then 20 years ago now...  i am 50 now and i was seeking in my early 20's ..

It does alarm me when I see institutions sexually abusing children,

and after being caught, attempting to whitewash and cover it up,

until forced to give evidence, and still not taking action to prevent further damage.

There is something so profoundly wrong with all this

that it amazes me that the CR church hasn't collapsed,

and yet it hasn't.

And so clearly there are other factors that I don't understand.

@hartfire

"""Protestantism has valued a believer's personal relationship with God through his or her own understanding of the Bible."""

close.. but not entirely correct theologically.. What protestantism teaches is that if people read the Bible for themselves then they are open to be lead directly by the Holy Spirit into understanding so that they can truly believe in the real Jesus and personally accept His atonement..   But of course most protestant churches to not actually believe Jesus.. The best thing about Luther and the work he stated was that the scriptures where Liberated from the catholic church and it became available for the common people to have it in their own homes to read.. The printing press invention came about around the same time as the Luther movement and the new movement needed to produce Bibles so that people could see how corrupt and un-christian the catholic church was.. And this was used to promote and justify the protestant movements break away from the catholic church and the authority of the popes..

The very Bible contains the Message that both reveals the falsity of the catholic church and most of the other churches in this world..  The real Miracle of the Bible is it still exists in this world where most churches would really want to alter it and remove verses or add verses.. The JW  NWT is an example of a translation where the leaders of the church have removed verses from the Bible..

Hello:

My dad's was, "I ask no quarter, and I give no quarter".  I'm a lot like that..  My mom just loved me unconditionally, and I love my children the same..  So, it could be said that I carry on my family traditions.

excon

Your parents sound like an interesting double act - such contrast!

I agree with the unconditional love - great path to wisdom and sanity -

however long it takes, which for me seems to be a slow process over a lifetime.

:)

Sorry, didn't mean to imply that you were lying. Probably Green Bible? They used to have a suggested donation for some of the literature way back. Do you still have it?

The KJV used faulty text. Take the Johanneum Comma for example. It doesn't not exist in the older manuscripts like the Sinaiticus and the Vatican MS 1209, both from the 4th century. It was added as a footnote by a Catholic Monk and later copied from the Latin in to a Greek text. Then you have the snake handling Churches due to another addition:

http://answermug.com/forum/topics/do-you-handle-snakes-to-show-you-believe-like-the-kjv-says-you

Agree with you on most of that

except for one point.

Most people in Germany already had a very good understanding of the Catholic Church's corruption before Luther posted his memorandum of demands for change. The momentum of resentment had been slowly gathering for generations and was already a common cause of disputes. The particular issue was the sale of "indulgences" to the wealthy by which the Church granted pardons for sins. The poor could not afford them and resented the rich not having to repent and pay true penance in the form of prayers. They feared that the rich would escape their just deserts in hell, while they might not. Luther's post merely lit the fuse that led to the revolution. Reference, "From Dawn to Decadence - 550 Years of Western Cultural Life," by Jaques Barzun.