Baptist (Evangelical tradition): I grew up in our faith tradition in a rural area. My family was the church. My grandfather the pastor, my uncle one of the deacons, my aunt the treasurer, my mother the secretery. Everyone else in the congregation lived nearby. There was a feeling of a close supportive community when I was a child, but when I became a teen it felt more intrusive. I believed what I was taught and there was no chance of learning anything different because everyone in the area followed the same basic theology. It was only when I went away to college that I was exposed to different viewpoints. My experience with my religion was both wonderful and terrible. It was wonderful in the joy it brought, but terrible in the oppressive nature of the theology. I still have great respect for the traditions and am still proud to call myself Baptist as part of my cultural identity, but my personal theology has changed considerably over the years to something that is deeper and more meaningful to myself.