you and your family's values

I find that I don't share the same political or religious values of any of my immediate family.
My mother and sister are to my left.  My sister is not religious.  My mother is "new-age religious".

While I am more left than right politically, its only nominally.  I am "a-religious".

The rest of my family, father, brother, step-mother and her children who I grew up with from (my) ages 7 - 19, are all quite a bit to the right, and relatively religious.  One step brother, who is less than one month younger than me, and with whom I shared a bedroom from age 7-17, I would term as fairly far-right in that he has guns and, shall we say, is not a fan of the government.

I also have a half-brother (mother's side) who as far as I can tell has not a political or religious thought in his head.  Of course he could just be hiding it. 

What is strange to me is that, even though we (father, step-mother and that combined family) attended (Catholic) church every week, other than my step-mother (700 Club watcher...) I never really noticed any particular outward religious inclination in anyone else in the family.  But now most are, to varying degrees (not sure about my younger step-brother, to he honest), fairly religious.  Most have families and children of their own.  Only myself (unmarried), my married sister and unmarried half-brother have no children.  The ones that do have children are the more religious and right-leaning.  Is that a coincidence?  I don't know.

My same-age step-brother perplexes me the most.  Growing up he was the, shall we say, least-conforming of the kids.  Did poorly in school, "partied" (alcohol invovled, at least, but I don't think he ever "did drugs"), not remotely religious.  But now he is a gun-owner and has a lot to say about any government involvement in his life.  Not honestly sure where he stands on religion.  I really have only seen him a few times in the last 15-20 years, and while I respect him as a person (he's smart, if not "schooled", and owns his own business), I really can't stand to listen to him "discuss" (rant and rave?) politics, which he tends to love to do.  So I avoid him in general, and feel a bit guilty about doing so...

Anyway, enough rambling.  But if others would like to share on this topic I think it could be interesting.

My family was never too religious. Never the type to go to church on Sunday, even though Ecuador, where I grew up, is like 90% or more Catholic. Nowadays after we all have moved somewhere, my sister in Switzerland is Christian but not affiliated to any specific church. Same with mother here in the US though not overtly so. My dad here doesn't really care much though he believes in a god. I'm the only full atheist here.

Politically, they all are around the center. I'm the only that's fully in the left

My mother was a life-long socialist and atheist. So am I.

Edited by emigre80 - June 19 2016 at 21:28

my father: pretty conservative, very Catholic in beliefs
my mother: more moderate but still on the right, seems to be Catholic but not as devout as my father
my siblings: I have one sister who is more left than the rest, but the others are more middling in political/religious beliefs
me: politically a libertarian socialist, so just about as left as you could be, religiously: agnostic atheist, as far as existential beliefs go I would consider myself an absurdist a la Camus.

I don't talk about my political/philosophical/religious/etc with my family at all.

My parents are extremely religious fundamentalists and very conservative Republicans. So are my brothers, although my youngest brother isn't as much of a Bible-thumper. My sister isn't particularly religious but is a conservative.

I'm pretty much the opposite on all counts, but am generally considered the one who turned out most 'normal'.

my grandmother was a conservative, but she was crazy and not very bright so we never had to pay any attention to it.

My parents are center-left. Both of them were raised mildly religiously (different religions) consisting of nothing out of the ordinary. Though now my dad really doesn't practice at all (except little things like no meat on Fridays during lent) and my mom occasionally attends church when circumstances allow it.

Dad was born in a small oil and peanut town built on fertile and beautiful red earth in Texas. Mom was born in San Antonio and raised in a small Texas oil town. Not the same one as Dad.
He was raised Baptist. She was raised Catholic.

He got a psychology degree from UT. She got a nursing degree from Incarnate Word.
He went on to business school and began working for Continental Bank out of Chicago. Then Trans Union Leasing. Then Gates Learjet. Then another bank. Then a concession supply business owner.
She spent time in the trenches as a dependable emergency room nurse for all her years after graduating, until my sister, and then I, came around. Then she just became a fantastic MOM. Love was never spared in our homes growing up. From either of them.

We were raised Catholic.
Dad got tired of the overbearing dogma and sought out something more palatable. He enjoyed the idea of a connection, but neither Baptist nor Catholic met his need.
Several years after my First Communion, Mom gave up her Holy Trinity card and we all started going to the Episcopal church that Dad had settled into.
Oh, yeah. Somewhere in there my sister and I both spent time in a Lutheran school.

While we were all tied to religion and faith, loosely and comfortably, they had a very liberal approach to raising me and my sister. We were acolytes. We were involved. But religion never guided their and, ultimately, our decisions.

Dad reflexively voted (R) most of his life, while never investing much in politics beyond what would allow his employers to profit the most. But it was also the last lingering part of the ingrained mentality he strove to leave behind in small-town Texas the minute he was old enough. Reagan's second term was his full turn-about. Mom had always been pretty liberal, despite her upbringing.

Suffice it to say, my sister and I are both sensible left-leaning realists with a fair knowledge of, but disconnected understanding of religion.

I think she's still more open to the idea of religious congregation than I am. I despise the idea of organized religion. Faith and religion are not the same. Organizing beliefs as a group is dangerous.

Guldbamsen wrote: My parents come from completely different backgrounds, so I gather I got the best of two worlds. My mother is a country girl with magical powers in the kitchen. She has no degrees of anything of that sort, but she is emotionally wise and tend to look right through people, myself included. My dad on the other hand comes from a long line of theatre/movie folks and has worked with pretty much every interesting Danish actor/director. He reads all the time and that has probably rubbed off to his son. While both very different from one another they've always worked as a team in raising me and my younger sister the best way they could. No religion but lots of ethics and kindness in general. I feel lucky.

so your father have worked with Lars von Trier , 

JJLehto wrote: My mother is so as well, and more so politically. She's a fairly dedicated and unwavering Democrat, voted for Carter both times, and even Mondale over Reagan

No shame there, Mondale was a good candidate.  Dukakis not so much.