Growing up Catholic, all of the churches had confessional boxes along the walls.
I used to think that the priests changed in them before Mass; if the light was on, that meant "Do Not Enter, Priest is Changing"

K.

When I was maybe 4 years old and attending Sunday School, I thought the teacher was telling us about the JUICE in Israel. I couldn't figure out why the JUICE had anything to do with chosen people

Mark Gould

Through a mental confusion of the Catholic ritual of Ash Wednesday and the bit about "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust," as a kid I thought that the first time the priest smeared those ashes on my forehead, I was gonna die.

Sean

When I was younger, I could never say the word 'Protestant' (don't know why) so one day after service, my mom took me to meet the pastor. He talked with my mom then leaned down and asked me: 'Nice to see such a young Christian!' of course, me being such a big shot, didn't want to be known as 'another young christian'. I was special! I puffed out my cheeks and said: 'I'm not a Christian! I'm a Prostitute!' My mom quickly said: 'She means Protestant'. To this day, the pastor teases me about it.

Whoops

i used to believe nuns were married to jesus and priests were married to mary.

sunshine

When I was 5 or 6, I recall being taught in church about the dangers of drinking and how no one should drink. Nobody ever mentioned "alcohol", though, so I thought everyone was a sinner for needing to drink water.

SUparJErk

My cousin Chris wanted to be a priest because he thought that all the money gathered in the collection plate was his to keep.

Benathonius

Until four days ago I thought that priests just lived in the church, and had no houses. I'm 15.
My mom will never let me live that down, I just know...

Anon

After Sunday School, we would attend "regular" church. The preacher would pass the collection plate for "God's Work." I always believed that our preacher went up to heaven every Sunday afternoon to give the money to God.

Kay Verdin

I used to belive we were thanking God for being so quick to answer our prayers when the congregation said "thanks be to god", becuase I said "thanks speedy god"

Beth

My 4th grade daughter recently spent the night with her friend who is a member of the Church of of Latter Day Saints. She then went with their family to church the next day.
Upon returning home the next day, and knowing that her father grew up in this church (not practicing now though) she asked him,
"Daddy, where you do YOU keep your Book of Norman?"

We are bad parents and still haven't told her the correct name.

aviano_2004

I used to beleive that a catacism(spelling?) was an extremely painful Christian version of a bris.

Mike

My knowledge of other religions was very limited as a child. :) While attending the early years of Catholic Grade School I always assumed that public school children were "Publics"....

Joanne - Chicago Il

Whenever we went to my cousins house we would have to travel over the highway and there was one specifically large and lit up church that always caught my eye and i always believed it was disneyland...meanwhile we live in Windsor Ontario Canada....

Jaclyn

That those names and numbers up in front of the church alter ie:(John 3:16)were of people that had recently died at that time of the day!

Pam

In church when I was little the priest always used to say "hym and hym and hym" I always thought he was talking about some guys so I would stand up and look around for 3 guys at the alter I only saw one guy (the priest) after my mom told me to sit down I would always say "Mom we really need to see the eye doctor..."

Morgan

I grew up in a pretty strict Lutheran church, and I sincerely believed that if I took communion when I was in any way spiritually unprepared, that I would be immediately shot straight through the floor down into hell to burn for all eternity. Right there, on the spot. No second chances. Only a pile of clothes and shoes would remain.

The fact that I had never observed this phenomenon didn't diminish my conviction that it was guaranteed to happen to me.

I never signed up for confirmation/first communion because I figured I wasn't stupid enough to play Russian Roulette with my immortal soul.

I still hold my breath at other people's kids' First Communions.

Anon

As a protestant growing up in a catholic school, I was not used to certain catholic customs, such a recieving first communion around the age of about 8 or 9, (second grade). While not participating, I was required to attend my classmate's communion. When I saw them walk down to the front in white dresses and little suits, I thought the school was forcing my classmates to marry each other! I had belived this until I asked my teacher why they did this. She set me straight.

Anon

Well-actually this was in my synnaguge. I was about 5 or 6 and there were these stained glass windows on the walls featuring the Jewish holidays and the twelve tribes of Israel. Well there was the one of Joseph-which is represented by a tree, and because the tree had sphere shaped fruit of green, pink and purple (dispite not being an evergreen) I concluded that it was a Christmas tree. So I happily shouted "Mommy, Christmas tree!" and she told me to shush.

I still find this to be delightfully funny.

Glowworm

As a child I went to a prodestant church, but I used to tell people that I was a pedestrian.

Megan