Like most of us here, an extensive knowledge of BCV from the CofC. The problem I always ran into growing up was that, for whatever reason, I liked knowing the context and the history of the Bible, and the culture of the Near East and the Greco-Roman world. Seeing the books in their various contexts will eventually drive you Into The World® . I carry a lifelong interest in Bible history and literature, and that of the ancient near and middle east. That's a direct result of all that Bible reading I had to do.
While not growing up in a NI church, I certainly had first-hand experience of the contentious "brotherhood" debate culture, and the culture of reporting on and shaming churches or preachers who had "gone liberal". It left me with a lifelong aversion to seeing and hearing people argue over minutiae and slander one another, and an equally strong dislike of informers.
What is left is really a set of reflexive behaviors: a suspicious tendency, an inclination to having to be "right", and a tendency towards "us vs. them" thinking being the attitudes I struggle with. There's fairly little I carry over with me in terms of theology. I'm not interested in church, per se, and certainly not with the traditional CofC notions of what church is. I have no interest in baptism, IM, inspiration, infallibility, literalism, who can or can't be fellowshipped, preacher or elder authority, denominations, or any of those shibboleths that have defined the CofC for generations.
