Posted on 05/24/2004 9:17:25 PM PDT by churchillbuff
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- As president of the Christian Coalition of Alabama, John Giles is no stranger to a pew. Yet he remembers well the time he got lost in a Roman Catholic church.
"I couldn't even follow the order of service, it was so foreign to me," Giles says of that day some six years ago.
Since then he's found his way and a new home in the Roman Catholic church — a home that might seem foreign to the overwhelmingly Protestant church population of Alabama.
"I have to admit to you that the whole time that I was in that church service, I was reduced to tears, and I couldn't explain it," Giles said Monday in an interview with The Associated Press.
"In fact," he jokes, "you would have thought I had been spending the whole weekend down at the House of the Rising Sun down in New Orleans, that I had all this sin in my life that I had to get out."
In any case, Giles and his wife, Deborah, were received into the Catholic Church at St. Peter's Parish in Montgomery on Easter Sunday.
Such a decision normally wouldn't be a matter of public interest, but Giles says he anticipated the questions that have followed his conversion from the Protestant faith.
"It would be nice if my private, Christian walk could be my private, Christian walk, but it's very difficult in my job for that to be the case," he says.
Giles says he knew the questions would come because as a Protestant he, too, had mistaken notions about Catholics. And the most frequent question he gets from his friends is "why?"
With that in mind he wrote an eight-page letter explaining his reasoning. In it, he explains that he had attended a variety of Protestant churches in Montgomery, including Christian Life Church and River of Life Church.
But once he visited the Roman Catholic church, he found himself in awe of its history and ritual, particularly its use of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch in each service.
Trips to Israel and Rome spurred his curiosity. And the deeper he looked into the faith — which is the largest in the United States but lags behind Southern Baptists and other Protestant denominations in the South — the more he says he realized that many of his beliefs about Catholicism had been wrong.
"There is a perception among Protestants — you kind of have this perception that if you're Episcopal or Catholic, you're not even saved, you're not born again, which is totally a myth," he says.
He recalls one example from the New Year's holiday, which he spent in Florida with the chairman of his board. He had told the chairman of his and Deborah's plans to convert, and he says they were well-received.
"But we went to some other friends of theirs' house on one of the nights we were down there," Giles remembers. "And so we're sitting around visiting and this one lady was teaching a Sunday School class on cults. And she began to name off all the cults that she'd be teaching and named Catholic in there."
He acknowledges that the reaction by his Protestant constituents may be mixed.
"We didn't make this change to win friends and influence people and do it from a popularity standpoint, because we knew that in the state of Alabama, this is probably not a popular position to take in the Christian movement," he says. "So it remains to be seen."
But he hopes they, like he and his wife, will keep an open mind.
"We hope that we could have a small contribution to building bridges where there weren't bridges," he says. "Because Christians are Christians. There's no such thing as Christians and Catholics."
Does the Christian Coalition include Catholic parishes? Are any Catholic bishops involved?
Just a couple of things to know about Catholics. They don't sing well and after Mass, everyone heads out. They have been trying to get us to be collegial for year with only partial success.
there are plenty of online resources on the other end of google...I think you'll find it's not what you have been told, and the Catholics have alot more good answers than Protestants give them credit for.
As one who grew up a Catholic in a small town in Alabama, I find this story interesting but not particularly surprising.
There were several churches in our town - needless to say - and ours was not viewed any differently than the others, as far as I could tell.
Well, except when Kennedy ran for President...
If your are one who searches for truth then Catholicism is the best choice.
As an ex-catholic, Latin-mass saying altar boy - this is good! Too many Baptists and others do not understand the history of their own faith.
I left the Catholic (universal) church because I could not match church teaching with my own reading of the bible at 16 - a la Luther (Bondage of the Will for all those who have read Erasmus and Luther - the greatest, IMHO of both mindsets).
And the more that Catholics understand the Bible, the greater the power of the silent majority. Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, Sola Deo Gloria.
As a non-denominational christian who's parents are catholic and I have been to numerous Catholic Services I could never imagine becoming catholic. I have been to Mennonite Services and Evangelicals, nothing seems to fit me but to me the most confusing and difficult to understand is catholicism, I do not understand how being a follower of Christ would require all the show and imagery the Catholics need.
"But once he visited the Roman Catholic church, he found himself in awe of its history and ritual, particularly its use of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch in each service."
Yeah "rituals" will do that and history, well lets say the history of the Catholic church is quite colorful.
But that's like saying all you need for a meal is crackers.
God is transcendant AND immanent.
What church do you go to?
My mom was a fallen away Catholic who returned to the Church when she married my step father( a Catholic)
I attended some classes about the faith out of curiosity. I was also very impressed by the history and depth of the religion- so I converted.
Hopefully this man and his wife will be able to clear up some of the misinformation that Protestants have about Catholics, and vice versa.
To anyone who would like to learn more about the Catholic Church, a good website is www.newadvent.org. They have the Catholic Encyclopedia on line.
I think Catholics are meant to Gregorian chant. I don't think they'll ever get Catholics to hang around and greet everyone outside the church --- it's too uncomfortable and it feels like people are mostly making sure they saw all who showed up.
"I think Catholics are meant to Gregorian chant."
I agree. I'm always much more comfortable at a traditional Mass. It just feels awkward when I try to sing some song that was written in the 1960s while the priest is praying the Mass, which was established almost 2000 years ago.
In response to your original question, no, I don't think any Catholic parishes are affiliated with the Christian Coalition. I believe there are some Catholics in the Christian Coalition as individuals.
Sola Scriptura bump. It's all there.
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