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."
You mean purgatory. How about Apocalypse 21:27 "There shall not enter into it any thing defiled or that worketh abomination or maketh a lie: but they that are written in the book of life of the Lamb."
How about Mary in the Magnificat glorifying "God, my Savior" yet the RC doctrine calls her sinless, thus not needing a Savior?
Incorrect. Try quoting Catholic doctrine accurately rather than regurgitating false claims.
There are numerous non-Scriptural doctrines in the RC that puts it outside of Christ's teaching:
More nonsense. You should read all of Scripture: John 21:25 "But there are also many other things which Jesus did which, if they were written every one, the world itself. I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written." Make sure it's the original Bible and not the abridged edited version that came into being in 1611.
By the way, where can one find the word "Bible" in Sacred Scripture?
As a former RCC(sic) you're ignorant of what the Mass is, which isn't uncommon for an overwhelming majority of poorly Catechized former Catholics.
You really know nothing about Catholicism. Catholics ARE pro-Israel.
I assume you mean that Catholics replace Israel with themselves as do some Protestants? I think that is what you were saying isn't it? I agree with you that Israel is still and always will be God's chosen land and people and that we who are believers are grafted in, not replacements.
Try as I will, I cannot grasp the meaning of eating His Flesh, and drinking His blood. I have read a lot on the subject, and I just don't get it! I know you believe differently on this, and I have been trying to understand the difference, but I just can't yet!
Those are Jesus's words to all of us....it just takes a grain of faith....reach out and it will find you.
Hey, we're working on it!
The acoustics in our parish are great, it does get the folks singing (with a little encouragement), and just last Sunday Monsignor preached very pointedly about the folks who show up just before the Gospel and skip out after receiving . . . . :-D
Wow! I thought I was the ONLY one who couldn't make out what he waas saying.
LOL! As an ex-Episcopalian Catholic, this really made me chuckle.
My husband said, since the rest of the Protestants look at us as "Catholic Lite" or "Just One Step From Rome," why not go the whole hog? :-D
- ex-Episcopalian (they got too weird for me.)
It was hard even for his own disciples to hear that from His own lips: "From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him."
Just believe.
"Try as I will, I cannot grasp the meaning of eating His Flesh, and drinking His blood."
Try focusing on Jesus' identity as the Lamb of God. Why did the Israelites in Egypt have to eat the lamb?
In NT times what was implied by eating the flesh of a sacrificial victim? (see 1 Cor 10, 18-21)
. LOL! That's it! I am convinced! I am converting tomorrow! :-)
It was nice how they were all real friendly and greeting each other -- but they did comment to the person I went with that they didn't notice them there at the services last week..... I guess that's not bad but a little different when you aren't used to that. I was always used to being able to --- just kind of be there and leave -- no one pays much attention but there's probably other reasons for that. It seems a lot of Protestant churches have one service where the whole church is there together --- at the Catholic masses you can't assume that someone didn't go on Saturday evening or other time.
thanks. I have reviewed all the posts again and picked up some interesting stuff...
thanks. I have reviewed all the posts again and picked up some interesting stuff...
There's enough good and bad on this thread to keep you busy for a week ;-)
Ping. (As usual, if you would like to be added to or removed from my "conservative Catholics" ping list, please send me a FReepmail. Please note that some of my ping posts are long.)
Pardon my ignorance, but I haven't the slightest idea of what a Noachide is! If you don't mind a brief description?
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