Posted on 11/02/2001 5:42:58 AM PST by Brian Kopp DPM
In all fairness, most who say those things are ex-Catholic themselves, so you can't really call them ignorant. They simply look upon their upbringing differently than you do.
LOL! ME too! Of course, according to some here, the fact that we no longer place crowns of flowers on statues heads, or bless throats(I could never figure that one out), or incessantly light candles, simply means that we have lost our minds and never really "got it" to begin with. LOL!
Ah, but they DO imitate Jesus.
Frankly, I find former Catholics to be the most ignorant of the real teachings of Catholicism, and, as you noted, the most offensive. If they knew the faith, they would not have left it. Of course, a large percentage, a majority in my experience, are "emotional," not "intellectual" converts.
Emotional converts are the divorced & remarried, the "Father So-and-so was mean to my dad," "Sister Such-and-such hit my knuckles with a ruler," and those easily swayed by the emotionalism and feel-good-ism of the simplistic false gospels out there since 1517.
Few are truly "intellectual" converts. Few leave the Church after having honestly studied the faith, the teachings of the early Christians, and the historical interpretation of scripture. The honest intellectual conversions by and large go through a one way door, into sacramental Christianity. When you talk to the rest long enough, you find the hurt or the insult or the other emotional aspect that precipitated the conversion. You also find that by offering a resolution to that emotional trauma, you can readily bring them home to Rome.
...What I stated in that post is noting compared to what has been said to me personally and what has been said about my Faith on this forum.
I think the key may be that a doctrinal disagreement should not be with confused with an attack on you personally. But if you feel you are being insulted, then take it like this:
1 Peter 3:9 Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.
or
1 Peter 4:14
If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.
I've had some pretty good knock-down-drag-out doctrinal disputations with my FRiends patent, SoothingDave and Romulus, et al and they have yet to call me a terrorist. I don't say that because you called me any names, but after 9/11 the comparison of non-Roman Catholic Christians to terrorists is too raw to the memory of any "fundys" and "Bible only" Christians who no doubt perished in the planes and towers alongside some good Roman Catholics.
Cordially,
OK, my apologies. Rebuke rightfully made, and humbly accepted. I was wrong, and yes I was being uncharitable and setting a poor example for my Christian brothers and sisters here. I already apologized privately to one of my Catholic peers here for giving scandal by my anger on this thread (no better way to gut your witness and patient efforts at apologetics than to get angry and return insult with insult, as you point out), and he defended you:
My comment: "By the way, unfortunately I really lost my temper on this thread when the Jack Chick brigade showed up. I really blew it. Sorry."
His reply: Kind of got a kick out of it, actually. Diamond is pretty mellow, he isn’t a "Catholics are the antichrist type," but he wasn’t your initial target anyway.
Again, my aplogies,
proud2bRC
Some would say we are waging an undeclared war against Islam, since 9/11
"Diamond is pretty mellow, he isn’t a "Catholics are the antichrist type"
If I were to call Roman Catholics the antichrist then I would have to believe that I've been sleeping with a whore of Babylon for 22 years - "Wouldn't be prudent" (hehehe)
Cordially,
Stopped going to mass when he was in the Navy, got out at his wife's request and moved back to Ohio.
She wouldn't convert, and he'd kind of fallen by the wayside, so they found a little 'church in the wildwood' kind of place.
He went at it with all the fury of the convert; not only abandoning all trappings of Catholicism, but going to church three or four times a week, and eventually deciding to be a minister.
He 'studied' for three months. I can only compare this to mainline protestant sects, which, I am told, require a four year degree, and to Catholicism which requires four years of counseling and psychology studies plus four more years of theology. Needless to say, I had my doubts.
Anyway, he becomes a minister. I was unable to make the 'swearing in', but my brother-in-law gave me a general run-down. Some requisite Catholic bashing, followed by inductions, followed by some faith healing. Did you know that unemployment can be healed? Yep. So said the priestess: "Within the week, this woman will have a job."
Never did here whether that worked or not.
Unfortunately, this new minister was every bit as good a Protestant as he had been a Catholic. Last I heard, he was trying to become a fireman.
Ratzginer always has to get a dig in to confirm our low opinion of him doesn't he? I wonder when he will renounce his obnoxious VCII-era writings about the "senselessness" of Adoring the Eucharistic Host because "God is everywhere".
Here are three Scriptural passages that have to be reconciled:
1) Jesus established a Church that he said "the gates of hell would not prevail against." (Matthew 16:17-19)
2) Jesus told us to take our disagreements to "the church." Logically, this must be the Church that He established. And it must be a visible, discernable, united Church. Christ wouldn't recommend that we settle disputes in an unidentifiable church. And He wouldn't recommend that we go to one of many churches with conflicting doctrines to settle doctrinal disputes, among other disputes. (Matthew 18:15-18)
3) The Church is the "pillar and foundation of truth." This reinforces the idea that Christ would not instruct us to settle disputes in churches that cannot agree on the truth; churches with competing doctrines.(1 Timothy 3:14-16)
Now only two churches have been around since Pentacost: the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches.
btt
BTTT
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