If you are hearing it so often, and in so many different places, maybe you need to take a clue.
There is much condemnation of non-Catholics by Catholics on all levels.
Observing that someone is bitter or failed is just that, an observation. It is not a condemnation because it is something you can change.
“Observing that someone is bitter or failed is just that, an observation. It is not a condemnation because it is something you can change”
By that criteria any insult is acceptable to use since “you can change”. How ‘bout “liar”? Is that just an “observation”?
It sounds like a game of seeing how many innuendo loaded statements (”observations”) can be made before being asked to leave the thread.
No, it's not, because when reading just words that are written and not knowing the person or the tone of voice used or other clues that you can pick up when actually interacting face to face, there is simply no way of picking up motivation from the written word. It has to be implied, or projected, onto that person and that reveals more about the person making the accusation than the person being accused.
It reveals the mindset of the accuser because they would conclude that others would do what they would do in a similar situation.
I am not bitter. That would be the result of a lack of forgiveness towards those who offended me and I have forgiven them., therefore, no bitterness.
As far as the accusation of being a *failed* Catholic, that doesn't work either because I didn't leave the Catholic church because I couldn't keep up with the hoop jumping required by it to earn salvation, but because I read the Word of God and saw the truth in it that the Catholic church contradicts with its own teaching.
I suppose that if that makes me a failed Catholic, it's just a label I'll have to wear as a badge of honor.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/forgive
a : to give up resentment of or claim to requital for *forgive an insult*
b : to grant relief from payment of *forgive a debt*
2 : to cease to feel resentment against (an offender) : pardon *forgive one's enemies*
Forgiveness does not entail denial of reality. I can relate the offenses done against me by Catholics without anger, bitterness, resentment, or whatever. Forgiveness doesn't mean denying that what happened really happened, but rather acknowledging the wrong and choosing to not hold it against someone.
I didn't leave the Church for good because or bitterness or resentment or failure, but for theological reasons, that is that the teachings of the Catholic church do not line up with Scripture.
Whether you choose to accept that or not is your business and I can't control that, but I CAN tell you the truth about what I did and why. If you don't like that, I can't help it.