Posted on 08/05/2010 12:36:10 PM PDT by NYer
Well considering my parents and I have never tried to burn each other at the stake there must be. It took me years to convince them that I didn't believe Mary was my personal lord and saviour though.
At the same time yes, I believe that the Catholic Church is the "true Church". If I didn't I certainly wouldn't hang around with these loons, Ann Rice wasn't entirely wrong when she body-slammed us the other day by calling us a "quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group". I can't remember who said it, or exactly how it was said but whoever said "Protestants are better than their religion and Catholics are worse than theirs" nailed it. It was probably Fulton Sheen.
As a partial aside, I think the real thing about converts is how they talk about what they left behind. I'm the only convert I know who has something less than stellar to say about the Protestantism in which he was raised, the rest of them just gush with how much they appreciate their Protestant roots. It kind of annoys me but I think that's something wrong with me, not something wrong with them.
Now look at the other side, the people who leave Catholicism for some kind of Protestantism. I'll try not to characterise it and just let them make my point for me.
On the other hand, political common ground should be forged among those who accept traditional Christian morality and are loyal to the American people. Protestants certainly deserve most of the credit for founding this country.
You’d think the Bible had never warned of apostasy.
But it’s hardly something to celebrate.
And what do you propose that the priest do? Live at the home 24/7 to make sure that the man doesn't beat his family?
A father that harms his children is in serious sin and would be denied communion until he repents if the mother informs the priest.
Do you think that a man like this doesn't already know that? Or that he cares?
If the father is not controllable by the priest and there is grave necessity, separation and civil divorce is permitted.
Before or after he hospitalizes or kills someone?
Oh please lady. Stop misrepresenting the Church. If your relationship was abusive, you could have had a marriage annulement. It’s not only ridiculous but downright offensive that you would even say the Church would rather you stay in an abusive situation with your chldren being beaten.
Total dishonesty & a balatant misrepresentation of the Church.
Go back and read some posts upthread.
And yet they're all counted as part of that one billion strong.
I think I know which church you are referring to. I had a friend who I took to Mass on the condition that I went to his church as well. (He has subsequently left that church for Catholicism). Anyway, their first order of business BEFORE even a prayer was uttered was to send the ushers around with the collection plate so that they could “wait on you for your gifts unto the Lord”. The pastor then spent about ten minutes giving a dissertation about your “biblical obligation” to put at least 10% of your weekly pay into their collection plate. It became a family operation with the head pastor being succeeded by his two sons & grandsons. It was interesting.
The Bible says it is better for a man to hang a millstone around his neck than to harm a child.
Thanks metmom, my ex would no more obey a priest than he obeyed his commanding officer to pay his court ordered child support. (he rejoined the military after our divorce)
No I did not know he was abusive before we married. Before the boys came along he had never showed that side of himself.
I only need my Savior, not any church.
I would like to share my point if you don't mind. I was raised as a Roman Catholic from birth. I received baptism as an infant, First Holy Communion, Catechism, Confirmation and many years in a Catholic school. I left not because of any of the suspected reasons of offense, or sinful living, etc., but because my heart was yearning to know what the real truth was. Something was missing and I asked God, "If there is any such thing as truth, I want to know it.". It was a simple prayer of a heart that was earnestly seeking him. If he had revealed that truth to me where I was, I would have stayed there. There was NO ulterior motive, only a genuine search for THE TRUTH.
He did reveal it to me and it was in a non-Catholic church, but it was from the Bible itself not some teacher or preacher explaining it. I learned for the first time that I could be saved through Christ's death for me and that he would never cast me out or lose me. No one could pluck me from his hand. John 10:27-30 to be exact. The Holy Spirit opened my eyes and I recognized that it was truth. I had never heard before that there was a personal one-on-one relationship I could have with my Savior. I had never had the assurance of my salvation because I had been taught that you were only as good as your last confession. How I prayed as a child that if I was going to die it would be after I went to confession on Saturday, hopefully after Mass on Sunday, and before I got into it with my brothers or sisters. It was always based on how good I was and never that the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross was FOR ME and that it was by grace through faith not by my own works.
I have no animosity towards Catholics, my own Mother is still Catholic, she lives with my husband and me, and I take her to Mass every Sunday. I respect her personal faith but I will and can never go back to the Catholic Church. I know that it would mean giving up the assurance of my salvation and going back into the bondage of never being good enough and never knowing for sure I was saved - it's too late for that - I know what the truth is now.
People who blame the victim are despicable.
You’re accusing her of something which you have no knowledge of.
The only thing that sounds nasty is you.
And Catholics wonder why people leave the Catholic church.
By the way, your cute little hello kitty rosary is from a pagan website that was created to mock the Church (paganspace.net). It has nothing to do with any faithful Catholic. Our rosary features a crucifix & is very Christ-centered. We focus on the mysteries while reciting the rosary. Nice try, but no score for you. As I said in my last post to you, you really ought to try getting a clue before shooting off your uninformed yap.
I dont understand how this writer can say Gingrich was "leading the impeachment charge". Newt was not on the House committee investigating the impeachment. Whenever he was asked about it he always says "ask Henry Hyde." BTW I wonder how that hopey/changey thing is working out for Mr. Buckley.
Catholicism, Protestantism, Evangelicalism, Anglicanism...
People who leave ANY Christian “ism” for ANY reason other than to cultivate deeper fellowship with the LORD, Jesus Christ are fools. People who join ANY “ism” except for the same reason, doubly so.
In an echo of the Divine injunction to “Be still, and know that I AM God,” the great philosopher and Christian, Blaise Pascal observed, “I have often said that the sole cause of mans unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.”
It is high time we quit disputing between our “isms” and start pursuing Him. During the last 50 years of this argument, active participation in some recognized Christian church has declined from about 60% in post-WWII America, to just 4% in the present day.
Ya think maybe we’ve had our eye on the wrong ball?
Ya think maybe disputing over different “isms” in the face of losing the entire culture just MIGHT rank right up there with arguing about how to arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic??
People who passionately embrace their beloved “ism” crucify one another daily. Meanwhile the culture is diving head first into eternal, flaming Hell. Souls are being eternally lost; hundreds every hour, and yet many Christians believe they have the luxury of time to engage in spiteful, intramural exchanges across the table of sacrament; over the very Body and Blood of Christ himself?
_____
O, Dear God in Heaven! What wretched souls we are! What banal priorities we embrace! How little we treasure what You treasure. How lightly we regard what You hold most dear. Sovereign LORD, strip us of our foolish and stupid arguments. If need be, O God, strip the entire world from our grasp, and leave us bereft of all save Christ. For, in all sobriety I firmly and emphatically affirm that I would rather have nothing at all than not have You.
Come quickly, Lord Jesus.
GOOD POINTS.
Do you agree with me that the Catholic Church teaches that God loved you enough to take on human nature, and then die a horrible humiliating death, to get you into heaven?
Do you agree with me that the Catholic Church teaches that the justified man or woman is not merely a pardoned criminal, but an adopted son or daughter of God, part of his family and his household?
Do you agree with me that the Catholic Church teaches that God loved you enough that, after dying that humiliating death, and making you his daughter by adoption, he gave himself, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity to you as food for the journey?
If you don't agree with me that Catholicism teaches those things, then you left something you never understood.
If do agree with me that Catholicism teaches those things, then what further "assurance of salvation" could anyone possibly want?
And that absolves you of adultery, how?
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