#1 thing you wish Catholics knew before interacting with you?

  • Thread starter Thread starter MNathaniel
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
M

MNathaniel

Guest
I’m wondering if anyone on these ‘Non Catholic’ boards would be interested in sharing (briefly) both:

A. What is your affiliation (AKA “Muslim”, “Pentecostal”, “Amish” (really?? how are you here?), “Atheist”, “Agnostic”; etc);

B. What is the #1 thing you wish more Catholics knew before interacting with you, or changed about the way they interact with you? I mostly mean in real life, although I guess internet conversation too. But in person interactions are what I’m more interested in.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑

I’m not trying to dig people up to announce a list of ‘complaints’ against Catholics (hoping this can be more about enhancing good will), so maybe even if a complaint is implicit in the background, if this could be mostly framed as positives? What is the single biggest positive change that a Catholic could make when they interact with you, that for you at least might make a big difference? (Obviously not including: “Stop being Catholic, silly! Drop y’all beliefs and believe what I believe instead.”) Or I guess this could even be: What’s something a Catholic has done that you really liked, and wish more would do?

I don’t really have an agenda on this. More, as a Catholic, I’m genuinely curious to learn what non Catholics would find ‘positive’ if I and other Catholics incorporated into our own interactions (or stopped incorporating into our own interactions). I’d like to bring new positivity into my interactions if possible, and avoid any unnecessary negativity I might not realize is impacting others.

Thanks in advance for any responses about what you think would make the biggest positive difference for you, when interacting with Catholics!
 
Last edited:
  1. That Christianity isn’t Judaism plus Jesus and Judaism isn’t Christianity minus Jesus - they’re quite different religions with different foci/preoccupations and
  2. for us, talking about the NT is talking about a literary work rather than scripture or reportage.
 
  1. Non-believer
  2. I don’t worry about whether others believe and do not want them to stop. I just want to know more about why they do.
 
I like your topic, MNathaniel. Thanks for posting it.

I am a Christian who attends a Methodist congregation. Since CAF is logically a Catholic majority forum, I have a taste of how it feels to be a religious minority and how Catholics must feel on a regular basis in a region where they are a minority religion. Therefore, I try to go out of my way to be respectful and courteous as much as possible. Most Catholics I’ve met are good people and nice to me, but I’ve met some condescending ones, as well.

In interactions with Catholics, I appreciate the ones who practice understanding and respect of our faith traditions and see the good in them where there is good, and who don’t condescend and denigrate us as somehow terminally defective in our relationship with God. Most of us love God with all our hearts and sincerely strive to serve Him.

I appreciate those Catholics who seek common ground wherever possible, and who see us as brothers and not religious lepers.

While it is inevitable for some Catholics (and non-Catholics, for that matter) to try to convert others to their faith, I am more receptive to Catholics who show an attitude of respect and display a genuine desire to get to know the real person on the other side rather than just see them as a “target” or “spiritual scalp”. This works both ways, of course.

Lastly, I appreciate Catholics who approach sharing their faith from a positive perspective rather then the negative. For example, I’ve encountered a few Catholics who seem to think there is nothing positive about Protestant faith traditions and that a Protestant needs to be “deprogrammed”, torn down, and start from scratch in their faith formation as if they were a buck private in the Marines.

On the other hand, I appreciate Catholics who approach from a standpoint of, “Here is what I think is good about your faith tradition, and here is where I see where Catholicism can enhance your faith in Christ and help you grow into a deeper relationship with God”.

Thanks again for creating this topic. May God bless all who read this.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for such a thoughtful, constructive reply! I agree and think it can’t be overstated, the healthy and positive nature of seeking to see and affirm the good wherever possible. Philippians 4:8 comes to mind.

I’m thankful that you shared your comment, for others to see! May God bless you, brother.
 
Thank you for your feedback, Kaninchen! May I infer that you are sharing these thoughts as a religiously practicing Jewish person yourself?

I’m actually super interested in what you shared here, because I think I would indeed have previously had the paradigm in mind that (from the Catholic perspective), Catholicism is what happened when Jesus sort of brought Judaism to its ‘fulfillment’ (so indeed a ‘Judaism plus Jesus’ paradigm), and while I would anticipate a Jewish person to disagree that Jesus did in fact do this, I wouldn’t have anticipated that the underlying religious paradigm, as it were, would be seen as totally different from the Jewish perspective.

I don’t know if we should take this off on a tangent in this thread (I don’t mean to put you on the spot to explain Judaism to me, and I imagine there may be other threads already existing on that topic that I can now explore!), but definitely you’ve given me something I’ll think more about, and look into! That is, the way Judaism views itself and views Catholicism, rather than assuming we just ‘disagree about one thing’ (that is: Jesus).
 
Last edited:
MNathaniel said:
That is, the way Judaism views itself and views Catholicism, rather than assuming we just ‘disagree about one thing’ (that is: Jesus).
Click to expand...
Christians tend not to consider what Jews actually believe/don’t believe (except not believing in Jesus) and it’s one of the reasons we spend so much time talking ‘at’ one another.

To borrow from an old idea, Christians spend a lot of time trying to sell bicycles to fish.
 
  1. I consider myself a pentecostal
  2. I wish that they would refrain from believing that I’m possessed by demons. Sure, there are some abusers of the Pentecostal faith, but I’m not into hysteria. I’m not into being slain in the spirit, running up and down a church’s aisles, rolling on the floor, having convulsions, etc. I don’t find those behaviours to be Biblical, so I don’t do them. Worship should not be about getting crazy. I believe that it needs to be orderly.
 
Last edited:
  1. Nonbeliever
  2. Just because I don’t believe in an afterlife does not mean I do not see value in life or am dismissive of friends and loved one’s deaths.
 
A. Agnostic.

B. The one thing that tends to bother me is the suggestion is that atheists aren’t truly happy (which often comes with a side of ‘they may say they are but we know better’). I believe the majority of those who say atheists aren’t truly happy mean it out of kindness and a genuine belief you can’t be happy without religion/God. But I do find it quite off-putting, and I don’t find it ever improves a debate. I wish the one thing people kept in mind is that although I’m not religious, I (like every other atheist I’ve met) don’t think life is meaningless, I don’t exist with no purpose and I am happy.

The most positive thing? I think I’ve said it on these forums before, but the most positive thing I’ve witnessed is simply a person making the sign of the cross in a Catholic Church. I actually found it very moving. “Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary” is very powerful, IMO.
 
Last edited:
This is a great thread! Thanks for thinking it up and thanks all who are sharing in it.
 
Lutheran here.

I wish Catholics would recognize that:
  1. Protestant isn’t a single communion that has split into different groups. It never has been.
  2. that the modifier “sola” has a specific usage depending on the term being modified. For example, under the doctrine of sola fide, the sola means that only by grace through faith are we justified. It does not mean the exclusion of good works.
 
Last edited:
Thank you for the point about “sola”. However, I have run across Protestants who believe that Sola Fide means exactly that - works are meaningless.

Pax
 
A. Eastern Orthodox
B. I can’t think of anything… Wait, I do. I wasn’t brought up in a religious family, had almost no religious education and what I say should be checked as they are information collected by me in the course of the past 3 years or so when God made it abundantly clear that I should return and practice my faith. I say this because some very nice people here sent people to ask me about Eastern Orthodoxy and I was flattered and happy that they did and googled a lot in order to be able to give a good answer, but I know very little especially on dogmas and rules and things that don’t necessarily are in tune with my way of being.
 
Well, I am Catholic, but SOMEHOW, people seem to forget that on CAF. When I go and do something silly like defend Church teaching. That’s what I want Catholics to know, that I AM in fact Catholic.
 
A. What is your affiliation
Click to expand...
Non-Theistic Satanist with some crossover with secular Daoism.
B. What is the #1 thing you wish more Catholics knew before interacting with you, or changed about the way they interact with you?**
Click to expand...
I’d like for people to not assume I’m evil, malicious, or just out to be edgy until they’ve had a chance to get to know me a bit. I hold myself to high ethical standards and try to cultivate compassion. My religion isn’t a joke or a shock value thing for me. A small part of Satanic philosophy is challenging that “judge a book by its cover” way of looking at other people, so I’m not going to hide to protect other people’s sensibilities, but it’s nice when others take a minute to actually see what I’m saying and doing before they decide I’m a terrible person because of the baphomet on my t-shirt or whatever.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top