Anyone Ever Feel Like Leaving the Church?

[cbsjrcol]

Yes i indeed have had these thought a lot in the last year. How I long for my Protestant Church. But since hubby is happy in the CC and would not go to another. So I just go and worship God in my old Protestant way in my heart. So no you are not the only one.

Hi,

Just curious…are you Catholic?? I am working with 2 couples…in each case one person is non-Catholic. Both of the non-Catholics are considering entering RCIA this fall…just to get smarter on the Catholic faith (you do not have to become Catholic after completing the classes). Would you mind sharing your biggest reasons for concern about the Catholic faith?

God’s Peace

 

[micahmike]

But who’s putting a gun to your head?

God. It can certainly feel that way when the message of the Church often seems to be “Choose between carrying your cross (missery in this life) or eternal damnation”. I feel for the OP. she has had a hard life, but she has tasted some fruits which she liked - now she’s committed to following the Church, she misses the things she once found happiness in, and has in their place a promise that she’ll get to not be tortured for eternity if she obeys God. This can be very hard to do, especially if you’re not all that certain that Catholic teaching is 100% inerrant.

To the OP. I know it sucks sometimes, there’s no other way to put it. I’ve been there, I am there in many ways, but I’ll pray for you. I respect you enough not to guilt you further by saying “count your blessings” or “it could be worse, your kid could have cancer1” or whatever. I understand, and I’ll pray for you.

 

[tweetymom]

Hi,

Just curious…are you Catholic?? I am working with 2 couples…in each case one person is non-Catholic. Both of the non-Catholics are considering entering RCIA this fall…just to get smarter on the Catholic faith (you do not have to become Catholic after completing the classes). Would you mind sharing your biggest reasons for concern about the Catholic faith?

God’s Peace

Yes I am Catholic, but an unhappy one. The biggest thing I do not agree in a Pope, and non communion for non Catholics. Tha is but 2. Have a few more. God Bless

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

God. It can certainly feel that way when the message of the Church often seems to be “Choose between carrying your cross (missery in this life) or eternal damnation”. I feel for the OP. she has had a hard life, but she has tasted some fruits which she liked - now she’s committed to following the Church, she misses the things she once found happiness in, and has in their place a promise that she’ll get to not be tortured for eternity if she obeys God. This can be very hard to do, especially if you’re not all that certain that Catholic teaching is 100% inerrant.

To the OP. I know it sucks sometimes, there’s no other way to put it. I’ve been there, I am there in many ways, but I’ll pray for you. I respect you enough not to guilt you further by saying “count your blessings” or “it could be worse, your kid could have cancer1” or whatever. I understand, and I’ll pray for you.

SEEMS to be. But truth is truth. The Cross is there. It’s not imaginary.

It’s there whether you choose to turn from it and accept certain prosperity theologies (“God blesses those who believe with Cadillacs and mink coats!”) or not. It’s there for Buddhists and atheists. The Cross exists, be sure of that.

It’s there for our salvation.

The way out of misery IS to count your blessings. Count your blessings and help those who are worse off than you.

God does not hold a gun to anyone’s head. He gave us free will to accept or reject Him.

People sometimes come not to seek genuine answers but to stir up misery among believers and shake their belief.

I do not say this is the case here, but it happens.

 

[ContegoFides]

I haven’t read this thread, so I apologize for perhaps being off point. However, the OP caught my eye.

All I have to say is that nothing, nothing is worth giving up the Faith. The Catholic Church provides the road map and tools (sacraments) for salvation. Leaving the Church is taking an enormous risk with your soul, and nothing is worth that.

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

Great siggy line, by the way.

 

[TedDC]

I haven’t read this thread, so I apologize for perhaps being off point. However, the OP caught my eye.

All I have to say is that nothing, nothing is worth giving up the Faith. The Catholic Church provides the road map and tools (sacraments) for salvation. Leaving the Church is taking an enormous risk with your soul, and nothing is worth that.

There’s a difference between intentionally giving up the practice of a faith which one still believes to be true, and losing belief in that faith (or never having it).

 

[dashso40]

Hello Country singer,
I’ve been where you are. Please don’t turn away from God. To do so will surely mean death to your soul. I know where you are coming from. I was a lot like you, until I let Jesus into my life and I have never been happier and more fulfilled. Do I feel tempted to go back to my old ways? No, when you truly have Jesus in your heart, you’ll never go back… I keep Him all around me and wear a cross and read the Bible everyday. This life we have here on earth is so short to the time we will all one day spend with Him if we believe an follow Him. God bless you

 

[ContegoFides]

There’s a difference between intentionally giving up the practice of a faith which one still believes to be true, and losing belief in that faith (or never having it).

To a point, yes. However, there is always a choice. Additionally, if one is having doubts, then when the asserted risks (asserted by the Church) are infinite, it is necessary for the doubter to learn as much as possible about the source of the doubts in order to try to overcome them.

Note that the OP was talking about losing faith. If you have it, obviously it would be madness to give it up. Only people who have doubts will give it up. What I’m pointing out is that the risk is not worth any perceived reward.

If there are any particular issues that are problematic, I offer to talk about them either here or with private conversations.

 

[TedDC]

To a point, yes. However, there is always a choice. Additionally, if one is having doubts, then when the asserted risks (asserted by the Church) are infinite, it is necessary for the doubter to learn as much as possible about the source of the doubts in order to try to overcome them.

Note that the OP was talking about losing faith. If you have it, obviously it would be madness to give it up. Only people who have doubts will give it up. What I’m pointing out is that the risk is not worth any perceived reward.

If there are any particular issues that are problematic, I offer to talk about them either here or with private conversations.

It’s not that I have doubts; I simply don’t believe much of what the Catholic Church asserts - including the self-serving claim that not believing is a danger to my soul.

I’ll just keep doing my best to follow the Golden Rule (and I have a long way to go in that regard) and leave the rest up to God.

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

I’m not leaving the Church but I am very, very tired of wishy-washy Catholics letting Evangelicals do all the heavy lifting—and then looking down their noses at them.

 

[former_Catholic]

Churches are collectives of people who worship God with distinct spiritual practices. That collective of people is not God. God alone is God.

Connecting people to God via spiritual practice is the primary purpose of any church.
One may choose a social club based on one’s interests, hobbies, social introductions and connections, but ideally one chooses a church according to what group of people and their spiritual practices best support one’s personal connection to God.

In the case of mate-seeking and hoping to find a mate with whom to share one’s spiritual beliefs and practices, one would want to assess one’s deepest spiritual beliefs and practices and choose a church that most accurately reflects those deepest beliefs and practices…
because that would be the church that the most suitable potential mate would have the highest potential of being a member of, joining, or at least not objecting to or conflicting with.

You have a whole lot of beautiful spirit and you have a whole lot of beautiful heart. Choose a church in which you can truly shine that beatiful spirit and that beautiful heart… and God gave you a voice to sing and bless people with too? Wonderful! Choose a church in which you can go up there and sing your spirit and your heart out and shine, to offer your voice to God and use music as it was intended… to bless and inspire people to shine their hearts and their spirits…
and that future appropriate mate whom you pray for will not be able to help noticing you.
He will definitely notice you.

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

I guess your name says it all.

 

[Bruce_in_Iloilo]

For the last month and a half. I’ve been having doubts, I mean serious doubts about my faith (like I have issues with most, if not all, of the Church’s beliefs).

Frederick Buechner once wrote “Doubt is the ants in the pants of faith.”

I love that quote. I never trust anybody who has never doubted their faith, or any of their beliefs.

How can they really understand what they believe without understanding enough of other perspectives to be wooed, at least partially, by those perspectives? Without questioning your belief, how can you be sure that it is right? This is one reason why converts (like me) are often the most committed. They understand other perspectives and have consciously chosen.

Doubt is OK. Doubt is an invitation by God to grow in the understanding of faith and how good, rational, caring people can have different perspectives. Doubt is not an invitation to laziness or to give up. Doubt, good doubt, leads to hard work. One might have to go through a long, dark night of the soul. But through doubt one can come to a much deeper, more meaningful faith. Mother Teresa and many others understood doubt and losing faith, and suffered through it.

 

[KC91]

No Catholic Church = No God

The truth of Catholicism is self evident to any right thinking person who has studied the relevant material even if on occasion they have doubts. Woe to those who lose their freedom by deliberately rejecting truth.

Rome is the only one true Church, joining other Churches for reasons of sociology is schism and mortal sin.

 

[kenofken]

No Catholic Church = No God

The truth of Catholicism is self evident to any right thinking person who has studied the relevant material even if on occasion they have doubts. Woe to those who lose their freedom by deliberately rejecting truth.

Rome is the only one true Church, joining other Churches for reasons of sociology is schism and mortal sin.

Hmmm…let’s run this over one more time for clarity. A race of short-lived hairless apes who have never left their own solar system proclaiming infallible knowledge of infinitely complex truths. A “self-evident” truth no less, meaning that anyone not accepting it is either stupid or evil. What proof do they have to support such a grandiose claim? Well, none, really, at least none that would pass muster in even an undergraduate research seminar, but they have written opinions of distinguished men, which cite older opinions of distinguished men, which cite…well, that settles it, and anyway proof’s not important if you have faith. If I demonstrated this level of reasoning in other areas of my life, I’d be sent in for an MRI and the state would appoint a guardian to handle my finances.

If your own journey and discernment have led you to a particular faith, bully for you, but the world needs no more “self-evident” truths. Self-evident truths gave us the Inquisition and Khmer Rhouge Cambodia. Once someone refuses to accept a self-evident truth, you really have no choice but forcible re-education for their benefit, or liquidation for the benefit of the public good. The missing towers in New York’s skyline are the inevitable consequence of “self-evident” religious truth.

 

[PPeterson]

Hmmm…let’s run this over one more time for clarity. A race of short-lived hairless apes who have never left their own solar system proclaiming infallible knowledge of infinitely complex truths. A “self-evident” truth no less, meaning that anyone not accepting it is either stupid or evil. What proof do they have to support such a grandiose claim? Well, none, really, at least none that would pass muster in even an undergraduate research seminar, but they have written opinions of distinguished men, which cite older opinions of distinguished men, which cite…well, that settles it, and anyway proof’s not important if you have faith. If I demonstrated this level of reasoning in other areas of my life, I’d be sent in for an MRI and the state would appoint a guardian to handle my finances.

If your own journey and discernment have led you to a particular faith, bully for you, but the world needs no more “self-evident” truths. Self-evident truths gave us the Inquisition and Khmer Rhouge Cambodia. Once someone refuses to accept a self-evident truth, you really have no choice but forcible re-education for their benefit, or liquidation for the benefit of the public good. The missing towers in New York’s skyline are the inevitable consequence of “self-evident” religious truth.

the first paragraph was clever and had me thinking “touche,” but the second one falls apart a little bit. i’ll spare you the dorky internet philosopher lecture, because you clearly can figure out why.

 

[former_Catholic]

No Catholic Church = No God
The truth of Catholicism is self evident to any right thinking person who has studied the relevant material even if on occasion they have doubts.

The truth of Catholicism as stated by the official Catechism:
818 “All who have been justified by faith in Baptism are incorporated into Christ; they therefore have a right to be called Christians, and with good reason are accepted as brothers in the Lord by the children of the Catholic Church.”

The declaration *No Catholic Church = No God * is a direct violation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church does not claim to be equivalent to God. Such an assertion would be a violation of the First Commandment.

 

[CountrySinger]

After a lot of thinking, I’ve decided to stay in the Catholic Church. Not that anything has really changed. It’s all about the guilt (go Mom). I would rather jump into a pile of rusty nails and roll around in salt than go to Mass. But I still go.
And now people say “why?”. Well, God (finally) answered a prayer. So I have to pay the piper. He doesn’t give stuff away for free.

Plus, I want to go to Heaven. I don’t do well in heat. Hopefully faith will soon follow.

 

[valient_Lucy]

After a lot of thinking, I’ve decided to stay in the Catholic Church. Not that anything has really changed. It’s all about the guilt (go Mom). I would rather jump into a pile of rusty nails and roll around in salt than go to Mass. But I still go.
And now people say “why?”. Well, God (finally) answered a prayer. So I have to pay the piper. He doesn’t give stuff away for free.

Plus, I want to go to Heaven. I don’t do well in heat. Hopefully faith will soon follow.

Good! BTW, I’m glad you found a boyfriend. Maybe if I think about leaving the Church, I’ll get one too! jk.