Attention All Relgions

[abb]

My friend sent me this e-mail:

"Please get off your high horse and listen. I don’t care what religion you are, what denomination you are, or what you believe in. I can’t stand it when people always tell other people that this is the right or wrong way to believe in whatever god/spirit/belief system/faith. People should realize that everybody has a choice, and there is no wrong way or right way to believe in something. Nobody even knows what they are believing is true or not. So let’s just live our lives and take in whoever wants to be with us, as well as respect the others for what the believe in.

That is all."

What should I say to him?

 

[Genesis315]

Tell him he is doing exactly what he is condemning. He is telling us our way is wrong and his is right. He is telling us not to believe and act as we choose, but rather to believe and act as he says.

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

If I got a letter from a friend asking me to get off my high horse, I would have to assume that I had offended him. If I wanted to retain his friendship, I would have to change my tactics and tone with him. Remember that the idea is to draw people toward Jesus and toward the Church, not to drive them away.

 

[Black_Knight]

That’s a friend?

Anyway…What they are saying is essentially that they don’t wanna hear it. Their prerogative. Just like yours is to express your faith and live it out regardless of other’s opinions.

Respect their wishes so far as it doesn’t infringe on yours and try to be a good friend otherwise.

As St. Francis of Assisi said, “Preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary use words.”

Don’t fail to pray for this person and I suggest The Divine Mercy Chaplet and especially remember them in your prayers after receiving the Eucharist. The Holy Spirit will do the rest.
Blackie

 

[abb]

Well my concern is this: I’ve just recently been confirmed this past April and I tried using what I knew about our faith to help him out, but it seems nothing worked. I was talking to him in person and I finally had to give up and say, just e-mail me if you want to say anything else, so he did. I’m concerned that I don’t know enough about our faith and I really can’t defend it. I somewhat feel like I failed.

 

[dylanschrader]

Tell him, “You’re wrong!” (Just kidding.)

Actually, he’s presuming that faith is unreasonable (it isn’t) and that the mere diversity of beliefs indicates their equal validity. This is very common in a world that is not so much concerned with what is true but with each individual person’s assertions of his own will.

It’s patently wrong that we have no way of knowing what is true or not. When he says this, he assumes that faith is blind. In fact, the Catechism of the Catholic Church not only insists that faith and reason don’t contradict each other but that faith is not blind:

31 Created in God’s image and called to know and love him, the person who seeks God discovers certain ways of coming to know him. These are also called proofs for the existence of God, not in the sense of proofs in the natural sciences, but rather in the sense of “converging and convincing arguments”, which allow us to attain certainty about the truth. These “ways” of approaching God from creation have a twofold point of departure: the physical world, and the human person.

35 Man’s faculties make him capable of coming to a knowledge of the existence of a personal God. But for man to be able to enter into real intimacy with him, God willed both to reveal himself to man and to give him the grace of being able to welcome this revelation in faith. The proofs of God’s existence, however, can predispose one to faith and help one to see that faith is not opposed to reason.

156 What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths appear as true and intelligible in the light of our natural reason: we believe “because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived”. So “that the submission of our faith might nevertheless be in accordance with reason, God willed that external proofs of his Revelation should be joined to the internal helps of the Holy Spirit.” Thus the miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the Church’s growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and stability “are the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the intelligence of all”; they are “motives of credibility” (motiva credibilitatis), which show that the assent of faith is “by no means a blind impulse of the mind”.

 

[b_justb]

My friend sent me this e-mail:

"Please get off your high horse and listen. I don’t care what religion you are, what denomination you are, or what you believe in. I can’t stand it when people always tell other people that this is the right or wrong way to believe in whatever god/spirit/belief system/faith. People should realize that everybody has a choice, and there is no wrong way or right way to believe in something. Nobody even knows what they are believing is true or not. So let’s just live our lives and take in whoever wants to be with us, as well as respect the others for what the believe in.

That is all."

What should I say to him?

Maybe say:

If there is there is no wrong way or right way to believe in something and we should all respect others for what they believe in; isn’t it rather hypocritical of you to start off with “get off your high horse”? If what you state is true and if someone believes that you are absolutely incorrect in your stance; then you, being true to what you believe, should encourage him in that stance because what he believes is no better than what you believe. Therefore you should be encouraging the high horse standers to stand tall in the saddle. As it is you are really standing on your own high horse and looking your nose down on people that disagree with your particular beliefs. So, where do we go from here? Will you be true to your belief system and encourage me to disagree with your stance or will you stand on your high horse condemning me because I don’t see the universe the way you do? The ball is in your court. What will you do?

 

[paarsurrey]

Tell him he is doing exactly what he is condemning. He is telling us our way is wrong and his is right. He is telling us not to believe and act as we choose, but rather to believe and act as he says.

Hi

I agree with you.

Thanks

If one wants to trace Jesus after when he departed from Galilee, please focus your attention on Mary and you would find them both together, mother and child.

 

[Athanasiy]

The Catholic Religion in comparance with other one is like to compare a Doctor

The attitude of the Catholic Religion to the other religions is like the attitude of Doctor towards the ill persons in the hospital.
Some have not very serious diseases , some have extremely serious ones, but the Catholic attitude can not be different.
The Doctor can name the desease , can offer the medicine to cure it , but it is a choice for the ill person to agree to be cured or not.

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

Well my concern is this: I’ve just recently been confirmed this past April and I tried using what I knew about our faith to help him out, but it seems nothing worked. I was talking to him in person and I finally had to give up and say, just e-mail me if you want to say anything else, so he did. I’m concerned that I don’t know enough about our faith and I really can’t defend it. I somewhat feel like I failed.

No you didn’t.

First, you’ve been confirmed and you’re passionate about your faith. That’s a totally wonderful thing.

Second, you’ve planted seeds with your friend. Things may not appear to be going exactly the way you want, but you don’t know that for sure. Give the Holy Spirit some room to work and be available – but not overbearing – to your friend.

 

[cheddarsox]

Well my concern is this: I’ve just recently been confirmed this past April and I tried using what I knew about our faith to help him out, but it seems nothing worked. I was talking to him in person and I finally had to give up and say, just e-mail me if you want to say anything else, so he did. I’m concerned that I don’t know enough about our faith and I really can’t defend it. I somewhat feel like I failed.

Instead of using what you KNOW about the faith, why not use your faith itself?

Don’t argue using facts, figures, dogma, history. Let your faith transform your life, allow yourself to be a conduit of the Holy Spirit. If you know you have truth, let the truth shine in your life and trust that truth to speak for itself.

 

[VociMike]

When he says “there is no right way or wrong way to believe” he is making a statement that some way of believing is the wrong way to believe. Quite inconsistent of him.

That’s the problem when relativists make absolute statements.

 

[VociMike]

Well my concern is this: I’ve just recently been confirmed this past April and I tried using what I knew about our faith to help him out, but it seems nothing worked. I was talking to him in person and I finally had to give up and say, just e-mail me if you want to say anything else, so he did. I’m concerned that I don’t know enough about our faith and I really can’t defend it. I somewhat feel like I failed.

I’d just reply to him that obviously discussions of faith are awkward between the two of you at this point, so why don’t we just avoid that subject.

He will either agree and avoid the subject, or he will continue to bring it up in order to disparage it. His choice will tell you a lot about what is really on his mind in this regard.

 

[Gamera]

My friend sent me this e-mail:

"Please get off your high horse and listen. I don’t care what religion you are, what denomination you are, or what you believe in. I can’t stand it when people always tell other people that this is the right or wrong way to believe in whatever god/spirit/belief system/faith. People should realize that everybody has a choice, and there is no wrong way or right way to believe in something. Nobody even knows what they are believing is true or not. So let’s just live our lives and take in whoever wants to be with us, as well as respect the others for what the believe in.

That is all."

What should I say to him?

Your friend is guilty of doing exactly what he is complaining about. How dare HE tell YOU what to do? What gives him the right to make rules for you? Why isn’t he allowing you to “make a choice” to believe that there IS only one true religion?