Baptist church

[Matthew_P_Muehl]

It almost ended but I don’t want something like this to end it for good this time. Honestly, I don’t think she knows anything about the Catholic faith apart from the slander they taught her at her church. I bring her to my mass once in a while but i’m not sure that will be enough for her to learn about my faith. I have to admit that I myself are a pretty ****** Catholic and have done things that the church should have probably shunned me for, but I try my best at life. There wouldn’t be many things that I know about Catholicism that I could teach her apart from just taking her to a priest or through informative sources online which I have been trying to study daily. I just taught that if she is more of a devout baptist then at least our kids would have a chance at being closer to God rather then me trying to teach the kids about something that I don’t know much about. But then again, maybe that will come with age or when I am actually a father and it will be an instinct to teach them about my faith.

Hello roblox… I would suggest RCIA for the both of you to start with and go from there.
I’m in the same boat with my girl friend who is hard core southern baptist and let me tell you it has been an up hill battle If she is open to RCIA your relationship will stand a much better chance:thumbsup: If not it will be very difficult for you.
Pray to the holy spirit for strength and to open her heart to the true church the catholic church!

May god help you through this…

Matt

 

[crazzeto]

Rob, I think before you take the next step you need to strengthen your own faith in the Catholic Church. I would take some time to study up on Church teachings. I have some resources that might help you:

Free Audio (Mp3)
www.biblechristiansociety.com
alabamacatholicresources.com/

Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths:
amazon.com/Bible-Proofs-Catholic-Truths-Apologists/dp/1933184574/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265983927&sr=8-1

Apologia Pro Vita Sua by John Henry Newman
amazon.com/Apologia-Pro-Vita-John-Newman/dp/145055105X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265983957&sr=8-1

The Catholic Controversy by St. Francis De Sales:
amazon.com/Catholic-Controversy-Francis-Sales-Defense/dp/0895553872/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265984008&sr=1-1

If you can find it, this was a very powerful book which helped start my reversion:
The Mass: A Study of the Roman Liturgy
amazon.com/Mass-Study-Roman-Liturgy/dp/B001EU73WI/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265984084&sr=1-8

You might want to try www.abebooks.com
abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&tn=The+Mass%3A+A+Study+of+Roman+Liturgy&x=0&y=0

While at the office, I suggest you plug in your earphones, and listen to EWTN (www.ewtn.com) weekdays particularly from 3pm-5pm for Open Line.

That should be a good primer to get you going on learning your faith. Don’t take your girl friends baptist minister’s word for it that we have it wrong, because we don’t and we can prove it. I would also exhort you to become more active here, maybe follow some discussions and jump in when you have questions or thoughts.

God bless,

 

[twiggymoo]

The one thing she did say is that she doesn’t disagree with the teachings at my mass. But the one thing that is that she doesn’t like is the whole ritualistic function of mass, she much prefers her church were the pastor comes in and say’s “I was going to preach about this topic but the holy spirit blew another topic my way and told me I should preach this instead”. She thinks its way more personal then at a Catholic church, so it will definately be a hard time overcoming this. But I will def. be praying hard about it.

…And who can argue with the Holy Spirit!!! I attend a fundamentalist Independent Baptist Anti-Catholic Church. The pastor and several leaders there are former Catholics and they make sure that all know how lost Catholics are. On my first Sunday there, the pastor pulled the Holy Spirit card out by saying he was going to preach that Sunday on the Holy Spirit, but was “lead” to preach about how God lead him out of the Catholic Church. He didn’t know me from Adam. Could God be speaking to me? I had been looking across the Tiber for over 12 years at that point and for a moment thought maybe God was trying to tell me something. But when I see the fruits of that preaching and that belief system, and attend their fellowships, most of the time it’s a bragging fest. They talk about how they love but I see very little of it. A week or so before that Sunday, I stopped at a Safeway store to pickup some coffee cream - on my way through the parking lot, this old lady appeared in front of me and blocked my path - she had something in her hand and forced it into mine, I said no thanks, but she shoved it back to me without a word. She moved almost like a machine and didn’t seem “human”, then she disappeared. What she gave me was a Chick tract. Chick tracts are anti-Catholic. So there I was in that Sunday morning service, listening to how God lead the pastor out of the Catholic Church as a high school teenager. He’d just finished the Stations of the Cross and had to walk home on a long lonely road - a thunderstorm came up and frightened him - he thought if he’d died or got struck by lightning, he didn’t know if he was going to heaven or hell. Then after that, he went to a baptist revival and got saved and then “knew” he was saved and going to heaven.
I deduced that that lady with the tract was not human and sent to keep me from the True Church and that the pastor wasn’t lead by the Holy Spirit to preach about how “God” lead him out of the Church - because much of what he preaches is demogoguery. Meaning that he preaches against the sins of others outside the Church and incites passion and emotion in the congregation. I can’t believe the Holy Spirit inspires that. The Church is also in a financial crisis - they had a major building project a few years ago and now are obsessed with paying off the mortgage. Giving is always under budget and hardly a Sunday goes by that he doesn’t preach on giving. When he’s not preaching on giving, he’s preaching on boycotting Pepsi. A couple of years ago, they called in the big guns, a consulting firm to rally people to give and dictated ways we can give (selling our goods, etc…) and they called the program “Greater Works”. They put up a big poster in the front of the “sanctuary” that said “Greater Works”. And now, Greater Works is all about giving and not about the works that Christ did on earth. Greater works is paying off the mortgage. We missed Christmas in a place where it should have been most prominent - in the Church. There was no Christmas story, no Angel Annunciation, no Mary, no Manger, no Magnificat, no Joseph, just sermons on giving.
It has gotten to a point where the people that go there are merely a means to an end. Were they ever fed spiritually?

 

[Jon_Hus]

twiggymoo,

Could you do us all a favor and condense your thoughful post into a few short sentences that would be useful in helping the OP with his decisions?

 

[crazzeto]

@twiggymoo, I recommend the same books to you

 

[twiggymoo]

twiggymoo,

Could you do us all a favor and condense your thoughful post into a few short sentences that would be useful in helping the OP with his decisions?

Jon,
Here is the short for OP- Baptists and Catholics are not compatible.

I know I went off in a tangent - sorry. But if OP intends a future with this Baptist lady - he has to know it will be very difficult unless they come to terms and he gets serious about his Catholic faith or goes over to the Baptist side.

 

[Jolly_Joe]

Rob,

I would suggest that you and your girlfriend have a bunch of work to do. If you aren’t willing to do the work then you aren’t ready for marriage to her.

The two of you need to spend a time of intense study together concerning what the two of you believe.

And you need to study especially the areas of disagreement and to reach a consensus on them.

If you cannot reach consensus, then you shouldn’t marry.

The very bad tendency is to gloss over disagreement and pretend it doesn’t matter, but it does. It’s scary because you like each other and disagreement threatens your relationship and so it’s easy to ignore it for now.

But the problem that comes is children. It’s is very destructive for children to have a Father’s church and a Mother’s church. They tend to think of church then as a social thing you inherit and not as something that is true. It’s really very destructive of their faith.

Sure there are some cases that turn out okay, but do you want to enter into a relationship where the chances are your children will not remain in any church when they grow up? That’s what a Baptist-Catholic union really tends to result in.

So there are a bunch of hurls and the odds of continuing in the relationship are not really good, but now is the time to deal with it. If either of you refuse to deal with it, that’s the end, walk away.

 

[Roblox84]

Roblox84,
Ok, I think I see some of the problem here.
It sounds like you don’t know a lot of what the Catholic Church teaches, even though you’re Catholic.
So here’s what I would do if I were you, starting tomorrow.
Go to a local Catholic bookstore and get the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults. It’s a big red book. Read it asap It’s easy to follow and will give you what you need to know about the Catholic Church, all the basic stuff.

Here's some other stuff you need to be aware of as a Catholic considering marrying a non Catholic. 
1- You, being a Catholic male, are supposed to be the spiritual head of the family, meaning it's your responsibility to spiritually guide your wife in the Catholic faith, and raise your kids Catholic. 
2- You won't be able to baptize your future children Catholic unless both you and your wife promise that you will do all in your power to raise those children in the Catholic faith, without that, it's very possible that your request to have the children baptized Catholic will be denied. 
3- Your marriage will be very hard on both you, your future wife, and any future children. Let me explain: You will be arguing about faith a lot, because of what she's been taught and all of her and her churches misconceptions, and because of that, any children you have will most likely be highly confused, and could reject God all together. I've heard of this happening A LOT on this forum with other couples in your situation. I'm 'kind of' in your situation now with me being Catholic and my husband non Catholic, however he's not a believer at all.. but even the two of us are having an extremely hard time. 
4- Being a Catholic, you should be attending Mass every Sunday, if you haven't been you need to go to Confession as this is a mortal sin. God loves you so much and wants you in His presence :)
5- You being a Catholic, need to marry in the Catholic Church if you're going to marry her, or you're not having the Sacrament, only a civil marriage, and your marriage, according to the Church wouldn't be considered 'valid', until you do it before a priest.

Take heart though, it sounds like you are confused, and just need some instruction
Start simple, go get the book above, read it, maybe even have your gf read it (it may just lead her to the Catholic Church), then go to Confession, and also speak with your priest about all of this, he’ll help you get through it in the easiest way possible
If you need anyone to talk to feel free to talk to me, and I’m sure there are others here that would help you out as well, but make sure you speak with your priest about all of this also.

edit-to correct spelling

Thanks for you advice and willingness to help me out. I noticed online that when many Catholic peoples faith is challenged or they are just with someone that is of a different faith that tells us what we do is wrong, it just brings the Catholic person closer to their religion. As with myself, i’ve been studying about it day by day because after going to that baptist church I just had a feeling inside me that there was something just not right with the pastors teachings and that alot of the sermons contradicted the bible. All I can say is just that boy i’m glad i’m Catholic. Anyway, I will have to talk to the priest at my church and also tell my girlfriend that the kids will have to be raised Catholic. I can get pretty argumentative and I just hope that I can somehow just be more milder about this. Usually when I talk to her about her religion it might come of as i’m bashing her faith. And hopefully I can find a way to talk about it so it doesn’t make it so obvious that i’m telling her everything she has been taught in her church is wrong. Maybe I could just tell her that if I marry outside the church then it’s not considered a real marriage, or something of that nature and hopefully that would change her mind.

 

[Roblox84]

I see this more from the Baptist prespective. One of the previous catholic posters has it right, the man is the spiritual head of the home. True, but in practice in todays society the woman holds all the cards. You sir are making a huge mistake trying to make this relationship work. Not that I care mind you but you and the lovely lady are miles apart. Based on what you are saying and I admire your honesty by the way neither of you intend to budge. Put kids and family pressures into the mix (grandparents and so forth) and you will have one unhappy marrage and family life.

Don’t underestimate how big of a deal this will become for you two. In the end, your proposed wife will win this battle. You will be paying child support, she will raise the kids outside of the catholic church, except for the once a month you get them for visitation. No one will be on speaking terms. Based on your statements, your proposed wife is considerably stronger in her faith than you are, not trying to insult you, just being honest. There is no simple 1, 2, 3 sit down with her and hash this out. The gap between you and her is very large.

Having said all this, good luck.
Jon

I totally agree with you that she is stronger in faith then I am, that is why i’m trying to learn about my faith now. But the thing is that when I talk with her for example about being saved, she doesn’t really know how it works. I ask her that if one person gets saved and kills someone or does something bad, are they still saved. She nor her parents really know the answer and mention that just means the person wasn’t truly saved in the first place. That’s not really the best answer that I want my kids to learn either because it’s just very confusing. And it pretty much goes against their teaching in the church of all of the baptists knowing that they will get to heaven just because they think they are saved at that point in time. That’s just an example, but there are many more things that she is confused on. Her mother is real hard headed and all of her family is baptist along with her brother in laws. So the biggest thing that I see here is that she thinks her parents would disown her if she or her kids were Catholic. My girlfriend once mentioned that her mother probably wouldn’t come to her wedding if it was in a Catholic church, so it has a lot more to do with her family then herself.

 

[michaeldaniels]

Agreed…great post One can not be marginally Catholic…and you can not get married in The Catholic Church if your wife refuses to raise your kids Catholic. Embrace your faith…if it causes you this relationship, you are better off…spouses are supposed to enhance each others faith, not detract from it…and you are already disobeying The Church by going to Baptist services in place of Mass…you can not do that. You are not fulfilling your Sunday Obligation

How can you say you are Catholic and yet say that is doesn’t matter if your future children would be raised Catholic? I think you need to get off the fence. If you believe that the Catholic Church was founded by Christ then shouldn’t your children be raised in the faith that He established?
Will your future wife let your children be baptized as infants or will they have to wait until they are adults and “accept Christ as their personal Savior?”
You need to evangelize your future wife. If you love her then give her the greatest gift you can, the One True Faith.

 

[Corki]

Well I wouldn’t wait for them to find God as adults, I would make sure that they would be taught and embrace God from childhood like my parents did for me. But then when they get older they would be able to determine if they want to stay in that religion or become Catholic but this is why I was wondering if they will just teach anti-catholic doctrine every Sunday which would prevent my children from making a good decision. She doesn’t mind if the kids would be baptised in the Catholic church but I wouldn’t want that only for them to go to a Baptist church.

Mixed marriages can work. The Church knows that this is an extra challenge and has some great resources to help.

There are a few things that you will need to discuss and come to agreement about with your girlfriend if you intend to marry.

1. You will need to either be married in a Catholic Church or with dispensation from the Church. She may not like this given the anti-Catholic teaching she has been exposed to. But without this, your marriage will not be valid or Sacramental. Believe me, you REALLY want the blessings of a Sacrmental marriage.
2. You will need to attend marriage preparation classes and have some meetings together with your priest. The priest needs to be convinced that the mixed marriage is not going to be a danger to your faith. That sounds ominous but is really just a great way to make sure that you and your girlfriend have looked at everything honestly.
3. You will be asked to promise that, to the best of your ability, any children will be raised in the faith. Your future spouse doesn’t have to promise this but has to acknowledge that you are bound to this promise. It’s great that your future wife doesn’t mind if they are baptised Catholic but that is just the beginning, not the end. You need to discuss the other Sacraments (First Communion, Confirmation, Reconcilliation) and the children attending either Catholic school or Religious Education classes. You and she have to be comfortable with getting them to Mass every Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation once they are old enough (around age 7).

Even though you refer to this woman as your girlfriend and not yet your fiancee, a good start might be to meet with your priest. Many parishes or diocese offer pre-engagement counseling which, in my opinion, would be great for any couple but especially for a potential mixed marriage.

Also, the USCCB recently launched a great website called “For Your Marriage”. It is full of great articles and conversation starters. Under the tab “About Catholic Marriage” is a great section on interfaith marriage.
foryourmarriage

Good luck!

 

[Rachel_1]

Thanks for you advice and willingness to help me out. I noticed online that when many Catholic peoples faith is challenged or they are just with someone that is of a different faith that tells us what we do is wrong, it just brings the Catholic person closer to their religion. As with myself, i’ve been studying about it day by day because after going to that baptist church I just had a feeling inside me that there was something just not right with the pastors teachings and that alot of the sermons contradicted the bible. All I can say is just that boy i’m glad i’m Catholic. Anyway, I will have to talk to the priest at my church and also tell my girlfriend that the kids will have to be raised Catholic. I can get pretty argumentative and I just hope that I can somehow just be more milder about this. Usually when I talk to her about her religion it might come of as i’m bashing her faith. And hopefully I can find a way to talk about it so it doesn’t make it so obvious that i’m telling her everything she has been taught in her church is wrong. Maybe I could just tell her that if I marry outside the church then it’s not considered a real marriage, or something of that nature and hopefully that would change her mind.

Check with your parish, they may have a United States Catholic Catechism for Adults there that you can read too!

 

[Bill_Pick]

I am Catholic and have been going to a baptist church with my girlfriend for some time. We mostly go to her church but sometimes we go to my church also. We agree on many things, although I believe that you need the church to fully understand the bible and most protestants don’t. I previously had no problem with the baptist church because the pastors would preech things that would most likely bring the people closer to God. The pastors bible translations were somewhat skewed because he would pretty much give his opinion on what the passage might have meant, but his translations were never to lead the people away from Christ. I have been going there for about 2 years and I have been noticing the pastor would talk down on other religions, not much, but enough for me to notice. For example, he would say something of the matter that Catholics don’t believe something the way it was meant in the bible and the way they(baptists) do it. Now, I have been going to a Catholic church and I have never heard them talk down on any religion and they actually embrace the protestant as the “seperated bretheren”, so I was just wondering if they do that at protestant chruches because they are trying to hide something and so that people will remain anti-catholic as so not to loose attendance or is it in their mission statement of the church. I am worried about this because we plan on marrying and she doesn’t want to raise the kids Catholic. I had no problem with that but now i’m not sure because I could only think that the baptists will teach our kids from a yound age how to hate Catholics and that their way is the only right way. Also, I don’t want them to be taught anything that is contradicting to the bible. Any help from a Catholic or Baptist that would ease my mind would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

What do you think a Bible study is at a Baptist church, do you think they are teaching Cathloic truth

 

[Chi_Rho_Joe]

Dude! Stop. Everything’s going 100MPH here. Pope JP II said it best: if you learn/know nothing else… know LOVE. It’s great everyone’s giving you reading homework, but it all just sounds like rules rules rules. Who cares what the rules and the why’s are if you don’t LOVE it?? The long/short of it is: who do you love MORE? God, and therefor His Church…or a woman? God says love HIM above all else with your mind/body/soul. I love HIM more than any person. Anyone asked me to consider another “church” might as well ask me to consider not breathing anymore, because I LOVE His Church. I’ll tell you who ALWAYS wins in your situation: whoever’s the most PASSIONATE - IN LOVE- with their faith. The one who lacks that love will abandon it in favor of the faith of the one who’s passionate. Question is: who do you want to be? The one more in love with God’s Catholic Church so your light will outshine hers and bring her ''home to Rome", or do you want to call it quits, throw in the towel and be led by her ‘light’ instead? My friend, no one but you will make the choice. LOVE first, then ask why and learn more. Scripture says…if I do X Y & Z but do not have love, I am nothing!

 

[Jon_Hus]

My girlfriend once mentioned that her mother probably wouldn’t come to her wedding if it was in a Catholic church, so it has a lot more to do with her family then herself.

My inlaws didn’t come to our wedding. My inlaws didn’t come to my mothers funeral, in fact they didn’t say a word about it. My inlaws didn’t come to the church service when we dedicated our kids.

My inlaws did go to my brother in laws kids baptism, even though my brother in law and his “wife” were not really married and neither of them had been to church for decades and are now “separated”. My mother in law, by the way, worked for the CC. Her priest/boss told her to stay away.

As a Baptist at the time, I went to my brother in laws kids baptism, I went to the mass in honor of my mother in law when she passed from lung cancer and liver issues. I have always been respectful of them and to them, they are after all my in laws. The lesson my inlaws have taught my kids is this, pretend catholics are superior to genuine baptists.

I doubt that your girlfriends parents will disown her if she marries you but I doubt that in the end you will actually get married, so it’s all a moot point.

 

[Roblox84]

Dude! Stop. Everything’s going 100MPH here. Pope JP II said it best: if you learn/know nothing else… know LOVE. It’s great everyone’s giving you reading homework, but it all just sounds like rules rules rules. Who cares what the rules and the why’s are if you don’t LOVE it?? The long/short of it is: who do you love MORE? God, and therefor His Church…or a woman? God says love HIM above all else with your mind/body/soul. I love HIM more than any person. Anyone asked me to consider another “church” might as well ask me to consider not breathing anymore, because I LOVE His Church. I’ll tell you who ALWAYS wins in your situation: whoever’s the most PASSIONATE - IN LOVE- with their faith. The one who lacks that love will abandon it in favor of the faith of the one who’s passionate. Question is: who do you want to be? The one more in love with God’s Catholic Church so your light will outshine hers and bring her ''home to Rome", or do you want to call it quits, throw in the towel and be led by her ‘light’ instead? My friend, no one but you will make the choice. LOVE first, then ask why and learn more. Scripture says…if I do X Y & Z but do not have love, I am nothing!

I do love God and my Church more, so I am going to see my priest on Sunday and hopefully get some guidance from him too. I know that I am not going to drop my faith, that isn’t even an option. I will have to tell her that if we have kids they will have to be raised Catholic, it’s just a matter of bringing it onto her lightly and intelligently and not how I used to do it by just arguing why her faith is wrong. It probably won’t turn out good unless her parents decide that they wouldn’t mind the kids being Catholic, and then I have struck home. It’s hard to convince someone to become Catholic when they aren’t into the whole ritual thing at my church.

 

[benidict]

…And who can argue with the Holy Spirit!!! I attend a fundamentalist Independent Baptist Anti-Catholic Church. The pastor and several leaders there are former Catholics and they make sure that all know how lost Catholics are. On my first Sunday there, the pastor pulled the Holy Spirit card out by saying he was going to preach that Sunday on the Holy Spirit, but was “lead” to preach about how God lead him out of the Catholic Church. He didn’t know me from Adam. Could God be speaking to me? I had been looking across the Tiber for over 12 years at that point and for a moment thought maybe God was trying to tell me something. But when I see the fruits of that preaching and that belief system, and attend their fellowships, most of the time it’s a bragging fest. They talk about how they love but I see very little of it. A week or so before that Sunday, I stopped at a Safeway store to pickup some coffee cream - on my way through the parking lot, this old lady appeared in front of me and blocked my path - she had something in her hand and forced it into mine, I said no thanks, but she shoved it back to me without a word. She moved almost like a machine and didn’t seem “human”, then she disappeared. What she gave me was a Chick tract. Chick tracts are anti-Catholic. So there I was in that Sunday morning service, listening to how God lead the pastor out of the Catholic Church as a high school teenager. He’d just finished the Stations of the Cross and had to walk home on a long lonely road - a thunderstorm came up and frightened him - he thought if he’d died or got struck by lightning, he didn’t know if he was going to heaven or hell. Then after that, he went to a baptist revival and got saved and then “knew” he was saved and going to heaven.
I deduced that that lady with the tract was not human and sent to keep me from the True Church and that the pastor wasn’t lead by the Holy Spirit to preach about how “God” lead him out of the Church - because much of what he preaches is demogoguery. Meaning that he preaches against the sins of others outside the Church and incites passion and emotion in the congregation. I can’t believe the Holy Spirit inspires that. The Church is also in a financial crisis - they had a major building project a few years ago and now are obsessed with paying off the mortgage. Giving is always under budget and hardly a Sunday goes by that he doesn’t preach on giving. When he’s not preaching on giving, he’s preaching on boycotting Pepsi. A couple of years ago, they called in the big guns, a consulting firm to rally people to give and dictated ways we can give (selling our goods, etc…) and they called the program “Greater Works”. They put up a big poster in the front of the “sanctuary” that said “Greater Works”. And now, Greater Works is all about giving and not about the works that Christ did on earth. Greater works is paying off the mortgage. We missed Christmas in a place where it should have been most prominent - in the Church. There was no Christmas story, no Angel Annunciation, no Mary, no Manger, no Magnificat, no Joseph, just sermons on giving.
It has gotten to a point where the people that go there are merely a means to an end. Were they ever fed spiritually?

hi twiggymoo. wow what a story. sounds like your having a rough time of it. hang in there, the Holy Spirit, will speak to you in a still quiet voice. not in the thunderstorm, or the fire, or the tornado. just read about elija. a still small voice. i will be praying for your situation. i escpecially liked the part where they start a camaign called greater works… all of us can learn a lesson from this. how can we go on to greater works, when we still have to finish the small works? staying out of debt practicing love of God and our neighbor etc. peace to you and God bless you. by the way i appreciate your integrity and honesty

 

[Roblox84]

My inlaws didn’t come to our wedding. My inlaws didn’t come to my mothers funeral, in fact they didn’t say a word about it. My inlaws didn’t come to the church service when we dedicated our kids.

My inlaws did go to my brother in laws kids baptism, even though my brother in law and his “wife” were not really married and neither of them had been to church for decades and are now “separated”. My mother in law, by the way, worked for the CC. Her priest/boss told her to stay away.

As a Baptist at the time, I went to my brother in laws kids baptism, I went to the mass in honor of my mother in law when she passed from lung cancer and liver issues. I have always been respectful of them and to them, they are after all my in laws. The lesson my inlaws have taught my kids is this, pretend catholics are superior to genuine baptists.

I doubt that your girlfriends parents will disown her if she marries you but I doubt that in the end you will actually get married, so it’s all a moot point.

I don’t know how genuine of Baptists they really are inside. They ridicule Catholics for listening to what a “man” tells us (I think they meant the pope) but then they go ahead and do whatever their preacher tells them to do, such as not drinking or giving 10 percent to the church. I think it’s just a matter of all the hate about Catholics that has been installed in them through the preachers because I can tell you that probably not one person, even the pastor knows the truths about Catholicism.

 

[Chi_Rho_Joe]

Once I realized the Catholic Church REALLY had the Deposit of Faith, that’s when I fell head over heels for her! I started going to Bible study with an outstanding Catholic man (a chiropractor!) whom I deeply respect and got involved with Bible study at my local church. Funny thing is that when I’ve gone to a “bible study”, I get Bible study + Catholic church teaching/background. I found the Bible backs up Catholic church beliefs and the Church reaffirms the Scripture: no contradictions. During ‘talks’ with non-catholics, I like to ask them what year their beliefs came into existence and can they please document them. They don’t like that. I lovingly let them know I can document that my Church’s beliefs (esp. the biggies like the Real Presence in the Eucharist, Mary, etc) were around in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd centuries. I let them know that I couldn’t, in good conscience, accept beliefs that weren’t around (or worse, deemed as heresies!) back in the early 100’s because logically the closer in time to an event, the better it can be understood, and someone years later with a new spin on things would have a credibility problem. My advice is 1) keep the faith 2) have a yearning to learn more about the unsinkable Ship-To-Salvation that is the Catholic Church 3) know that the God’s true Church isn’t decided like our court system: the one with the most creative “better” contrived answer wins over the jury. Don’t fret if you can’t defend your faith in its entirety: it’s not WHY you’re Catholic, it’s why THEY’RE not. I’m praying for ya, bro! Peace!

 

[Matthew_P_Muehl]

Once I realized the Catholic Church REALLY had the Deposit of Faith, that’s when I fell head over heels for her! I started going to Bible study with an outstanding Catholic man (a chiropractor!) whom I deeply respect and got involved with Bible study at my local church. Funny thing is that when I’ve gone to a “bible study”, I get Bible study + Catholic church teaching/background. I found the Bible backs up Catholic church beliefs and the Church reaffirms the Scripture: no contradictions. During ‘talks’ with non-catholics, I like to ask them what year their beliefs came into existence and can they please document them. They don’t like that. I lovingly let them know I can document that my Church’s beliefs (esp. the biggies like the Real Presence in the Eucharist, Mary, etc) were around in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd centuries. I let them know that I couldn’t, in good conscience, accept beliefs that weren’t around (or worse, deemed as heresies!) back in the early 100’s because logically the closer in time to an event, the better it can be understood, and someone years later with a new spin on things would have a credibility problem. My advice is 1) keep the faith 2) have a yearning to learn more about the unsinkable Ship-To-Salvation that is the Catholic Church 3) know that the God’s true Church isn’t decided like our court system: the one with the most creative “better” contrived answer wins over the jury. Don’t fret if you can’t defend your faith in its entirety: it’s not WHY you’re Catholic, it’s why THEY’RE not. I’m praying for ya, bro! Peace!

Great post CHI… I think i will use that logic on my girlfriend as well.

Thanks,
Matt