Catholic Converts: What was the last straw that made you left the Protestant Churches?

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ChadS said:
I refrained from using the word cult but I’m glad you did because that’s exactly what it sounded like to me.

ChadS
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It was weird because I had been to this church before although never regularly. I was actually visiting with people from my own church. When I questioned my pastor after the event, he was angry that I would even suggest it was wron. So it was time to leave that church too. Several people left after that because they no longer felt safe in their worship. I would be very reluctsant to go to a church that is not regulated again. This is why it is necessary to have a leading figure. The Catholic Church is right to have a pope. There is no argument against having a leader.
It worked for me because I have found my way home to the Catholic church. I bet that wasn’t the aim of the non-denom!😛
 
juliamajor said:
When adversity comes that is how we are truly tested. scandals have been in the church since inception-and they will always be there since it is made up of people who are sinners. Does that mean we were left and dry by Christ ? He has never nor will ever leave His church - that is what he promised. As far as a “scandal” stuff it exists in all churches no matter how the media portrayed it. I’ve been on several Protestant Websites that advertise help for the big problem their churches are facing- child abuse . I remember reading in Christianity Today Years ago that sex scandal involving children would be the biggest problem facing Christianity in general.They were right on the money.
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I guess I expected priests and other clergy to be of a higher moral standard than that. Just my opinion.
 
BrewMax said:
I guess I expected priests and other clergy to be of a higher moral standard than that. Just my opinion.
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Ever heard the expression, “The bigger they are, the harder they fall”?

Even the Pope goes to confession every week. Just because one has Holy Orders does not mean that one is sinless.

In a perfect world our clergy would be perfect too, but unfortunately we’re not in a perfect world.
 
Mannyfit75 said:
What was the final doctrinal issue that made you leave the variety of Protestant churches?
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The final doctrinal thing for me was the homily in the Episcopal church ‘what the feminist movement owes to the lesbian community’. Gag. From that moment, I knew I could never go back. It took me several months of ‘spiritual no man’s land’ wandering before I came to the Church, but I ceased to be Protestant at that point–my choices were Catholicism or atheism.
 
I was a part of a very huge pentecostal church – the kind that has a concert for each service. And I liked it for the atmosphere (I have always rather enjoyed concerts.) and realised, that the message was not really why I was there. Also I had been attending for months and in all that time not one person had ever befriended me. They had recruited all my personal info and continually harrassed me to join in on youth groups. A few times different people invited me to have coffee and tea after a service and I would go along, but the whole time I was speaking to them they were looking over my shoulder making me feel like they weren’t interested, but were looking for more people to “recruit” … cos after I would give my personal info, they would just never really speak to me again.

I had an aunt who passed away and she had been baptised but didn’t necessarily live the most practising life… and after she died a protestant friend told me she was probably in hell and I had to “let go” and basically get over it. I was in the middle of my grieving. I called a Catholic friend to get his advice and he explained that it wasn’t hopeless and that we could pray for her soul daily and he and his parish prayed for my aunt… I was trying, the next time I went to the protestant church to have some silent reflection for my aunt – but everyone was praying out loud, the pastor was telling us what to pray for and I couldn’t concentrate.

I never went back, but rather started attending the Catholic church and saw how much more beautiful and reflective and REAL it is.

👍
 
GodsPrincess said:
I was a part of a very huge pentecostal church – the kind that has a concert for each service. And I liked it for the atmosphere (I have always rather enjoyed concerts.) and realised, that the message was not really why I was there. Also I had been attending for months and in all that time not one person had ever befriended me. They had recruited all my personal info and continually harrassed me to join in on youth groups. A few times different people invited me to have coffee and tea after a service and I would go along, but the whole time I was speaking to them they were looking over my shoulder making me feel like they weren’t interested, but were looking for more people to “recruit” … cos after I would give my personal info, they would just never really speak to me again.

I had an aunt who passed away and she had been baptised but didn’t necessarily live the most practising life… and after she died a protestant friend told me she was probably in hell and I had to “let go” and basically get over it. I was in the middle of my grieving. I called a Catholic friend to get his advice and he explained that it wasn’t hopeless and that we could pray for her soul daily and he and his parish prayed for my aunt… I was trying, the next time I went to the protestant church to have some silent reflection for my aunt – but everyone was praying out loud, the pastor was telling us what to pray for and I couldn’t concentrate.

I never went back, but rather started attending the Catholic church and saw how much more beautiful and reflective and REAL it is.

👍
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Oh, I feel terrible for you! :hug1: My experience with the Pentecostal church was similar (in terms of the unfriendliness, and not feeling that it was really what Christianity was ‘all about’), but I was very young at the time… it would be worse to have that experience as an adult.

I am SO glad you discovered the Catholic church, and that you too have had such a positive experience! :blessyou:
 
silentdeb said:
Oh, I feel terrible for you! :hug1: My experience with the Pentecostal church was similar (in terms of the unfriendliness, and not feeling that it was really what Christianity was ‘all about’), but I was very young at the time… it would be worse to have that experience as an adult.

I am SO glad you discovered the Catholic church, and that you too have had such a positive experience! :blessyou:
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Don’t get me wrong, it took three different Catholic churches til I found one that was “right” and had a very homely atmosphere for me, but I didn’t doubt from the time I stepped in there that I had made the right choice - also, I had a very, very supportive (and non-pressuring) Catholic friend who helped me along my way.

I was only about 20 years old at the time… but as soon as I found Catholicism and it was definitely, despite what my protestant friends had to say, very right for me 🙂 🙂
 
BrewMax said:
I guess I expected priests and other clergy to be of a higher moral standard than that. Just my opinion.
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They should. in a perfect world-.:mad: we ALL have feet of clay and clergy of all denominations and all religions face similar scandals.It’s because we are over 1 billion strong and are not popular with the media that people dwelt on it.There are certain denominations that have a HUGE problem with this and are way out of proportion of incidents to the number of members.They are very secretive and can have you thrown out if you complain. Low profile-low numbers - you can’t get as much scandal mileage out of them as the RC-
 
BrewMax said:
Unfortunately, not from what I have seen but that’s just my opinion.
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Are you letting the media influence that opinion in any way? Statistically, (I’ll try my very best to find the link if you really want to see) a higher percentage of Protestant clergy have problems with pedophilia.
 
juliamajor said:
They should. in a perfect world-.:mad: we ALL have feet of clay and clergy of all denominations and all religions face similar scandals.It’s because we are over 1 billion strong and are not popular with the media that people dwelt on it.There are certain denominations that have a HUGE problem with this and are way out of proportion of incidents to the number of members.They are very secretive and can have you thrown out if you complain. Low profile-low numbers - you can’t get as much scandal mileage out of them as the RC-
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Nor can you get as much money. :rolleyes: I was personally sexually harrassed by a former pastor and I chose not to report it or sue him. I chose to forgive (though it wasn’t easy) as Jesus tells us to.
 
juliamajor said:
They should. in a perfect world-.:mad: we ALL have feet of clay and clergy of all denominations and all religions face similar scandals.It’s because we are over 1 billion strong and are not popular with the media that people dwelt on it.There are certain denominations that have a HUGE problem with this and are way out of proportion of incidents to the number of members.They are very secretive and can have you thrown out if you complain. Low profile-low numbers - you can’t get as much scandal mileage out of them as the RC-
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I guess I always thought that it is a horrible thing no matter how infrequent it happens. I just always held Catholic clergy to a higher standard than that. I have become surely disappointed. For this reason and just wanting to be with my wife and son on Sunday mornings, I have been attending a different church.
 
SemperFidelis said:
Reading these scripture verses right here started me on my journey:

John 6:53-58, 66-67
“So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.’ After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him. Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Will you also go away?’”

1 Corinthians 11:27
“Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord.”

These verses played the largest part as I searched for the “One, True, Church”. These two verses narrowed it down to two (Catholic and Orthodox) and made my search much easier. These verses are so plain and straight forward I can’t quite figure out how protestants get around them.
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I’m going to start a new topic from this question because I feel it is good for Catholics to know how and why Protestants get around this. The topic will be “To Whom Shall We Go? Why the Catholic Eucharist?”
 
BrewMax said:
I guess I always thought that it is a horrible thing no matter how infrequent it happens. I just always held Catholic clergy to a higher standard than that. I have become surely disappointed. For this reason and just wanting to be with my wife and son on Sunday mornings, I have been attending a different church.
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So you’re looking unto the (very very small percentage) of sinful clergy, seeing their faults, and deciding to forsake the Eucharist? :confused: Or are you still attending Mass at another time? Are you in a parish that had a problem with this? Your son is not any safer from the pedophiles in a Protestant church. I can promise you that.
 
BrewMax said:
I guess I always thought that it is a horrible thing no matter how infrequent it happens. I just always held Catholic clergy to a higher standard than that. I have become surely disappointed. For this reason and just wanting to be with my wife and son on Sunday mornings, I have been attending a different church.
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I’ve hesitated to bring this up, I never have on this forum. I’ve always put clergy (of all kinds) to a higher standard…I think it’s very human nature to do so.

Unfortunately, I’ve been proven wrong, moreso in Protestant churches.

In Protestant churches, from my experience, people put more faith in the morals of their pastor. In fact to the point that the discussion around the dinner table is that Pastor (Bro.) so and so said this about this scripture passage…well, he must be right because he is such a man of God…blah, blah, blah…

Well, I attended a new forming church about three years ago. The pastor was the Chaplain for the local hospice. About a year of absolutely loving his sermons, we all find out that he was kicked out of the Baptist church for having sex with a 14yo. Yep! And that he was a Sex Addict, he was approaching women at hospice, finally confessed to the Co-Pastor that he had been hitting bars on the weekends and bringing women home…and the Association that was very involved in this new church formation knew all about it! :eek: Never telling us…

Then, personally, I’ve had a pastor (and use to be dear friend of the family) prey on my depression and try to rip my family appart by telling me that I needed to divorce my husband. (I’m to blame as well for taking it all to him and discussing it with him)…and that’s not all of this story, but all that I am willing to talk about publicly.

So…it’s not all the Catholic church, it’s everywhere…the media just likes to focus on the Catholic Church.

I’m only telling you this because I do not hold ALL Protestant pastors to the view that I’ve experienced and I really wish to set an example to you to not hold ALL Catholic Priests to the view that you have right now.

God bless.
 
ChadS said:
Hi Pixie,

I think I found a few links that support what you are saying. Here are the links.

geocities.com/Athens/Agora/2213/pedoph.html

worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=26955

abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3034040&page=1

ChadS
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Thanks, Chad. I want it known that I am in NO way excusing or condoning the errors that the Catholic Church made in the past by covering up the sins of the priests in question. It’s a horrible, horrible thing no matter who is responsible for it. I just can’t stand the “Catholic priests are pedophiles” mentality, as if to say some Protestant pastors, school teachers, and Joe Bob down the street aren’t. Pedophilia is a HUMAN SIN NATURE problem, not exclusively a Catholic clergy problem.
 
Pixie_Dust said:
Thanks, Chad. I want it known that I am in NO way excusing or condoning the errors that the Catholic Church made in the past by covering up the sins of the priests in question. It’s a horrible, horrible thing no matter who is responsible for it. I just can’t stand the “Catholic priests are pedophiles” mentality, as if to say some Protestant pastors, school teachers, and Joe Bob down the street aren’t. Pedophilia is a HUMAN SIN NATURE problem, not exclusively a Catholic clergy problem.
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Totally agree Pixie- I think it’s a pity that they focus so much on churches that they seem to be not cognizant that in society itself this is a HUGE problem. I have met and known many people who have been sexually abused by family or family friends-It’s scary!! One of my friends was hopeful that once this story broke the whole spectrum of crimes against children ( she was an incest victim) would be explored. Fat chance-bad priests are more titillating to the american public then creepy parents. And the idea of creepy parents gives lots of people the shivers! Too bad - there are a lot of kids out there who really need their stories told and are suffering:(
 
BrewMax said:
I guess I always thought that it is a horrible thing no matter how infrequent it happens. I just always held Catholic clergy to a higher standard than that. I have become surely disappointed. For this reason and just wanting to be with my wife and son on Sunday mornings, I have been attending a different church.
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Why do you not hold Protestant clergy to a similar standard?
 
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