Dealing with "Christians"

[SmallCcatholic]

Treat “Christians” with compassion. My recent experience led me to understand that people who have grown up in the Catholic faith tend to be sheltered and not so competent at dealing with those outside the faith, to whom I believe you are indeed supposed to witness. “Make disciples of all nations.” “Use words if necessary.” I have heard it said that the most interesting Catholics are those who come to the Church from a checkered background.

Making disciples is the power of Christ to change one from the kingdom of darkness
to His kingdom of light…Other christian’s of non catholic persuasion are already
in His kingdom of light…There is a large amount of people living in darkness.All followers of Christ should let there light shine…The CC(individual followers) needs to be be a bolder witness on the evangelistic front…I have been walking with Christ for over 40 years and alive for 61…In all those years, even living/working Italian catholic town, I never was approached by a christian of the catholic persuasion to talk to me about Christ and His plan of salvation. It was always evangelical bible church believers or JW’s…You know what I read that started the Holy Spirit’s deep work in me, a few verses in a chick tract…( I know that’s anathema to you)

 

[GraceDK]

Making disciples is the power of Christ to change one from the kingdom of darkness
to His kingdom of light…Other christian’s of non catholic persuasion are already
in His kingdom of light…There is a large amount of people living in darkness.All followers of Christ should let there light shine…The CC(individual followers) needs to be be a bolder witness on the evangelistic front…I have been walking with Christ for over 40 years and alive for 61…In all those years, even living/working Italian catholic town, I never was approached by a christian of the catholic persuasion to talk to me about Christ and His plan of salvation. It was always evangelical bible church believers or JW’s…You know what I read that started the Holy Spirit’s deep work in me, a few verses in a chick tract…( I know that’s anathema to you)

Darn it! Thats sad that no Catholic ever spoke to you about Jesus… I don’t understand that. But ya know… many of us have been evangelized by folkes from different churches too… and you are certainly right. Jesus is the light… and those people who do their best to walk with Him and in Him are in the Light.
I became, in a sense, evangelized by an orthodox lady with Catholic tendencies. But that was only the beginning… It seems like the healing from spiritual blindness came in and by itself… the revelation that He is really here.
It was when I became aware of the Sacraments that I must be Catholic. I was given the grace to understand that Jesus meant what He said: “Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood shall live by my strength” … I have experienced that. I have experienced Him calling me to eat His Flesh when I thought I absolutely couldn’t and I thought I would die… and then He came and changed everything at the moment when I ate His Flesh… These things cannot be described in human words.

 

[sherimarie]

I never let people ‘’’’’’'pr@y over me", it’s @ thing, don’t judge me. / wh@t if th@t is wh@t the Holy Spirit led her to s@y? We don’t know wh@t th@t wom@n h@d to he@r @t th@t point in her life. Why not eng@ge her in @rguement? I try not to tell people wh@t to s@y in front of PP when we go out picketing, sometimes things you think would only drive sinners @w@y, brings them to their knees.
Good to he@r you r willing to procl@im the Gospel.

 

[jmcrae]

if there are better ways of handling this kind of situation, please let us know because I thought she handled it just fine.

You don’t open a conversation with the intention of converting someone by informing her that her prayers are no good because she is a heretic. Once you become prayer partners, you can then start talking about different churches, and where they came from, and things like that.

It would have been more effective to thank her for her prayers, and offer to pray in turn for her intentions, especially for the restoration of her vehicle.

I have been in a simular situation and there really is no way to politely extracate yourself from this unless you just agree to let this person pray over you and say nothing more.
Rude? she told the lady the truth-that she would prefer that she didn’t pray for her because this church is heretical.

This is not the position of the Catholic Church. We are, in fact, invited to pray with people of other religions (regardless of what we think of their theology) in order to help bring them to a true understanding of God, by means of love.

I mentioned that I went to Mass while talking to a friend(who is Evangelical), she said that Mass was so long because they are full of “old superstition and rituals”. I said nothing at the time, just changed the subject but i regret it now because I still feel like gnashing my teeth over this.

You can still invite her to come to Mass with you.

 

[anp1215]

I never let people ‘’’’’’'pr@y over me", it’s @ thing, don’t judge me. / wh@t if th@t is wh@t the Holy Spirit led her to s@y? We don’t know wh@t th@t wom@n h@d to he@r @t th@t point in her life. Why not eng@ge her in @rguement? I try not to tell people wh@t to s@y in front of PP when we go out picketing, sometimes things you think would only drive sinners @w@y, brings them to their knees.
Good to he@r you r willing to procl@im the Gospel.

Does your “a” key not work?

 

[Debora123]

Does your “a” key not work?

 

[anp1215]

man, I’m seriously wondering, I’ve never seen anything like this…At first I said, “Why are you typing like that?” but then I remembered a friend I had once broke the “i” key off his keyboard, so every time I talked to him he would refer to himself as “me”…“me have to go now” etc.

So I thought maybe that’s what happened here.

 

[Debora123]

man, I’m seriously wondering, I’ve never seen anything like this…At first I said, “Why are you typing like that?” but then I remembered a friend I had once broke the “i” key off his keyboard, so every time I talked to him he would refer to himself as “me”…“me have to go now” etc.

So I thought maybe that’s what happened here.

Haha, I gotcha… I’m wondering too. It’s just funny though.

 

[anp1215]

Haha, I gotcha… I’m wondering too. It’s just funny though.

haha

 

[sherimarie]

Th@t’s right my @ button is busted, the l@st letter of the @lph@bet doesn’t work either, @t le@st there’s @n underst@nd@ble substitute for @, nothing for the l@st one.

 

[anp1215]

Th@t’s right my @ button is busted, the l@st letter of the @lph@bet doesn’t work either, @t le@st there’s @n underst@nd@ble substitute for @, nothing for the l@st one.

well there ya go, my suspicions were correct. As I said, if I hadn’t known someone personally that had a key broken on their keyboard, the thought wouldn’t have occurred to me, since it’s never happened on any of my keyboards.

 

[jmcrae]

Th@t’s right my @ button is busted, the l@st letter of the @lph@bet doesn’t work either, @t le@st there’s @n underst@nd@ble substitute for @, nothing for the l@st one.

I hope you can get a replacement for it very soon - it must be very annoying for you.

If it were me, I’d cut and paste an “a” from another document, instead of using the “@” key, until you can replace the keyboard.

 

[anp1215]

I hope you can get a replacement for it very soon - it must be very annoying for you.

If it were me, I’d cut and paste an “a” from another document, instead of using the “@” key, until you can replace the keyboard.

that seems so time consuming…I probably would just use the @ too.

 

[jmcrae]

that seems so time consuming…I probably would just use the @ too.

It’s just Control-V, once you copy the “a” into your clip-board. It’s no more key-strokes than Shift-2. You can fix the font later.

 

[anp1215]

It’s just Control-V, once you copy the “a” into your clip-board. It’s no more key-strokes than Shift-2. You can fix the font later.

oh yes, that is true. I forgot about control V, despite the fact that I use it all the time…

 

[Debora123]

Th@t’s right my @ button is busted, the l@st letter of the @lph@bet doesn’t work either, @t le@st there’s @n underst@nd@ble substitute for @, nothing for the l@st one.

Lol!

 

[jmcrae]

I am surprised so many of you think that what I said to this Christian was uncharitable and rude. I have long wondered how to deal with these types of “Christians” that come from strip mall churches, megachurches, or any other kind of sham place of worship.

Be charitable and assume they haven’t been taught any better. But for the grace of God, there go any of us. At least it has never occurred to her to steal the Eucharist (ref. your other thread) - that’s something.

All around our town these “churches” are popping up. Vineyard. Anthem. Crossroads. Jubilee. Nexxus. Rocksolid. REALITY. It’s a joke and it needs to be stopped.

What it means is that people are starved for meaningful Church experiences - they’ll go pretty much anywhere to get something - anything - even if it’s just a praise and worship concert.

They need to be lovingly invited to Mass; not chastised for their simple faith in public parking lots.

 

[Zundrah]

I hope this is the right place to post this… First time here! So glad to find a Catholic board!

So yesterday I was in the parking lot at Target, and a woman approached me while I was loading my car. She said she liked my bumper stickers (they are pro life) and said she was glad to see someone making a statement for unborn children. I thanked her. She then asked if she could pray “over” me for protection, because her own car was vandalized when she had pro-life stickers on it. I was a little taken aback, and asked her what parish she belonged to. She said she went to a “church” in town called REALITY. Now, I know what this is. It is a big “come as you are, anything goes” church that some “pastor” invented on his own. They pride themselves on being open to anyone and as far as I know, there is no oversight or hierarchy in the “religion” - some guy just reads the Bible and says whatever he wants on Sunday morning while wearing Birkenstocks.

I told the woman that I’d rather she not pray over me, because she did not attend a valid church. She said she was Christian and didn’t I worship Jesus. I said that of course I did, but that I consider “REALITY” to be heretical, the pastor to be invalid, and the attendees to be in grave error. She said the “church” had many former Catholics. I said they were in a state of mortal sin for their attendance at “REALITY.” She said the Catholic Church was who was in error because we do not adhere to the Scriptures. I said that The Catholic Church is the one true church that Christ founded, and that there is zero salvation outside of Catholicism. She said I was “So wrong” and that she would pray for me that I would see the truth. I said I already knew the truth, and that I hoped she would stop attending a false church so that she could attain salvation. She stomped away.

I am still really flustered here. I know that Catholics do not “witness” to others like some of the more obnoxious “faiths” out there. We do not approach people in parking lots and ask to “pray over them.” I am just not sure if I handled this well. I got pretty upset and I might have offended this person.

Any ideas on how we should deal with these so-called Christians when we are faced with the falsehood of their religion. Clearly I could have done it better! The thing is, their churches do a good job of making them “feel good” and it’s hard to explain that going to church is not about getting pumped and feeling energized as though it were a concert!

It’s very normal for protestants from these loose churches to randomly ask to pray over you, but they usually only do it if they think/know you are Christian.

I don’t know why you’d reject being prayed for though…

 

[Zundrah]

I am surprised so many of you think that what I said to this Christian was uncharitable and rude. I have long wondered how to deal with these types of “Christians” that come from strip mall churches, megachurches, or any other kind of sham place of worship. Now, I understand that our step-siblings, the Lutherans, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, even some Methodists are members of semi-valid religions. But “REALITY?” Even the name is preposterous. There is only one real church. The Catholic Church. Period. And while some Protestant faiths do have some of the truth - I doubt REALITY does. Best I can tell, REALITY is about showing up in jeans (no problem if you miss a Sunday - there is no obligation), grooving out, waving your hands in the air, making up your own rules based on what’s convenient, and getting a bumper sticker that says “REALITY.” Spare me.

All around our town these “churches” are popping up. Vineyard. Anthem. Crossroads. Jubilee. Nexxus. Rocksolid. REALITY. It’s a joke and it needs to be stopped. Every single one of these churches considers itself “nondenominational Christian.” That means the “pastor” makes up whatever he wants, and there are no rules or oversight. It’s just one guy making a mint off of grooving and shouting and making people feel like whatever they want to do is okay. These “pastors” are leading people AWAY from the fullness of truth, and away from salvation - and luring their sheep with promises of “no expectations, no stuffy ceremony, no tradition.” It’s appalling and I’m sick of it!

Yes, I could have done better with this lady. I could have lectured her and her daughter (she had about a 7 year old girl with her) better, I could have been more composed. Sure. But let her pray over me? With her strip mall “Christianity?” No, thank you ma’am!

I don’t get why you freaked out because she asked to pray for you.

 

[Jaypeeto4]

saying it not a valid church will be like a bull to red flag. how would you like it if she had said the same in return. who is who to say what is what in faith…

WHAT???
Yes this lady could have handled it much better, but “who is who to say what is what in faith”??? What is that supposed to mean???
The Catholic Church HAS the fullness of the truth, others do NOT, they have some of it,
but it IS our job as Catholics to inform others (but NICELY) of the realities of the Church and it’s TRUE history (but charitably and politely).
Also, I too would have told her that the Catholics who have left the Catholic church for another church ARE in grave danger for their salvation, because they ARE. Unlike the Lady, who has never been Catholic, these folks LEFT the true faith. Depending on how well they were catechized (note that, depending on HOW WELL), their defection COULD BE a serious affront to the Holy Spirit.

I have a dear friend who was “witnessing” to me one day by email (a bible christian as they call themselves, and a baptist), and she, with a great air of authority, told me that Peter was never the “chief” apostle and “he was NOT the first pope as far as the Bible is concerned.”
I sent her back an email with something evangelicals LOATHE to hear, namely,
“My dear (name here), THAT is merely YOUR private interpretation, nothing more.”

Sometimes you have to put the bible-thumpers in their place if you want to get anywhere.
They consider their private interpretations GOSPEL and sometimes they have to be called on it, especially when they get aggressive about it, as my friend did in that email.