Did I sin here?

[DL82]

OK, so I’m with some friends from church who are being really critical of our priest for his hard line stance on the Church’s moral teachings. I want to challenge this, but in a friendly way, so decide to say:

“Of course, you don’t have to believe everything the Church teaches… [split second pause for dramatic effect] there are plenty of empty pews in plenty of Protestant churches instead.”

Only problem is, what actually happens is, I say:

“Of course, you don’t have to believe everything the Church teaches… [split second pause for dramatic effect, and the conversation moves on without me]”:doh2:

So now they think I’m with them on the whole liberal thing. There never was a good moment for me to correct myself, and it’s probably forgotten now.

Own fault for trying to be witty? Where did I go wrong?

 

[Fox]

I don’t think you sinned because of your intention, I think you just used a poor choice of words to convey your thoughts. You’ll have times to speak mind again, next time just think about what you want to say and say everything.

 

[Church_Militant]

If you sinned, it was by omission, or perhaps not even that but simply by not being fast enough to make yourself clear.

Your response, though probably meant to create an opening for apologetics was an epic fail.

Now you’re going to have to deal with correcting that problem with those friends, which has been exacerbated.

I’m not sure how I’d handle it, but I can suggest one good source who deals with this very issue and who you can share with your friends.

John Martignoni has his “2 Minute Apologetics” stuff online and available on a free MP3 that you can burn (or order) and pass on to them.

It says,

As Catholics, do we have to accept everything the Church teaches?

If you want to call yourself Catholic, but you want to pick and choose for yourself which of the Church’s teachings to accept and which to reject, you give everyone else who calls themselves Catholic the right to do the same thing.
For example, you believe women should be priests…in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1577 states, “Only a baptized man validly receives ordination…For this reason the ordination of women is not possible!” You don’t believe that…well, that’s fine…[RIP] just tear that page out of your Catechism…you just made it a Catechism of your Catholic Church…not mine.
But remember, if you can throw doctrines out, so can everyone else who calls themselves Catholic. That gives Joe Parishioner over at St. Doubting Thomas Catholic Church the right to throw out the Church’s social justice teachings…he doesn’t feel like feeding the hungry, caring for the poor, and all that other “bleeding heart” stuff - Paragraphs 2401 -2463 [RIP]…he just made it a Catechism of his Catholic Church…not mine and not yours.
You believe contraception is okay? Paragraph 2370 says contraception is intrinsically evil! [RIP] Joe Parishioner doesn’t like what the Church teaches on the death penalty - Paragraphs 2266-2267 [RIP]. You don’t like what it teaches on pages 55-60 [RIP]. He doesn’t like what it teaches on pages 128-140 [RIP]
Can you see what’s happening? I heard it said once that there is a shortage of vocations to the priesthood in the United States, but no shortage of vocations to the Papacy! If we don’t believe in all of it, if we each appoint ourselves Pope and throw out a doctrine here or a doctrine there, then our faith is no longer Catholic.

Two-Minute Apologetics (MP3)

 

[MonkeyTape]

OK, so I’m with some friends from church who are being really critical of our priest for his hard line stance on the Church’s moral teachings. I want to challenge this, but in a friendly way, so decide to say:

“Of course, you don’t have to believe everything the Church teaches… [split second pause for dramatic effect] there are plenty of empty pews in plenty of Protestant churches instead.”

Only problem is, what actually happens is, I say:

“Of course, you don’t have to believe everything the Church teaches… [split second pause for dramatic effect, and the conversation moves on without me]”:doh2:

So now they think I’m with them on the whole liberal thing. There never was a good moment for me to correct myself, and it’s probably forgotten now.

Own fault for trying to be witty? Where did I go wrong?

It doesn’t seem like you sinned in particular here, just reflect on whether your desire to present the truth actually does trump your desire to conform to your group of friends.

As for a good time to correct yourself, you can pick the time. Bring it up again yourself. If you feel like the whole group would be too much to deal with all together, then think about speaking with them one or two at a time.

 

[CentralFLJames]

I don’t think situational incompetence is a sin.

But now that you are “on the inside” with them so to speak - you should slowly win them over to the truth.

James