Does conversion upset you?

[aidanbradypop]

I am an Evangelical that attends a Assembly of God congregation. I love to see new faces walk through doors and worship.

I notice Protestants joining the Catholic or Orthodox Church on CAF and I am not angry about. Some of my Protestant friends becone outraged by this. I also notice how Catholics get angry when a Catholic leaves the and becomes Protestant. I have experienced that first hand on this forum. It saddens me but I move past it.

My thought process is this…I am happy that the person is in church and worships Jesus! If that individual find Jesus in the RCC or Southern Baptist Church then I glad to know they are seaking Christ in their life.

Do any non Catholics get upset when you see a Proestant joining the Catholic of Orthodox Church? Does it feel like “we lost one and they gained one” kind of mentality?

Please keep this civil and respectful.

 

[ignatius777]

I am an Evangelical that attends a Assembly of God congregation. I love to see new faces walk through doors and worship.

I notice Protestants joining the Catholic or Orthodox Church on CAF and I am not angry about. Some of my Protestant friends becone outraged by this. I also notice how Catholics get angry when a Catholic leaves the and becomes Protestant. I have experienced that first hand on this forum. It saddens me but I move past it.

My thought process is this…I am happy that the person is in church and worships Jesus! If that individual find Jesus in the RCC or Southern Baptist Church then I glad to know they are seaking Christ in their life.

Do any non Catholics get upset when you see a Proestant joining the Catholic of Orthodox Church? Does it feel like “we lost one and they gained one” kind of mentality?

Please keep this civil and respectful.

The unfortunate thing is many non Catholic Christians hold a very negative view of the Catholic church. Too few think like you do. I am glad to see you are different… It gives me hope that the church can once again be united.

 

[Vanez]

Your question makes me think whether my friends (they are Pentecostals ) got mad or sad at me few of them are non-catechised Catholics who converted.

I even have friend who converted to Jehovah Witness from Protestantism. I dont see her often now because she lives far away from here. When i heard about this, i felt weird, but i was not mad.

There were those who warned me and tried to scare me off when they knew i attended RCIA at a Catholic parish sometime ago. They became quiet when i told them i wanted to be an Orthodox i still find this funny that they became quiet, i think because they barely know about Orthodoxy. But my decision is not because of their warn about the RCC. They just don’t completely know about RCC, the converts are not even well catechised.

But my opinion is: they were free to convert to Protestantism (Pentecostalism), let me then decide which church i attend.

I still have contact with them all though i am still curious whether or not they got mad or sad. Every sunday after the liturgy is finished, i walk to their church (my former church), talk to them and wait for mom and head back home together with her.

 

[wmscott]

I am an Evangelical that attends a Assembly of God congregation. I love to see new faces walk through doors and worship.

I notice Protestants joining the Catholic or Orthodox Church on CAF and I am not angry about. Some of my Protestant friends becone outraged by this.** I also notice how Catholics get angry when a Catholic leaves the and becomes Protestant**. I have experienced that first hand on this forum. It saddens me but I move past it.

My thought process is this…I am happy that the person is in church and worships Jesus! If that individual find Jesus in the RCC or Southern Baptist Church then I glad to know they are seaking Christ in their life.

Do any non Catholics get upset when you see a Proestant joining the Catholic of Orthodox Church? Does it feel like “we lost one and they gained one” kind of mentality?

Please keep this civil and respectful.

Not so much as angry but sad that they leave because they do not fully understand their faith or weak spiritually and are lured away by some, who through either deception or mistaken beliefs in what Catholicism teaches, feel that they can provide “Jesus” in a much more fulfilling way.

 

[Mirza19]

I used to be an Evangelical before I converted to the Baha’i Faith, but always thought jumping between denominations was interesting.

For one, I belonged to a largely non-denominational background that, if pushed, would identity as Campbellite or independent Baptist (I went to two churches with my relatives). I think having the low-church, non-denominational perspective is unique regarding the OP because we basically only care about the “fundamentals” and so we sort of fail to realize the theological and spiritual importance of everything we don’t deem fundamentals – like the Church as an ecclesiastical structure, or the usefulness of living traditions of interpretation and practice. People becoming Catholic wouldn’t have bothered me as a Christian, nor would Catholics joining my church. I once invited my Lutheran grandmother to attend my “Church of Christ” church and didn’t understand why she didn’t go, but now I do. So I think “conversion” between denominations is only upsetting when you feel someone is missing something important in what they leave behind.

But thinking internationally, I actually - even though I was Evangelical – didn’t like that people in many place would embrace Evangelical Christianity rather than local churches. I remember reading “Jesus Freaks” and talking with a local leader about it and becoming somewhat upset that as American Christians we just assumed the rest of the world lacked Christianity. I didn’t understand why these “Martyrs” in Russia didn’t just acknowledge or join the Eastern Orthodox Church – why it was so important to forcefully implant a new kind of Christianity when Christianity already existed as a living tradition there. The same for South America. My Church was pretty active in evangelizing in Peru, and I would sometimes argue with our youth leaders about this. Why not Evangelize domestically in the US when lots of people here don’t believe? Why do you have to go somewhere else that is, ironically, predominantly Christian (albeit Catholic?)

So I suppose my overall point is that as a former Evangelical, conversion upset me when we rejected the Christianity of the RC or EO and sought their conversion to our “brand.”

 

[aidanbradypop]

Not so much as angry but sad that they leave because they do not fully understand their faith or weak spiritually and are lured away by some, who through either deception or mistaken beliefs in what Catholicism teaches, feel that they can provide “Jesus” in a much more fulfilling way.

I can see how that would bother you and others. Leaving because you believe a lie is troubling. My case was different.

 

[wmscott]

I can see how that would bother you and others. Leaving because you believe a lie is troubling. My case was different.

Not so much as bothered as saddened. I do not suggest that all are deceptive because I know that there are many, many Protestants that are good and pious people who truly love Jesus. My concern is Catholics who say they love Jesus and do not know their own faith and see the Catholic Church as some kind of advisory. There are some out there that will exploit that so that they can steal sheep to swell their ranks. You can see some of it here, there are some ex-Catholics who are somewhat hostile towards the Catholic Church and for some reason believe the anti-Catholic falsehoods.

 

[aidanbradypop]

Not so much as bothered as saddened. I do not suggest that all are deceptive because I know that there are many, many Protestants that are good and pious people who truly love Jesus. My concern is Catholics who say they love Jesus and do not know their own faith and see the Catholic Church as some kind of advisory. There are some out there that will exploit that so that they can steal sheep to swell their ranks. You can see some of it here, there are some ex-Catholics who are somewhat hostile towards the Catholic Church and for some reason believe the anti-Catholic falsehoods.

Debate doctrine but I can’t stand the bashing.

 

[protestantinca]

Do any non Catholics get upset when you see a Proestant joining the Catholic of Orthodox Church? Does it feel like “we lost one and they gained one” kind of mentality?

Honestly, I couldn’t care less, literally, about what form of organized religion they choose as long as they remain Christians. I think that the biggest threat to Christianity today is not the old divisions Catholic vs Orthodox vs Protestant but secularism.

I am more worried about the number of friends that have abandoned Christianity altogether than about whether they remain in this or that denomination.

 

[wmscott]

Debate doctrine but I can’t stand the bashing.

Dustin, I hope I did not give the impression of bashing. If so I apologize that was not my intent.

 

[aidanbradypop]

Dustin, I hope I did not give the impression of bashing. If so I apologize that was not my intent.

Oh no. You are fine. I’m speaking in general

 

[wmscott]

Oh no. You are fine. I’m speaking in general

Good, thanks

 

[Thomas1981]

Honestly, I couldn’t care less, literally, about what form of organized religion they choose as long as they remain Christians. I think that the biggest threat to Christianity today is not the old divisions Catholic vs Orthodox vs Protestant but secularism.

I am more worried about the number of friends that have abandoned Christianity altogether than about whether they remain in this or that denomination.

I think this is the priority myself. It’s the attempt to exclude religion, ALL religion, from the public square that is most distressing to me.

 

[GLam8833]

I have converted from an evangelical protestant stance
to the Roman Catholic faith, it was a CHANCE situ. and
I stumbled on the faith of the TRUE Church! The biggest
problem I see with conversion is that all is RELATIVE and
they all say they have the truth in this relativistic, secular
way, the only way to combat this is thru 1. prevailing prayer
and 2. right exegesis of the Bible 3. in light of the teaching
of the Magisterium which is of the Church of the living God,
the Pillar and Support of the Truth(1 Tim. 3:15)

 

[aidanbradypop]

I have converted from an evangelical protestant stance
to the Roman Catholic faith, it was a CHANCE situ. and
I stumbled on the faith of the TRUE Church! The biggest
problem I see with conversion is that all is RELATIVE and
they all say they have the truth in this relativistic, secular
way, the only way to combat this is thru 1. prevailing prayer
and 2. right exegesis of the Bible 3. in light of the teaching
of the Magisterium which is of the Church of the living God,
the Pillar and Support of the Truth(1 Tim. 3:15)

I was Evangelical Protestant, converted to Catholicism and back home in Evangelicalism. I find myself correcting former Catholics that left the RCC. They often have bogus claims like wmscott was referring to and I have to correct them and say that is not what Catholicism teaches. Then they get mad at me lol.

 

[Cone]

Walking away from the Catholic Church is a serious matter, because if the Catholicism is the one true Church, the sinner no longer has the defense of invincible ignorance. His eternal soul is in serious jeopardy.

 

[Iron_Donkey]

I am an Evangelical that attends a Assembly of God congregation. I love to see new faces walk through doors and worship.

I notice Protestants joining the Catholic or Orthodox Church on CAF and I am not angry about. Some of my Protestant friends becone outraged by this. I also notice how Catholics get angry when a Catholic leaves the and becomes Protestant. I have experienced that first hand on this forum. It saddens me but I move past it.

My thought process is this…I am happy that the person is in church and worships Jesus! If that individual find Jesus in the RCC or Southern Baptist Church then I glad to know they are seaking Christ in their life.

Do any non Catholics get upset when you see a Proestant joining the Catholic of Orthodox Church? Does it feel like “we lost one and they gained one” kind of mentality?

Please keep this civil and respectful.

Since I believe that Catholicism is the fullness of revealed Christian truth, and that no part of this truth is unimportant, it does bother me when I see someone decide that they think that this truth is false. Not (typically) in the sense of causing me to become angry at that person, but rather in the sense of thinking that they have moved further from the truth and that this is generally a sad thing.

That said, if a person who called himself Catholic but let the faith idle, so to speak, that is had a tepid faith that involved no real belief and no real action, was inspired by the faith and zeal of a Protestant and converted because he (mistakenly) believed that that was the only place such zeal lived and then began an active life of trying to follow God within that Protestant belief system, then I would consider that both happy and sad. Happy because a tepid faith is essentially no faith, and moving to try to live for Christ is always good and certainly a step forward, and sad because while such zeal and intentions are good, they can be more fully realized in the presence of the fullness of truth that this person was so close to without grasping.

 

[ineeda]

Since I believe that Catholicism is the fullness of revealed Christian truth, and that no part of this truth is unimportant, it does bother me when I see someone decide that they think that this truth is false. Not (typically) in the sense of causing me to become angry at that person, but rather in the sense of thinking that they have moved further from the truth and that this is generally a sad thing.

That said, if a person who called himself Catholic but let the faith idle, so to speak, that is had a tepid faith that involved no real belief and no real action, was inspired by the faith and zeal of a Protestant and converted because he (mistakenly) believed that that was the only place such zeal lived and then began an active life of trying to follow God within that Protestant belief system, then I would consider that both happy and sad. Happy because a tepid faith is essentially no faith, and moving to try to live for Christ is always good and certainly a step forward, and sad because while such zeal and intentions are good, they can be more fully realized in the presence of the fullness of truth that this person was so close to without grasping.

This is pretty much how I feel. I have a sister that identifies herself as Catholic, but does not believe much of our faith. I was the same way and had some New Age beliefs. I agreed with much of what she believes now. However, since coming back I have done a 180 on my beliefs, especially on contraception. I agree with all of the Catholic beliefs. I felt bad when she did not support me in wanting to have my husband’s first marriage annulled. I needed one as well, but mine was simple. We went through a lot to get my husband’s, and she told me that I was crazy. She thought it was ridiculous that I was having my marriage convalidated, and in a little while all remarried Catholics may receive Communion.

My main concern for her is her wanting to see a medium. She took the death of my brother quite hard and would like to receive some validation that he is okay on the other side. I would rather her convert to any Christian religion, if she does not agree with the Catholic Church. I just want her to quit thinking about this medium baloney. I once believed in that paranormal stuff, too. I pray that she strays away from that. I would prefer her to come back to Catholic faith, but I would be fine, if she converted to any Christian religion.

 

[captainrick]

I think this is the priority myself. It’s the attempt to exclude religion, ALL religion, from the public square that is most distressing to me.

I also agree - I was Protestant and became Catholic, and I’ve known Catholics who became Protestants. I’m not bothered by conversions either way, as long as they are Christians and live decent lives.

 

[badnewsbarrett]

Do any non Catholics get upset when you see a Proestant joining the Catholic of Orthodox Church? Does it feel like “we lost one and they gained one” kind of mentality?

Please keep this civil and respectful.

There’s a couple of different situations in which I feel somewhat different things. In my experience, Protestants that I’ve known who join the Catholic Church as adults are quite frequently people who were baptized Catholic as infants by their parents, raised in a lukewarm nominal Catholic environment, drifted into some form of Protestantism in their teens or in young adulthood, and then eventually rediscovered the religion of their early youth once they studied up on early Church history. In these situations (the revert situation), I tend to think that the Catholic Church has lost a whole lot of people this way and now they got one back. I will admit that in these situations, I tend to think it’s a little unfair that these people always seem to go back to Catholicism and they don’t seem to give Eastern Orthodoxy a reasonable chance, but that is the only type of bad feeling I get. Additionally, when I mentally compare these people to cradle Catholics who know practically nothing about Protestants, I look more favorably on the ones who took a sojourn through Protestantism and developed some real experience and quality relationships with people. I tend to imagine that they will take that experience back with them and help to temper some of the less-well-informed notions that people can develop when they have no real experience or knowledge to draw on.

That type of situation is actually the one I am most familiar with personally, but when a cradle Protestant becomes a Catholic or an Orthodox Christian, I tend to think some slightly different things. I tend to think that they’ve probably given both sides more of an equal study, and I suppose this really is a situation where we lose one and they gain one, but I don’t think of it as a return to childhood religion by default- because it’s not. I tend to think that this is someone who spent a lot of time and invested a lot of study into the decision to make a big change in affiliation. And I also think that, in spite of all that work and time and study, odds are about 50/50 that they’ll be back to attending a Protestant church on a regular basis within one year, and on a longer timescale odds are more like 2-1 in favor of them coming back. So most of the time, this is a different type of sojourning scenario. I think of these people as very genuine people through and through, who genuinely pray and genuinely study their way into Catholicism. And then what I have observed and statistics have borne out is that most of the time, these (still) very genuine, truth-seeking people wind up coming back to Protestantism after they’ve spent some time as a member of a Catholic parish.

In the United States, out of all those who were raised Protestant, only 3% of them are now Catholic. This sort of thing doesn’t happen all that much, but when it does these are the things that I generally think of. Does it upset me? No, I don’t believe there’s any point in this whole thought process where I become upset with anyone.