Ex-Catholic Fundamentalists

[RBushlow]

Chris Jacobsen:

Fundamentalists attract Catholics when Catholics are young adults. This is because Fundamentalists offer young adults two things which the Catholic does not offer. One of these two things is what all young adults want very much. And the other thing is what young adults of good character want.

The Catholic Church generally refuses and even strongly opposes offering these two things to young adults. Check with your own parish. Does it offer these two things to young adults?

When the Catholic Church tries to offer these two things to adults, it does it in a very haphazard and ineffective way. This is because most Catholics believe that young adults do not want these two things. This is true even though one of the two things is important to all young adults. And the other thing is important to all young adults of good character.

Fundamentalists, on the other hand are very well organized and very effective in offering young adults these two things. Offering these two things to young adults is very important to Fundamentalists. They have paid professionals in charge of offering these two things to young adults.

When the Catholic Church decides to offer these two things to young adults, there will be an increase in the number of vocations to the priesthood and religious life. And the Catholic Church will produce Catholic marriages, again.

What are the two things?

.

 

[AServantofGod]

O.K. Chris Jacobson, we’re waiting!

 

[Katholikos]

SPOKENWORD:

I believe there was this Methodist pastor. White I recall who grew his church to over 10000 people. He new every one by name.WOW! When I was in the rcc church I dont think I could call 5 people by thier first names. I think a mens or ladies fellowship night would be great place to start.We talk about unity in the body of Christ but I guess its in spirit only.

This “fellowshipping” is understandable in churches where “worship” means a sermon, a prayer or two, and a couple of songs.

I go to Church to worship the Living God who is truly, really, and substantially present on the altar in the Blessed Eucharist. I kneel before Him and do not pay the slightest attention to anyone else. I am totally absorbed in adoration. With the priest, I offer the Holy Sacrifice and receive in return the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ.

Fellowshipping is fine outside the Holy Sacrifice. Make friends in groups that serve the Church. Join the men’s club, sodality, St. Vincent de Paul or another group.

All the “fellowshipping” that goes on in Protestant groups is to compensate for the loneliness of Protestant worship. All they have is each other, when it’s really God they seek. But He is in His Church and is not to be found there.

Catholics are united in belief, not by how many hands they shake on Sunday.

JMJ Jay

 

[SPOKENWORD]

Katholikos:

This “fellowshipping” is understandable in churches where “worship” means a sermon, a prayer or two, and a couple of songs.

I go to Church to worship the Living God who is truly, really, and substantially present on the altar in the Blessed Eucharist. I kneel before Him and do not pay the slightest attention to anyone else. I am totally absorbed in adoration. With the priest, I offer the Holy Sacrifice and receive in return the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ.

Fellowshipping is fine outside the Holy Sacrifice. Make friends in groups that serve the Church. Join the men’s club, sodality, St. Vincent de Paul or another group.

All the “fellowshipping” that goes on in Protestant groups is to compensate for the loneliness of Protestant worship. All they have is each other, when it’s really God they seek. But He is in His Church and is not to be found there.

Catholics are united in belief, not by how many hands they shake on Sunday.

JMJ Jay

Jay ,why do i feel like there is a shadow chasing me? If you notice I mentioned fellowship outside the services.Why must you put down protestant bretheren. Maybe you could learn something from them instead of condemming them.That holiest than thou attitude.

 

[La_Chiara]

SPOKENWORD:

I believe there was this Methodist pastor. White I recall who grew his church to over 10000 people. He new every one by name.WOW! When I was in the rcc church I dont think I could call 5 people by thier first names. I think a mens or ladies fellowship night would be great place to start.We talk about unity in the body of Christ but I guess its in spirit only.

spokenword–Your post implies that the Catholic Church was the cause of your leaving or why you could only call 5 people by their first names. I suspect that the reason you could only call people by their first names was because you did not embrace the Church, did not get involved in ministries, did not give to your own faith–in short, your failings rather than the Church’s. Did you put as much into learning about the Catholic Church as you do in your Protestant fellowship? You are proving the original poster’s point–that former Catholics are critical of the Catholic Church. Furthermore, that a Protestant pastor “grew his church to over 10000 [sic] people” and “he new [sic] every one [sic] by name” is hardly evidence that the pastor represented Christ’s truth.

 

[SPOKENWORD]

La Chiara:

spokenword–Your post implies that the Catholic Church was the cause of your leaving or why you could only call 5 people by their first names. I suspect that the reason you could only call people by their first names was because you did not embrace the Church, did not get involved in ministries, did not give to your own faith–in short, your failings rather than the Church’s. Did you put as much into learning about the Catholic Church as you do in your Protestant fellowship? You are proving the original poster’s point–that former Catholics are critical of the Catholic Church. Furthermore, that a Protestant pastor “grew his church to over 10000 [sic] people” and “he new [sic] every one [sic] by name” is hardly evidence that the pastor represented Christ’s truth.

There was just no fellowship.Half of the people were out the door after recieving the eucharist.Maybe 25% would stay for the final blessing. It seams everybodys life is run by the clock today.And yes I was involved in church ministies so be careful with your judging. It was not the chuch that was the cause but those in high authority.

 

[jimmy]

SPOKENWORD:

There was just no fellowship.Half of the people were out the door after recieving the eucharist.Maybe 25% would stay for the final blessing. It seams everybodys life is run by the clock today.And yes I was involved in church ministies so be careful with your judging. It was not the chuch that was the cause but those in high authority.

Spokenword,

We are a church of sinners who are called to be saints. We do not always act as we should and do the right thing. The pope is also a sinner so we should not look upon him as someone who is perfect nor should he be expected to be. He confesses his sins to a priest also.

Spokenword, it is time for you to come home. All you got to do is accept the teachings and go to confession.

 

[Catholic4aReasn]

Philthy:

I haven’t read many of the posts so forgive me if Im repeating. We Catholics must be honest with ourselves about the good and bad in the RCC in the US today. You seriously wonder why people don’t have nice things to say about their Catholic experience? If I had to single out the most important things it would be that the SENSE OF COMMUNITY that should exist often does not. Most “Catholics” attend Church once a week at best, and then have nothing else to do with the people in their parish. There is no particular bond other than being a vaguely familiar face at church. No dialogue, no relationship, no shared experience, nothing. This is radically different at many Protestant denoms. The emphasis is on relationships entirely: the relationship with Jesus and with each other (fellowship). People actually become friends and their lives intertwine as a result of their church. And when this happens they look back at the Catholic Church and see a hollow shell. It sounds so rediculoulsy obvious that it shouldn’t be this way, but I have not found it to be so in the Catholic church for a large majority of the people who belong. And once this element is missing and people are just on their own - not learning their faith, not reading Scripture, etc. their faith remains adolescent and they become somewhat alienated in it and come to associate that reality as their impression of what the Church is - a place where they go once a week and leave most of what they gain from it.

Phil

This is an interesting point, and one over which I and the other members of the Adult Faith Formation Team at my parish bang our heads regularly.

At my parish we have an abundance of bible studies, prayer groups, groups reaching out to different populations (divorced/widowed, young mothers, etc), and the like. There is very literally something for everyone yet relatively few people take advantage of the wonderful opportunities to grow in a relationship with Christ and as a faith community. We build it, but they don’t come. It’s like people just want to fulfill their Sunday obligation (which they don’t really see as an actual obligation) and then not bother with anything else until the following Sunday. I can’t even begin to describe how frustrating it is!!

In Christ,
Nancy

 

[SPOKENWORD]

jimmy:

Spokenword,

We are a church of sinners who are called to be saints. We do not always act as we should and do the right thing. The pope is also a sinner so we should not look upon him as someone who is perfect nor should he be expected to be. He confesses his sins to a priest also.

Spokenword, it is time for you to come home. All you got to do is accept the teachings and go to confession.

Thanks Jimmy for being concerned with my soul. I can only come home when He calls me. God Bless

 

[jimmy]

SPOKENWORD:

Thanks Jimmy for being concerned with my soul. I can only come home when He calls me. God Bless

He is calling you. He calls people through his people on earth many times.

Your mother, the church, asks you to come home.

 

[Chris-WA]

Isidore_AK:

I think you are sooo right about a lack of community feeling in most parishes. My wife is a recent convert and continually points out that we havn’t made a single friend at the parish we attend. We try to introduce ourselves, we hit the pancake breakfast and the donuts after mass…but everyone has a ‘seperation of Church and Real Life’ kind of attitude. There are so many people we see every single week at mass…and we don’t even know their names. We all say our “peace be with you’s”, shake hands and then ignore each other…

How can we change this? I am NOT a leader, and I don’t like to be the center of attention, but I’m almost to the point of wanting to do something about it. We NEED a protestant style Young Adults group or a singles group. We need more ‘fellowship’…I think that many many people are turned from the Church due to a perceived ‘cold-shoulder’ given by the parish…

Anyway, just my rant…
Thanx for listenin!

If you want fellowship in the Catholic Church, there are plenty of ministries you can get involved in. I’m sure your Sunday bulletin lists a lot of them. In no time you’ll make some life-long friends.

 

[Exporter]

Chris Jacobsen:

Fundamentalists attract Catholics when Catholics are young adults. This is because Fundamentalists offer young adults two things which the Catholic does not offer. One of these two things is what all young adults want very much. And the other thing is what young adults of good character want.

The Catholic Church generally refuses and even strongly opposes offering these two things to young adults. Check with your own parish. Does it offer these two things to young adults?

When the Catholic Church tries to offer these two things to adults, it does it in a very haphazard and ineffective way. This is because most Catholics believe that young adults do not want these two things. This is true even though one of the two things is important to all young adults. And the other thing is important to all young adults of good character.

Fundamentalists, on the other hand are very well organized and very effective in offering young adults these two things. Offering these two things to young adults is very important to Fundamentalists. They have paid professionals in charge of offering these two things to young adults.

When the Catholic Church decides to offer these two things to young adults, there will be an increase in the number of vocations to the priesthood and religious life. And the Catholic Church will produce Catholic marriages, again.

---

Chris J. you are cunning, you are hiding aand you are a bit silly. WHAT TWO THINGS? You talk about the TWO THINGS but never tell what they are. What are you hiding, I do not think you are Catholic.

 

[TheresaS]

In my immediate family we have lost many of our neices and nephews to the evangelical/fundlemental churches. They have commented that there is not enough in our Church “to do”. To me it is a cop out…they didn’t like "being told they "had to do certain things…there were too many rules. They are now “leaders” in their churches…they lead services…offer sermons. In other words they resented the authority of a priest. In my area the “hottest” church to be part of has a great deal of “entertainment” and it concerns the pastors of the protestant denominations since they are losing many to that church. I am fortunate that my kids love the mass and participate without being forced.

 

[Cubsfan]

TheresaS:

In my area the “hottest” church to be part of has a great deal of “entertainment” and it concerns the pastors of the protestant denominations since they are losing many to that church. I am fortunate that my kids love the mass and participate without being forced.

These churches that you speak of are places like Willow Creek near Chicago. They seem to be more like theater in the round versus a service to worship God.

As for Catholic cop-outs I can share your pain I have a very close friend and his wife who pulled their daughters out of the Catholic school and sent them to the Lutheran school because the Catholic school did not have as good lighting as the Lutheran. I of course said that Luthern schools usually use a very subtle form of anti-catholicism in what they teach. He then gave the famous retort…“well Lutheranism is just like Catholicism” I politely disputed this and then he gave me the ultimate cop-out. He was at Mass and after communion the Priest scolded the parishoners for doing the sign of the cross after receiving communion, since he had done the sign of the cross the priest was directing this directly at him, and he was not going to take that.

 

[Shoshana]

My brother left the CC to go Anglican than go Calvary Gospel then go Faith Tabernacle. His anti-Catholicism was evident for many years. From what I understand, most people who go fundamentalist (after leaving the CC) have usually psychological issues and they like the ‘fuzzy, wuzzy’ feeling of community over the Blessed Sacrament. Yes, he is a good Christian albeit a confused one to say the least. He is a thorn in my mon’s side and to the family’s and most of us do avoid him. There was a time when reconciliation was almost at a point and then he moved to the Faith Tabernacle church and it started all over again.

Other than praying, I do not know what to do. He dislikes me to a passion. I do not let him get away with making my mon cry. She has not the wherewithall to answer his fundamenlist tripe. He cannot pull the wool over my eyes most of the time. He declares he has Jesus (implying we don’t in the CC—and this has been said). And the story goes on and on…

He figures he is ‘catholic’ meaning universal…and with that title believes he can go up to communion. Oh well, as you can tell, this man has caused much grief to all of us in the family. The sad part of all of all of this is that he is outside of the church and I hope he repents before he dies. Plain and simple, he is a heretic!

Please pray for us…
Blessings,
Shoshana

 

[StubbleSpark]

Shoshana:

My brother left the CC to go Anglican than go Calvary Gospel then go Faith Tabernacle. His anti-Catholicism was evident for many years. From what I understand, most people who go fundamentalist (after leaving the CC) have usually psychological issues and they like the ‘fuzzy, wuzzy’ feeling of community over the Blessed Sacrament. Yes, he is a good Christian albeit a confused one to say the least. He is a thorn in my mon’s side and to the family’s and most of us do avoid him. There was a time when reconciliation was almost at a point and then he moved to the Faith Tabernacle church and it started all over again.

Other than praying, I do not know what to do. He dislikes me to a passion. I do not let him get away with making my mon cry. She has not the wherewithall to answer his fundamenlist tripe. He cannot pull the wool over my eyes most of the time. He declares he has Jesus (implying we don’t in the CC—and this has been said). And the story goes on and on…

He figures he is ‘catholic’ meaning universal…and with that title believes he can go up to communion. Oh well, as you can tell, this man has caused much grief to all of us in the family. The sad part of all of all of this is that he is outside of the church and I hope he repents before he dies. Plain and simple, he is a heretic!

Please pray for us…
Blessings,
Shoshana

I am a convert and the only Catholic in my family. There are times when I actually regret the conversion because I am sick of my newfound minority status. But the real pain comes when people ridicule my faith out of ignorance.

The pain does not come from being effaced. I do that to myself quite well. The pain comes from knowing that they suffer because they do not have (or have rejected) the fullness of the truth. I feel if only I could take on this suffering for them, the world would make more sense. In a way, watching your loved ones suffer is worse than suffering yourself. Ask Mary – I am sure if she could, she would have traded places with Christ on the cross in a heartbeat.

It has been my experience, though, that people are not drawn to the Church by fancy talking and argument-winning as much as they are to its penultimate Christian charism.

There seems to be a lot of arguing between you and your brother. But we need to have faith that God is working in him even now in ways that we cannot comprehend. I think in situations like this, we need to have faith.

Maybe what God wants is for you to graciously accept his “tripe.” After all, what can he do to the Church? Greater minds, and larger and more dedicated armies have tried and failed. She is THE divine fortress and is thus eternal and invincible. Let’s rely on that and use it to our advantage. It its peaceful walls, we will meditate on building quiet Christian character safe from the perils of the secular world. No greater fortress has man ever known!

 

[StubbleSpark]

Oh, and here is stab at what the two things are that Protestant churches offer that Catholic Churches do not (and they are tempting):

1. Freedom to sin
2. Freddom to reinvent God

That’s been my personal experience…

 

[leschornmom]

Apologia100:

Sure, its sort of like when a young man breaks up with his girlfriend. He doesn’t want to loose face, so he makes up stories about how much of a tramp she is. Doesn’t have to be true, he just want to make her look bad so that he feels better about himself. If he were to make her out to be really great, people would wonder why he left her. They would question his intelligence. Same so with leaving the Church. Those who fall away go to great leangths to disparange the Church because, after all, if the Church was so wonderful, why did he leave? He doesn’t want the split to be perceived as his fault, so he blames the “biblical inconsistencies” of the Church, which is probably where you get all these “Whore of Babylon” theories.

This is a very good point…But if you think ex-catholic is bad (and I know, I’m married to one ) you should try an ex-LDS. The same holds true for them

P.S. Whats a “Whore of Babylon”?

 

[jimmy]

leschornmom:

This is a very good point…But if you think ex-catholic is bad (and I know, I’m married to one ) you should try an ex-LDS. The same holds true for them

P.S. Whats a “Whore of Babylon”?

Alot of anti-catholics call the Catholic Church the “Whore of Babylon”. In revelation it makes reference to a whore that rides a beast and is drunk on the blood of Martyrs. Anticatholics tell us Catholics this is refering to us.

 

[Catholic4aReasn]

StubbleSpark:

I am a convert and the only Catholic in my family. There are times when I actually regret the conversion because I am sick of my newfound minority status. But the real pain comes when people ridicule my faith out of ignorance.

The pain does not come from being effaced. I do that to myself quite well. The pain comes from knowing that they suffer because they do not have (or have rejected) the fullness of the truth. I feel if only I could take on this suffering for them, the world would make more sense. In a way, watching your loved ones suffer is worse than suffering yourself. Ask Mary – I am sure if she could, she would have traded places with Christ on the cross in a heartbeat.

It has been my experience, though, that people are not drawn to the Church by fancy talking and argument-winning as much as they are to its penultimate Christian charism.

There seems to be a lot of arguing between you and your brother. But we need to have faith that God is working in him even now in ways that we cannot comprehend. I think in situations like this, we need to have faith.

Maybe what God wants is for you to graciously accept his “tripe.” After all, what can he do to the Church? Greater minds, and larger and more dedicated armies have tried and failed. She is THE divine fortress and is thus eternal and invincible. Let’s rely on that and use it to our advantage. It its peaceful walls, we will meditate on building quiet Christian character safe from the perils of the secular world. No greater fortress has man ever known!

Wow! Beautifully said! Thank you!

In Christ,
Nancy