Feeling Divided between Catholicism and Lutheranism

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My story begins with the fact that I was baptized and raised Roman Catholic in a loving and devout Catholic home and I attended a Catholic elementary school which I loved very much the teachers were very kind and the priest there loved God very much. My mom tried very hard to raise us in the Catholic faith she would read the Bible to us and teach us how to pray the rosary, but after I my time in elementary school was over, my mom and dad couldn’t find a Catholic high school in the area, so I ended up attending a Lutheran high school, because my parents did not want me to go to public school. I was in complete shock, the people there were very kind and friendly much to my surprise, they quickly tried to be my friend, which shocked me, but I was a little wary due to some history. First my ancestors were Roman Catholics who came from Germany, and I was doing research and found out that a lot of Catholics left Germany because of the persecution they were receiving from Prussia(which was a Protestant state), and thus they came to America, and as my historical research showed Protestants in America, attacked the faith of the Catholic immigrants. I would let these go as water under the bridge but my mom went to a Protestant college and was persecuted and ostracized for being Catholic, thus I expected the same thing to happen to me but the people at the Lutheran high school took me in, they were very on fire for God and cared about me immensely, to my surprise, they showed me a lot of love and compassion along with the people and priest at my Catholic Church, when my mom died of cancer. Afterward I graduated from high school and went to college, and a person from Cru who knew I went to the Lutheran high school invited me to Cru, they seemed very enthusiastic and were more interested in my life than I was. Anyway the whole experience has made me feel less of a Catholic I now feel like I am half Catholic and half Protestant, I just want to ask some quick questions why do the evangelicals seem to like me a lot, even though i am Catholic? Why do they try to include me in there groups even though I am not one of them? Does anyone have any advice for me? I need spiritual help. Sorry if this is a really long post I just had a lot on my mind.
 
You need to make a choice.

Maybe, you could read both the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Book of Concord. Understand both on a theological level, and make an informed decision. Which one do you agree with more? Which one makes the better case?

I am not telling you to choose one or the other, nor is it my place to do so. I have been both in my life.

You will probably get a heavy bias towards one side on this forum, but it is ultimately your responsibility and your decision.
 
There are two possible reasons they might like you:
  1. They’re good, kind people and you’re a likable person
  2. Some of them may also hope to convert you to their church
There are still anti-Catholic people in the USA but it has died down a lot from the way it used to be, and nowadays many Catholics and Protestants are able to get along and live in harmony.

The problem with socializing with Protestants is that after a while you can feel drawn to leave your faith and join up with their church. It doesn’t sound like that is what your parents had in mind when they were trying to raise you Catholic. It’s too bad that there wasn’t a Newman Center at your college where you could have great social experiences with other Catholics your age, so you wouldn’t have run into this problem of feeling like you are now “half Protestant”.

If you truly believe in the teachings of the Catholic Church, then you need to just keep being Catholic while having friends that might not necessarily all be Catholics or even all believers. Most of us have friends from all kinds of belief systems. I have lots of awesome friends and even extended family members who are different types of Protestants. I also have nice friends who are not Christians - they’re atheists, agnostics, Jewish, etc. I enjoy the company of all these people but I don’t feel like I’m part of any of their faiths, nor do I need to be in order to be their friend. I was also married to a Presbyterian for 23 years and in a long relationship with him before marriage, and never felt like I was “half Presbyterian” or wanted to be part of his church.

So please understand that just because people are nice and kind, and you respond to that, it doesn’t mean you need to be going off and joining their church. I think it would be a good strategy for you to try to make some Catholic friends so you have more of a balance in your life.
 
Stay Catholic will of course be what I say. I suggest talking to a Catholic priest. May God bless you!
 
Jovian90 said:
My story begins with the fact that I was baptized and raised Roman Catholic in a loving and devout Catholic home and I attended a Catholic elementary school which I loved very much the teachers were very kind and the priest there loved God very much. My mom tried very hard to raise us in the Catholic faith she would read the Bible to us and teach us how to pray the rosary, but after I my time in elementary school was over, my mom and dad couldn’t find a Catholic high school in the area, so I ended up attending a Lutheran high school, because my parents did not want me to go to public school. I was in complete shock, the people there were very kind and friendly much to my surprise, they quickly tried to be my friend, which shocked me, but I was a little wary due to some history. First my ancestors were Roman Catholics who came from Germany, and I was doing research and found out that a lot of Catholics left Germany because of the persecution they were receiving from Prussia(which was a Protestant state), and thus they came to America, and as my historical research showed Protestants in America, attacked the faith of the Catholic immigrants. I would let these go as water under the bridge but my mom went to a Protestant college and was persecuted and ostracized for being Catholic, thus I expected the same thing to happen to me but the people at the Lutheran high school took me in, they were very on fire for God and cared about me immensely, to my surprise, they showed me a lot of love and compassion along with the people and priest at my Catholic Church, when my mom died of cancer. Afterward I graduated from high school and went to college, and a person from Cru who knew I went to the Lutheran high school invited me to Cru, they seemed very enthusiastic and were more interested in my life than I was. Anyway the whole experience has made me feel less of a Catholic I now feel like I am half Catholic and half Protestant, I just want to ask some quick questions why do the evangelicals seem to like me a lot, even though i am Catholic? Why do they try to include me in there groups even though I am not one of them? Does anyone have any advice for me? I need spiritual help. Sorry if this is a really long post I just had a lot on my mind.
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Your choice has nothing to do with how nice people are first of all, but on who holds to the truth most accurately. Right now ecumensim and the desire to practice the love of the gospel are prevalent in many areas of Christianity, which is a good thing, but seek the truth first and follow that. Pray, study: the bible, the catechism, etc.
 
Because despite our differences (and there are some important ones) we still both bow the knee to Jesus Christ, and we love our neighbor. If you care to discuss further from the Protestant perspective, feel free to pm me.
 
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So do you feel divided because of personal and familial reasons or doctrinal ones?
 
Thank you all for your kind and thoughtful responses, I think I should be a little bit more clear on what I meant by being half Protestant, I believe everything that the Catholic Church professes to be true, and I pray the rosary and read the Catholic Catechism I still feel like I am sub-consciously thinking like a Protestant at times, I am not saying this is a terrible thing it’s just I really loved the old pure Catholic perspective I use to have.
 
It’s familial, I suppose being in the Protestant environment that my high school created caused that.
 
Jovian90 said:
I still feel like I am sub-consciously thinking like a Protestant at times, I am not saying this is a terrible thing it’s just I really loved the old pure Catholic perspective I use to have.
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There’s not that big of a divide between Protestants and Catholics on most things related to good moral behavior (apart from some issues relating to marriage, birth control, and gender/ sexuality, which don’t seem likely to be coming up in your average college ecumenical group).

I’ve actually found some Protestant attitudes and thought processes to be very helpful to me in my Catholicism. For example, some I’ve met have had a great trust in God and have really made Jesus a big part of their daily life in a down-to-earth way.

Can you give an example of what you would consider “thinking like a Protestant”? It might not be anything you would need to give up.
 
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The biggest way I feel like i’m thinking like a Protestant is when it comes to the Holy Bible, whenever I read the Bible I tend to think sub-consciously that everything that we believe has to be in the Bible, I know this isn’t true because the Holy Trinity isn’t mentioned in the Bible yet we still believe in that, but it still I get that thinking sub-consciously, another example of this is that I feel like I have to take everything in the Bible literally.
 
I know that a lot of Protestants (depending on which group you’re talking about) don’t even take the entire Bible literally. Pretty sure the Presbyterians in my family, who did a ton of Bible study, did not take it all literally. I would suggest more scholarly study of the Bible if you want to cure yourself of that literal thinking.

While it’s true that Catholics do not require everything they believe to be in the Bible, there is actually Scriptural support for the vast majority of Catholic beliefs. The Catechism contains many references to the Bible and also many Catholic apologists have written articles and books on Scriptural support for Catholic beliefs.
 
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Jovian90 said:
I just want to ask some quick questions why do the evangelicals seem to like me a lot, even though i am Catholic? Why do they try to include me in there groups even though I am not one of them?
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Um, because you are a person?

Most people in the US do not have a religion litmus test for friendships. Those of all faiths and no faiths find friendship. I have Muslim, Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, and atheist friends and family members. I have coworkers and clients who are all of the above and Mormon and Jehovah Witness also.

America is known as the melting pot for a reason.
 
Jovian90 said:
I just want to ask some quick questions why do the evangelicals seem to like me a lot, even though i am Catholic?
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This is a question that you are in the best position to answer. A couple of clear points:
  • Evangelicals use a New Testament canon decided by 4th century Catholic Bishops.
  • All these Catholic Bishops brough this book into Church and read from it, when they preside over the Mass.
  • They believed 100%, that the bread and wine became the Resurrected Body and Blood of Christ. None believed in the Evangelical belief that it was symbolic only
  • So Evangelicals without realizing it, believe that these Catholic Bishops somehow figured out which books were scripture, 27 out of some 300+ early Christian writings but didn’t know how to interpret the writings themselves.
  • In the Evangelical mind, they were and Catholics are today: idol worshipers.
So too, these 4th c Catholic Bishops, at Hippo and Carthage affirmed 46 books of the Old Testament.

Evangelicals are most inconsistent then in their beliefs: tacitly trusting the authority of these 4th c Catholic Bishops on the NT …but believing they error’d greatly on the Eucharist AND errored greatly on the OT canon.

This does make Christ out to be undependable and a liar. He failed to lead his Church to ALL truth as he promised. Only some truth, some of the time.

I say this to equip you as you stand feeling one foot Catholic and the other Evangelical (and by the way, there are very Evangelical Catholics).
 
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Jovian90 said:
evangelicals seem to like me a lot, even though i am Catholic?
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I guess, from a non-Catholic standpoint, I need to answer your question with a question: Why shouldn’t they?
Jovian90 said:
Why do they try to include me in there groups even though I am not one of them?
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I can answer from my background: We don’t see you as “one of us”. In my nondenominational church we didn’t grow up Catholics vs. Lutherans vs. Presbyterians vs. etc…, we (I) grew up that we were all Christians doing our best to get to heaven.

My wife has always been accepted at my home church. I never thought she wouldn’t.

I know I’ve written it on here how strange it was that I (as a non-Catholic) aren’t really accepted in any groups at my wife’s Catholic church. It was/is quite the culture shock.
 
Evangelicals and Protestants love God too! And they have a heart of fire for God that is sometimes lacking in Catholics. So it’s good to have Protestant friends. But when it comes down to it. There is one Church that was historically founded by Jesus and that is the Catholic Church. It is more important to conform to truth than to conform with what “feels” true. The Catholic Church offers the truth to its fullest extent in the Eucharist! Jesus is in the Eucharist! Remember to always follow Jesus even if he leads you into uncomfortable places! God bless you and I’ve just said a prayer for you. God loves you!
 
Appologies for not replying sooner…it’s been a busy week.

Much of it started off just after we were married. I noticed that everything with our name on it (mailboxes in the back of the church, mailers, picture directory, etc…), I always had an asterisk next to my name. I asked her if this meant what I think it did and she said “yep”. That, to me anyway, seemed to answer why the priest seemed…luke warm at best…on performing our wedding.

Every summer the parish has a festival where all the members are given something to do. The husbands/dads are always given either A) cooking the pig or B) bar tending. I wasn’t given anything. On to the next summer…same thing. My wife ended up talking me into going out when her dad and brother were doing the cooking. I asked “why aren’t I getting put on the schedule to cook or bar tend? Is it because I’m not Catholic”? She said “Yes, since you’re not Catholic you’re not viewed as a member so you won’t be invited to help”.

There’s other things that have gone on as well in the years we’ve been married where I haven’t felt the most welcome at my wife’s current parish, but the above instance was the first instance where I experienced that since I’m not Catholic I’m not really accepted with the group.
 
@TruthHasSpoken , since you’re new here, I’d just point out that TC3033 has posted a number of times in the past about how he feels that his priest/ parish doesn’t accept him and frowns on his mixed marriage (Protestant married to Catholic). While I don’t doubt this has been his experience, as he’s posted about it a lot, there are a number of us on here who have been in mixed marriages or have had other experience with mixed marriages in our families and have NOT had similar experiences. This seems to be an issue with TC’s particular parish or priest and not something that occurs at all parishes or as part of Catholic teaching.

I was in a mixed marriage for 23 years (was widowed) and our priest did not give us any problem whatsoever about marrying us, nor was my husband made to feel unwelcome at any church we happened to attend. I’ve met other couples (including the undertaker at my husband’s funeral, who was Catholic married to a Lutheran lady who worked at the local Catholic school for decades) who similarly haven’t had a problem. I’ll admit that my husband wasn’t interested in participating in church festivals and the like, and such things are usually handled by volunteers or the Knights of Columbus (which, not being Catholic, he wasn’t a member of) at the churches I’ve attended, so we never had the opportunity to see if he would get turned down to help there, but one church we were visiting asked him to help out as an usher and he was always treated nicely at church events we did attend as a couple.
 
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