For my Protestant friends

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First, I pray the Holy Spirit will guide you as you travel on your journey. If that leads you to the Catholic Church, then I pray you will be blessed in word and sacrament there.

From the opposite POV, do you think those who move in the opposite direction (Catholic to another communion) face simialr pressures from family and friends?

Jon
Your comment sounds to me most charitable toward this Catholic convert (and I have no particular investment in the dispute), unlike the Satanic allusions of a couple of other posters, which appear uncharitable and offensive toward the Protestant faith.
 
Why is it so offensive to Protestants when one of us decides to join the Church? I just received a private message from someone asking if I’m willing to study the RC with them before making my decision. Frankly, I find this highly offensive, considering I do not know this person and they do not know what experiences, studies, and prayers have made up my life.

But it isn’t just this stranger. As I make my decision known, my fellow Protestant friends and family are overwhelming my email and text messages with little bits of scripture, or articles about walking with Jesus. When I decided to leave the fundamental life and was baptised Presbyterian, no one reacted with this much zealousness. Is this only happening to me, or is this common?

Frankly, I see it as more evidence that this is the right decision. I won’t go into the charismatic element of that statement, but many may understand what I mean.
Its been my experience that protestants spend an inordinate amount of time agressively dealing with catholics. The more I experience it the more I realize they do so only because they kno catholicism is true.
 
I just made a quick visit to this site and my question is why would you want to go there. I instead of even trying to tak with them am going to pray for them.
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Your reply is probably correct, but I “enjoy” (not the exactly the correct word, but I’m having a “mental moment”:p) visiting all types of religious websites. In my own situation, I have children who are Baptist and sometimes I hope that I will pickup something that may help me given the right set of circumstances.
 
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Your reply is probably correct, but I “enjoy” (not the exactly the correct word, but I’m having a “mental moment”:p) visiting all types of religious websites. In my own situation, I have children who are Baptist and sometimes I hope that I will pickup something that may help me given the right set of circumstances.
I finally ventured over out of curiousity. I see that they have a thread debating if the RCC is a cult. But, if they won’t let an RCC member respond, it’s not truly a “debate”… :hmmm:

Even more curious was when I read this statement in their forum rules:

All participants in this forum are Christian, though we hail from a variety of denominations.

Probably not the most tolerant place to be.
 
Why is it so offensive to Protestants when one of us decides to join the Church? I just received a private message from someone asking if I’m willing to study the RC with them before making my decision. Frankly, I find this highly offensive, considering I do not know this person and they do not know what experiences, studies, and prayers have made up my life.

But it isn’t just this stranger. As I make my decision known, my fellow Protestant friends and family are overwhelming my email and text messages with little bits of scripture, or articles about walking with Jesus. When I decided to leave the fundamental life and was baptised Presbyterian, no one reacted with this much zealousness. Is this only happening to me, or is this common?

Frankly, I see it as more evidence that this is the right decision. I won’t go into the charismatic element of that statement, but many may understand what I mean.
Doesn’t bother me all. I’m just happy somebody becomes a Christian, or if they already were, becomes serious about their faith. 👍

I think the reason you’re getting so much negative feedback from your Christian acquaintances is that you came from the fundamentalist wing of Protestantism. They tend to have a much more negative view of Catholicism than Protestants in general.
 
Why is it so offensive to Protestants when one of us decides to join the Church? I just received a private message from someone asking if I’m willing to study the RC with them before making my decision. Frankly, I find this highly offensive, considering I do not know this person and they do not know what experiences, studies, and prayers have made up my life.

But it isn’t just this stranger. As I make my decision known, my fellow Protestant friends and family are overwhelming my email and text messages with little bits of scripture, or articles about walking with Jesus. When I decided to leave the fundamental life and was baptised Presbyterian, no one reacted with this much zealousness. Is this only happening to me, or is this common?

Frankly, I see it as more evidence that this is the right decision. I won’t go into the charismatic element of that statement, but many may understand what I mean.
I was protestant for 20 years. Now that I am joining the catholic church my friends think that I am:
  1. Crazy
  2. Brain washed
  3. Need to be saved
  4. Mis-read
  5. Over thinking things
In any case I too never received any such responses before.

It is all good because now you have a great platform to stir up their minds and bring them to truth.
 
,

Your reply is probably correct, but I “enjoy” (not the exactly the correct word, but I’m having a “mental moment”:p) visiting all types of religious websites. In my own situation, I have children who are Baptist and sometimes I hope that I will pickup something that may help me given the right set of circumstances.
I understand that as my father is southern baptist. I get questioned all the time. On that note because which I do not go looking for those type of things that are on that site as there are times when around my fathers friends and follow church goers I will meet with those that hold to the views of the majority on that site. I will normally let most of go by out of respect for being in my dads house and they are his friends and my elders ( I’m 46 by the way) but from time to time one will push the envelope just a bit to far and I have to set them straight. 😃
 
Why is it so offensive to Protestants when one of us decides to join the Church? I just received a private message from someone asking if I’m willing to study the RC with them before making my decision. Frankly, I find this highly offensive, considering I do not know this person and they do not know what experiences, studies, and prayers have made up my life.

But it isn’t just this stranger. As I make my decision known, my fellow Protestant friends and family are overwhelming my email and text messages with little bits of scripture, or articles about walking with Jesus. When I decided to leave the fundamental life and was baptised Presbyterian, no one reacted with this much zealousness. Is this only happening to me, or is this common?

Frankly, I see it as more evidence that this is the right decision. I won’t go into the charismatic element of that statement, but many may understand what I mean.
I know exactly what you mean. I’m a revert back to the Catholic Church as of eleven years ago. I had many friends from the Baptist church I was attending before that, and when they found out that I went back to the CC, they stopped associating with me. I even had family members who got nasty with me because I reverted back to the CC. I struggled for the last two years of attending the Baptist church-- I missed the reverance of the CC, the sense of quiet (and prayer) before Mass, etc. I felt something was missing at the Baptist church. It didn’t even feel like church to me. I don’t mean to offend anyone, but that is what happened at the particular church I was attending. In fact, my husband is a Baptist. He understands the reason why I reverted back, and my desire to be Catholic. He doesn’t get some of the beliefs of the CC-- Praying the Hail Mary, for the dead, to the Saints, etc. The differences is not an issue to us, just makes for interesting conversation.
 
Being technically in the protestant camp here, I see no problem with people finding the most effective way for them to connect with God. The best, most committed Roman Catholics are often the converts. Sometimes cradle Roman Catholics in the past had difficult childhoods within the Roman Catholic Church. You were fortunate enough to have escaped that experience and your Roman Catholic life will be free of all that childhood baggage. You are in a good place spiritually. God bless you.
 
I was protestant for 20 years. Now that I am joining the catholic church my friends think that I am:
Following Jesus is crazy? As opposed to what?
  1. Brain washed
And they have not been brain washed for saying you are brain washed?
  1. Need to be saved
Salvation is a life time process,not an instant event. Second, ONLY God saves.
Mis-read? How? By accepting historical facts about the CC?
  1. Over thinking things
Over thinking? I think one would have a lot more to think about which non-Catholic church truly teaches the full deposit of faith.
 
Why is it so offensive to Protestants when one of us decides to join the Church? I just received a private message from someone asking if I’m willing to study the RC with them before making my decision. Frankly, I find this highly offensive, considering I do not know this person and they do not know what experiences, studies, and prayers have made up my life.

But it isn’t just this stranger. As I make my decision known, my fellow Protestant friends and family are overwhelming my email and text messages with little bits of scripture, or articles about walking with Jesus. When I decided to leave the fundamental life and was baptised Presbyterian, no one reacted with this much zealousness. Is this only happening to me, or is this common?

Frankly, I see it as more evidence that this is the right decision. I won’t go into the charismatic element of that statement, but many may understand what I mean.
This is reality for me as well. When my brother converted to Catholicism from Protestantism, he received a lot of reactions from our parents and the priest in our church. And the main reason for this I think is because when my brother decides to leave the church we’ve been going to during our whole lives, he sort of sends a message that this church is wrong. Even if you want to, you can’t be loyal to both the Lutheran and Catholic churches. So when he converted, he indirectly told us, his family and friends, that we are going to the wrong church and that the Eucharist is not valid in our church. That was really hard to take for all of us. But that got me thinking about these issues.

When my brother starts to talk about these things at home, my dad always says something like “know you’re getting deep and theoligical again”, like the question of church communion would be completely irrelevant for salvation. But then, is it?

And of course you’d recieve a lot of setbacks in a secularised country, it’s inevitable.

Even so, I find most of my Lutheran friends being very understanding towards my brother’s conversion.

Lastly, could someone give me some advice on what to say to people when I tell them about my thoughts on converting to Catholicism? Because how can I do this without indirectly condemning their beliefs? I don’t want to say they’re wrong, but that’s pratically what I do.

God bless,
Elisabeth
 
I used to get into a lot of defensive arguments with evangelicals about my “radical” decision to become Catholic–(believe me, I rocked the boat quite a bit in my circle of friends when I converted–I had been in full time Christian ministry and an evangelical for 27 years before converting to Catholicism at age 44). What I found was that most of them didn’t care a whole lot about my own experience, or my own story. They argued using a lot of cut and paste apologetics which they thought should win the debate. I found myself responding to them in kind, with my own cut and paste Catholicisms…never very effective, quite frankly. None of what they said kept me from converting, and thus far, no one has joined me in crossing the Tiber…( "The heart has its reasons, "etc etc)

Leaving evangelical Christianity for Catholicism can be an extremely difficult journey and its definitely not for wimps! It took me probably 12 years for God to dismantle my evangelical way of looking at things and to bring me into the fullness of faith which is the Catholic Church. It was extremely painful, and continues to be painful, with regard to the relationships it affected.

In light of my own experience, I suggest that you try to put a postitive spin on the negative reactions by considering that your friends and family care enough about you to keep you from making a decision which they consider to be detrimental to your spiritual health…after all, for many of them Catholicism is a form of idolatry–and certainly not “Christ-centered”–so of course they are concerned for you. Try to look at it in that way. Be thankful that you have people in your life who care about you that much. And trust that God is working in their lives also–even if that means that they are not going to become Catholic!! They still have an experience of God which should be respected, and their stories should be heard, not silenced…God bless you on your journey…
Good analysis. “Follow me” is tough enough but more so when giving up friends. And respect for them is a good thing. A great thought for all of us.
 
Hang in there. I was received into the Church at Easter Vigil in 2009. In my years as a Baptist, and when I attended a Messianic congregation, I met many ex-Catholics. It’s obvious to me now that none of them knew their faith very well. In contrast, most converts to the Catholic Church were actually active and knowledgeable in their previous ecclesial communities. I often correct cradle Catholics regarding their misconceptions about Baptists, but no former Catholic ever corrected misconceptions about the Catholic Church when I was a Baptist.

I guess what I’m saying is that people don’t decide to become Catholic lightly, but it tends to be a studied decision.
Very well put. Those who search will find and those who don’t care to use what they have will loose it. Sounds very much like the parable of the talents.
 
Why is it so offensive to Protestants when one of us decides to join the Church? I just received a private message from someone asking if I’m willing to study the RC with them before making my decision. Frankly, I find this highly offensive, considering I do not know this person and they do not know what experiences, studies, and prayers have made up my life.

But it isn’t just this stranger. As I make my decision known, my fellow Protestant friends and family are overwhelming my email and text messages with little bits of scripture, or articles about walking with Jesus. When I decided to leave the fundamental life and was baptised Presbyterian, no one reacted with this much zealousness. Is this only happening to me, or is this common?

Frankly, I see it as more evidence that this is the right decision. I won’t go into the charismatic element of that statement, but many may understand what I mean.
You are NOT alone. I converted from a Protestant background and joined the Neo Catechuminal way. A large part of my family and friends are also from a protestant background and when I mentioned going into RCIA & doing my confirmation I caught so much flack. From my closest friends to my father. Telling me I no longer believe in Jesus Christ. That I’m going to worship Mary and condemn myself to hell… It was tough!

But my Catechists & my community helped me through this with the grace of God. I’m now happily married and thank GOD for that sacriment. We just had a baby girl 1 month ago and our lives couldn’t be more blessed! God has surrounded me with Catholic family everywhere from in-laws, to my community at church that I walk with daily to even my NEW JOB.

The more I dig for information I keep seeing the scales taken off my eyes and see how God planned this for me from the very beginning.
 
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