My answer comes as a Baptist…Missionary Baptist, who had non-Baptist relatives so I spent a lot of time around other religions and denominations.
I always enjoyed the rituals of the Catholic service and found them to be comforting. I have always had a rosary and would hold it for comfort and while praying, even before converting. My maternal family is from Louisiana so a lot of things that I thought were just “Christian” were uniquely Catholic and I didn’t realize it. Mardi Gras is tied to Lent and everyone around me would give up something and we went to church on Good Friday, etc. As I got older, I spent more time asking questions about why things were done different at different churches, which led to more “well that doesn’t make sense to me” thoughts.
Major example: Baptist churches don’t “celebrate” Lent in the way Catholics do. (Celebrate may be the wrong word.) They recognize the meaning behind the 40 days, and I know tons of non-Catholics who abstain from something. They recognize the holy days connected to Lent, but when I ask why the various churches don’t officially recognize it, I usually get “because it’s Catholic”. I started to see more and more that a lot of things were essentially in “Protest” of the Catholic church, although they made perfect sense and were not “wrong” in anyone’s eyes…just Catholic.
The biggest hangup I had was the “saved by the blood” thing. My grandmother and step-grandmother (step-dad’s mom) were both Protestants who for the most part try to live the Christian values. They do the Christian “right thing” because it’s right, whether anyone sees it or not. It’s a sense of right and wrong. But the basics that the church taught were that being “saved”, even though you may have been seven or eight years old like a lot of us were, was enough to get you to heaven. I saw people stop attending church, stop being good people and the idea was that it was all forgiven because they were “saved”. I didn’t ascribe to this but by the teaching of the church, many did and trying to convince them otherwise was senseless.
I actually had a conversation with a Protestant friend a few months ago who was contemplating doing something that was semi-revenge, semi-necessary. While discussing whether or not it was wrong, I said she should separate the part that is her being angry at the person and focus on the part that may harm another if she doesn’t speak up. She eventually got tired of trying to figure it out and said, “well I am going to heaven anyway, because I am saved”.
I love that the Catholic church has stages of being what a Baptist would call “saved”. Baptism…THEN communion…THEN confirmation at a later age. Most of my family and friends who were baptized at early ages admit it was for the wrong reason (to join the choir, to copy someone else) etc and had to really struggle with their faith later because they felt tied to it out of obligation, not out of true devotion. Not to say that Catholics don’t stray and have the same issues, but I like the stages of re-affirming yourself to the faith.
Someone mentioned the hierarchy. Wow. YES! I had a serious issue with the fact that although for example, my husband’s church growing up, my church growing up and the church we began to attend after marriage were all under the same “umbrella”/conference, they had totally different ways of doing things and all of them were because of Biblical interpretation. Even
when the communion was done was totally different. Some did it on Sunday evenings, some only on First Sunday, some only at the evening service. It was too much disconnect and as a military brat and now military spouse, I was tired of wondering “what way does this church do it” when we went to a new place. I love that I can drop in and still feel a part of / as one, with the service no matter where I am. It makes me feel that we are “ONE” church.
Was it hard to leave the church? I miss Baptist music. But I have iTunes and Spotify, etc. LOL I sometimes miss the preaching that gave me chills. But I don’t miss the marathon church services.
Honestly though, the older I got, the more I was convinced to convert and it never gave me pause. I have children who I started realizing would ask me the same questions I posed and I would have no answer better than the ones I was given.
Because we were moving, I waited until we got to our current location to finish the conversion (I had started RCIA and during a rough/medical issue laden pregnancy, stopped going. So I finished here and we converted two years ago. I do find that my knowledge of scripture as a former Baptist is somewhat of a fascination to many Catholics. Also, being able to “pray on the spot” as one lady put it, is something Baptists just know how to do, from years of going to church four or five days a week.
Well that’s my long (name removed by moderator)ut.
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Okay. Protestants (at least the ones I know) seem to think that if they cover their eyes history will either go away or suddenly agree with them.