Has CAF heavily influenced your conversion?

[Daizies]

Honestly, CAF has made me question my conversion. I don’t know why I keep coming back here.
I do my best to live at peace with everyone. Then I come here to the vitriol and anger, and I lose heart with my faith. All the Anti-Protestant, Anti-Muslim, Anti-“Liberal”, Anti-anything not American posts and comments, and I start to wonder if I made the right choice. I was always taught to respect others even if you do not agree with them. I’ve always believed that we should attract others by our kindness and love - not vicious attacks on them and what they believe.
Maybe I wouldn’t struggle so much in my faith if I could just give up coming to this place.

 

[3DOCTORS]

Honestly, CAF has made me question my conversion. I don’t know why I keep coming back here.
I do my best to live at peace with everyone. Then I come here to the vitriol and anger, and I lose heart with my faith. All the Anti-Protestant, Anti-Muslim, Anti-“Liberal”, Anti-anything not American posts and comments, and I start to wonder if I made the right choice. I was always taught to respect others even if you do not agree with them. I’ve always believed that we should attract others by our kindness and love - not vicious attacks on them and what they believe.
Maybe I wouldn’t struggle so much in my faith if I could just give up coming to this place.

It may be that you should avoid some parts of the forums where the very intense debating goes on. Sometimes I have to do that just for my sanity. I’m a cradle Catholic and traditional in my thinking. I may or may not have made some of those posts that you dislike, or ones like them. But some of it, remember, is blowing off steam because this is a safe place to come from all the anti-Catholicism in the secular world. I try to be charitable and definitely not vicious. If I fail in that I try to remedy the damage.

Please try to separate your Catholicism, which is a gift from God, from anything that people might say. If someone on here says something that troubles you greatly, please go talk about it with a priest - don’t let it fester and damage your Faith which is such a great gift. As you are new to the Church, continue to learn about her teachings and if you find something that seems difficult to accept, pray and seek spiritual counsel about it.

Take a break from CAF if you need to. I have done so in the past - it can be overwhelming, and a break can be just what’s needed. Or sometimes I just spend more time on the spirituality forums such as scripture and prayer and less on current events and lifestyle topics.

Hope this helps. God bless!

 

[SurlyMermaid]

It may be that you should avoid some parts of the forums where the very intense debating goes on. Sometimes I have to do that just for my sanity. I’m a cradle Catholic and traditional in my thinking. I may or may not have made some of those posts that you dislike, or ones like them. But some of it, remember, is blowing off steam because this is a safe place to come from all the anti-Catholicism in the secular world. I try to be charitable and definitely not vicious. If I fail in that I try to remedy the damage.

Please try to separate your Catholicism, which is a gift from God, from anything that people might say. If someone on here says something that troubles you greatly, please go talk about it with a priest - don’t let it fester and damage your Faith which is such a great gift. As you are new to the Church, continue to learn about her teachings and if you find something that seems difficult to accept, pray and seek spiritual counsel about it.

Take a break from CAF if you need to. I have done so in the past - it can be overwhelming, and a break can be just what’s needed. Or sometimes I just spend more time on the spirituality forums such as scripture and prayer and less on current events and lifestyle topics.

Hope this helps. God bless!

Agreed!!!

Well, my story, briefly:

I was watching Devil, the horror movie. One of the characters is obviously Catholic, as are my husband (then-boyfriend’s) family. I had some specific questions. I think that was when I had just found out I was pregnant. (I had prayed super hard after a big fight and near-breakup with boyfriend… got pregnant right after!) So, I think I was Googling to see if we could baptize the baby, in case his family wanted it. I adore them and would have gone along with that to please them.

So… I found this forum and reading led to more and more questions and I found myself on this site all the time. I start studying. Here we are. Two annulments to have done then I can actually complete RCIA hopefully next year!

 

[spockrates]

CAF has answered many of my questions, but it many ways it has made me far more distant from the Catholic Church and Catholics overall in many ways. In fact, it’s probably made me less religious overall.

Why do you think that is, teacher?

 

[spockrates]

My story:

Years ago I came here as a militant, anti-Catholic Evangelical. I was bent on winning arguments, using the Bible as a sword. I was using a different user name, then, and it was a different forum, then. Anti-Catholics were given more freedom to speak their minds without being banned.

I had several good debates, all of which ended pretty much in a draw without changing anyone’s mind. Then one debate changed my mind forever, and the Catholics responsible for patiently and gently opening my eyes to the truth used the words of the Bible–which as an Evangelical I could not reject–to convince me. I’m grateful for their persistence in speaking the truth in love.

I still feel somewhat like an outsider, for I have loved ones who are decidedly anti-Catholic. But the forum gives me a place I may get to know my new faith until I figure out how to best return to the church I left many years ago.