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[Pattilynn]

i am sincerely concerned regarding my church. am i correct?

there is more ecumenical activities than appear to be acceptable. at least 2 community services within the last year (although my priest did make it clear one still had to go to Mass)

last summer the children of the parish were invited to a summer bible camp at a protestant church (this was in our bulletin)

there is now a study using Purpose Driven Life in our church

i went to protestant churches for many years… I treasure the Church and personally it upset me that it is becoming more Protestant in appearance every day.

 

[pablope]

i am sincerely concerned regarding my church. am i correct?

there is more ecumenical activities than appear to be acceptable. at least 2 community services within the last year (although my priest did make it clear one still had to go to Mass)

last summer the children of the parish were invited to a summer bible camp at a protestant church (this was in our bulletin)

there is now a study using Purpose Driven Life in our church

i went to protestant churches for many years… I treasure the Church and personally it upset me that it is becoming more Protestant in appearance every day.

Yes. You should be concerned about your parish. And yes, I would be concerned if the parish posted an invitation to a protestant bible camp.

Please bring this to the attention of the the Bishop or the diocese. I would do it first thing monday.

 

[svid2]

Yes. You should be concerned about your parish. And yes, I would be concerned if the parish posted an invitation to a protestant bible camp.

Please bring this to the attention of the the Bishop or the diocese. I would do it first thing monday.

And pray. Pray for your parish, your diocese, and all of Holy Mother Church. If you have time, promote traditional devotions, like a Rosary circle. Just don’t expect many Protestants to show up.

 

[DavidFilmer]

I am also a convert who treasures my Church and is sensitive to protestant encroachments. However, I might not find anything to worry about in your posting (lacking additional details).

Rick Warren (the “Purpose Driven” guy) is an evengelical Southern Baptist (same as Billy Graham, who might also happen to be a Catholic theologian*). I’m not an expert on Warren, but I have never known him to teach anything that I would overtly disagree with (and the five points of his program are in complete harmony with Catholic social doctrine). I also see many similarities with James Dobson. These people are more “catholic” in their beliefs than many of the people whom I share a pew with each Sunday. Just because a guy is protestant does not mean he is wrong about everything.

You don’t say what type of summer camp was mentioned in your bulletin. Was it a Rick Warren style camp, or a Jimmy Swaggart camp? Were there alternative Catholic camps available that should have been promoted instead?

And I know a priest who is VERY orthodox, but participates in at least one community service per year. (he adds it gives him a chance to show protestants that some Catholic priests actually *know *how to preach - but that’s another story). He believes these type of services might help overcome some protestant stereotypes (and he’s in the deep South, where this is a real problem), and possibly lead to conversions, or at least a bit less anti-Catholic rhetoric (while he sees little risk of loosing Catholics or compromising their faith).

Without more details, I could not agree that you face a problem.

• I have opened a thread to discuss whether Billy Graham has legitimate claim to the title, “Catholic theologian.”

 

[Pattilynn]

thank you for all responses… i need to correct the term (went blank) was vacation bible school and this was last year… held at a presbytarian church.

and yes i will pray about the issues… I would love to do more active things in the church but working fulltime and a one car family ta boot makes things limited.

I have no doubt that many in the protestant church are Godly people. my concern is the watering down of the fullness of the faith… and the lack of Apostolic accountablity. in the protestant churches…

. i am concerned that if we as Catholics to worship side by side with others who feel birthcontrol, (even abortion) homosexual marriage is exceptable and this is more than likely in an ecumenical setting… we will definitely not be in one accord.

and (as a former protestant church hopper) I feel it will lead many in the Church to feel well …"why not attend other churches on a regular basis?
(yes i know there are people inside the Church who are believing this… but they KNOW that this is against the teachings of the Church.)

I hope this makes my thoughts more clear on my concern. thanks so much

 

[tafan]

i am sincerely concerned regarding my church. am i correct?

there is more ecumenical activities than appear to be acceptable. at least 2 community services within the last year (although my priest did make it clear one still had to go to Mass)

last summer the children of the parish were invited to a summer bible camp at a protestant church (this was in our bulletin)

there is now a study using Purpose Driven Life in our church

i went to protestant churches for many years… I treasure the Church and personally it upset me that it is becoming more Protestant in appearance every day.

Yes you should be concerened (both for your church and for your parish). In reverse order, your examples go from “completely non-catholic” to “if it was the only issue, maybe one could ignore it as simply silly”.

 

[DavidFilmer]

thank you for all responses… i need to correct the term (went blank) was vacation bible school and this was last year… held at a presbytarian church.

Did the school teach Calvinist theology? Did they talk about predestination, or total depravity of mankind, or other TULIP subjects?

Or did they stick to “Mere Christianity” (as the protestant Anglican C.S. Lewis wrote of in his excellent book of the same name - a book that I highly recommend to Catholics and protestants alike).

Oddly enough, as a young protestant (maybe third-grade), I attended Vacation Bible School at a Catholic school. We made hand-puppets and staged Biblical stories. I made a Saul puppet who chased David across the desert, but my spear was stolen in the night and I gave up. There were many other protestants attending. I do not recall that Catholic-specific doctrines were ever emphasized.

If the Presbyterian program you mentioned was similar to this Catholic program then there is little cause for concern. But I still wonder if a comparable Catholic program was available but not promoted. If so, this would be a real cause for concern. But if a Catholic program was not available, and an acceptable protestant program was, it would be better to send the kids to the protestant program instead of a purely secular “Christian” program such as YMCA summer camp (which I also attended, and watched a male councilor remove the bikini top of a female councilor against her will).

 

[Farsight001]

I have to say, I don’t think we’re working with enough information to make that judgment.

What kind of protestant bible camp is it? Some of them are intentionally ambiguous so that all denominations feel welcome, teaching only bible stories and generic things like “God loves us all”. While not nitty-gritty and deeply informative, these kinds of bible camps also don’t teach contrary to the Catholic faith. I vaguely remember one from when I was a child, and what stood out to me was they detailed explanation of the importance of the star of David to Jewish people and the fact that we got to dress up in robes and sandals similar to what they would have worn in biblical times.

As for Purpose Driven Life - there is a short book called “A Catholic perspective on Purpose Driven Life”, which explains that it is generally a great book, but that this short text was written so that a Catholic may recognize the subtle theological differences in PDL. I have both PDL and the Catholic perspective. Working with both, I found it to be of great benefit. If the study in your church is also using the companion, then I can’t see anything the matter.