[quote="Reuben_J, post:71, topic:483612,
And to do that to a 10 yr old child. I will
never get over that. At the time, I was still reeling from my parents divorce and a 10 month separation from my mother while custody was decided. Then Mama moved all of us to her home state which was light years ahead of my Midwest schooling. Everything was so much faster in our new location. It was culture shock. I went from close knit Catholics everywhere to an entirely different planet.
My maternal grandfather was CoC. And he warned me not to tell anyone I was Catholic. I guess he knew the reaction I’d get. This was a very Protestant area and he knew how proud I was of being Catholic. But I was raised to answer questions honestly and did tell people I was Catholic.
No one in the other Protestant churches ever spat on me. They were very welcoming but said things like, “Well, that’s the wrong religion. Catholics aren’t Christians” and would give me the reasons. But they didn’t act like that one pastor did. So I know it was just him.
Mama was Protestant at that time. And she went with me to the SB church one Sunday. She saw that pastor in action for herself. And she was appalled by the way he preached and taught Jesus. By that time, she was so used to the way the Catholic Church taught. And she let me know when we got home that the Protestant churches she’d been raised in (CoC and Methodist) didn’t preach or teach the way that pastor did and didn’t say the things he did.
Being a kid, I didn’t know who to complain to about that pastor. So I just prayed for him and also prayed he’d leave and go somewhere else. When he and his family moved, my family and friends and I were thrilled. I actually liked his kids tho. They were nice.
[/quote]
I hesitate to answer in this way but feel I should. Reading your account on this particular post brought back a memory I have shelved.
I was raised on a farm in a conservative non-Catholic community about five miles from a fairly large Catholic community. Most of the people from my church lived on farms (this is 1960’s) but one family with three daughters lived in the little Hamlet nestled between the two communities. The girls and I were about ages 13 to 16 at the time. One day as I was out riding a bike on a public gravel road a car pulled up and two guys got out. One was older middle age and the other was younger. They never physically hurt me but did swear and curse at me calling me names for being from my church and not a Catholic. They also made crude gestures as they explained how they f…the girls from my church and how the girls so enjoyed it. After suggesting they were going to beat me into pulp and intimidating me, they finally left. I had a very kind and understanding father who explained to me what a Catholic is and how we differed and how we were considered heretics centuries ago, worthy only of death.
Thankfully times have changed alot. I am sure we all grieve the heart of our Heavenly Father. Peace.