How many friends have you lost this year because they can't stand that you're a faithful Catholic?

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Hoping I don’t lose some more - I just posted something about Melinda Gates and contraception on my page. It came from an EWTN feed which got it from National Catholic Register. I put up a warning to liberals before I got down to brass tacks.

I just can’t let some stuff go by. Am I going to have to make 2 Facebook pages OR give up Facebook entirely? :rolleyes: Decision Day about that may not be far off. It seems as if just when I think, OK, I’m gonna just post nice neutral stuff, there is something that comes along that I just can’t resist posting. I’m like Jeremiah.

You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped; you were too strong for me, and you triumphed. All the day I am an object of laughter; everyone mocks me.
Whenever I speak, I must cry out, violence and outrage is my message; The word of the LORD has brought me derision and reproach all the day.
I say to myself, I will not mention him, I will speak in his name no more. But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it. Jer 20:7-9
 
You’re not allowed to create more than one personal account on Facebook.
 
You’re also not allowed to “provide false personal information”. In the past, Facebook has performed sweeps against people using e.g. their Second Life handles or other pseudonyms from online games as “real names”. It’s not a very stable way to maintain your account.

However, this is extremely controversial among many people. Google Plus took the extreme here and aggressively deleted accounts of people who used pseudonyms. Some people argue that they are better known to the online world by a pseudonym than by a real name. Some people are the subject of stalking and harrassment and can’t use their real name from fear that the stalker will find them.

But, for the time being, Facebook’s policy is clear, so I wouldn’t normally advise someone to break their terms of service, because at the very least it means risking your account’s existence.
 
Elizium23 said:
You’re also not allowed to “provide false personal information”. In the past, Facebook has performed sweeps against people using e.g. their Second Life handles or other pseudonyms from online games as “real names”. It’s not a very stable way to maintain your account.
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Well, I appreciate the explanation. It’s food for thought. I know that there are things about Facebook that even after being on it for a couple of years, I’m still learning. And it may be that being a fairly private person I may just get to the point where I’ve caught up with enough relatives and friends (my main reason for getting on FB in the first place) that I can get the ones with whom I’m really close to communicate via e-mail and close my Facebook account. Isn’t it kind of strange that e-mail is already feeling a bit antiquated! :rolleyes:
 
I haven’t really lost any friends but I haven’t gotten into deep discussions about my faith with them either except the ones who are Catholic. On FB people are so bandwagonish and liberal that I stay clear of hot button issues.

I have a gay friend who knows I’m devoutly Christian but he doesn’t know I joined the Catholic church. I do fear that our friendship might be jeopardized if/when he finds out but if that happens, so be it. Christ comes before anyone in my life.
 
A couple months ago, she informed me regretfully that I had lost her as a friend.
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And here is exactly what bothers me about many liberals: they will so often behave as if their friendship is some treasure or reward that you may keep only by sharing their views, or at least not rocking the boat too much by voicing your own; whereas if a conservative ends a friendship over difference in views, it’s called intolerance.

I’m glad things worked out for you.

I, too, have many very liberal friends. We tend to talk about the things we’re involved in together (the arts) but they have no qualms about throwing in snide remarks now and again about Catholic priests and Republicans and so on, and I have wondered how long we’d still be friends if I started voicing my opinion in like manner.
 
holyrood said:
And here is exactly what bothers me about many liberals: they will so often behave as if their friendship is some treasure or reward that you may keep only by sharing their views, or at least not rocking the boat too much by voicing your own; whereas if a conservative ends a friendship over difference in views, it’s called intolerance.

I’m glad things worked out for you.

I, too, have many very liberal friends. We tend to talk about the things we’re involved in together (the arts) but they have no qualms about throwing in snide remarks now and again about Catholic priests and Republicans and so on, and I have wondered how long we’d still be friends if I started voicing my opinion in like manner.
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That happens to me a lot as well.
Some of them proved to be fair-weathered friends. They could not tolerate me simply because of my views.
 
Crescentinus said:
That happens to me a lot as well.
Some of them proved to be fair-weathered friends. They could not tolerate me simply because of my views.
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Sad, isn’t it?

What bothers me the most is that the intolerance comes exactly from those who call themselves tolerant and take so much pride in it.
 
holyrood said:
Sad, isn’t it?

What bothers me the most is that the intolerance comes exactly from those who call themselves tolerant and take so much pride in it.
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It is very sad.
You are not alone in this problem.
 
If someone has already said this, I apologize. And person who would drop you is NOT a friend, he/she is an acquaintance. Friends stand by you whether they agree with your religion or not. I think we often use the term “friend” when we really mean an acquaintance. “Friends” mentioned by the OP are not friends and I am not sure I would even want them as an acquaintance.
 
mary_bobo said:
If someone has already said this, I apologize. And person who would drop you is NOT a friend, he/she is an acquaintance. Friends stand by you whether they agree with your religion or not. I think we often use the term “friend” when we really mean an acquaintance. “Friends” mentioned by the OP are not friends and I am not sure I would even want them as an acquaintance.
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Unfortunately, sometimes it’s only when things like this happen that we understand who was a true friend and who wasn’t.
 
Yes. I seemed to have lost friends. It breaks my heart.

I lost the love of my life because I’m Catholic. I’ve never really fully recovered from that one…and ironically he was Catholic too, just not practicing. 😦
 
mary_bobo said:
If someone has already said this, I apologize. And person who would drop you is NOT a friend, he/she is an acquaintance. Friends stand by you whether they agree with your religion or not. I think we often use the term “friend” when we really mean an acquaintance. “Friends” mentioned by the OP are not friends and I am not sure I would even want them as an acquaintance.
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Yes, and if we happen to be talking about Facebook, since they use the term “friend” for all your - I would call them “contacts” - then we have a new lingo - “unfriending” someone - language sometimes creates new realities, for good or ill.

I’m currently “detoxing” from Facebook - kept my account but just not going on there much at all - and I already feel less stressed! 😃
 
3DOCTORS said:
Yes, and if we happen to be talking about Facebook, since they use the term “friend” for all your - I would call them “contacts” - then we have a new lingo - “unfriending” someone - language sometimes creates new realities, for good or ill.

I’m currently “detoxing” from Facebook - kept my account but just not going on there much at all - and I already feel less stressed! 😃
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I lost a friend this year because of being Catholic/pro-life. The sad thing was that he is also Catholic. He is studying theology and has sadly taken on the seamless garment argument to the exclusion of being pro-life for babies. I called him out on one of his “theological” musings on fb, and we had what I thought was a good debate. But at the end he started to get a little nasty and personal about it. So I started to look for his profile to see if I wanted to “de-friend” him lo and behold he had already “de-friended” me.

We had been friends in college, but I graduated and moved away and he stayed (and stayed even longer for a graduate degree). But it was sort of a weird friendship as his up bringing had left him a little unstable and was sort of a toxic draining relationship.
 
jilly4ski said:
I lost a friend this year because of being Catholic/pro-life. The sad thing was that he is also Catholic. He is studying theology and has sadly taken on the seamless garment argument to the exclusion of being pro-life for babies. I called him out on one of his “theological” musings on fb, and we had what I thought was a good debate. But at the end he started to get a little nasty and personal about it. So I started to look for his profile to see if I wanted to “de-friend” him lo and behold he had already “de-friended” me.

We had been friends in college, but I graduated and moved away and he stayed (and stayed even longer for a graduate degree). But it was sort of a weird friendship as his up bringing had left him a little unstable and was sort of a toxic draining relationship.
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It’s going to sound cliche’d but I’ve found that the atheists and vehemently pro-choice people I’ve been friends with are usually very wounded people, with loss and/or severe abuse in their early life, and unstable family upbringing in general.

Interestingly enough, some of them are very pro-animal-rights and environmentalists (missing the fact that humans are mammals too :rolleyes:). I can only think that maybe animals are comforting whereas humans are more complicated to deal with. Also there’s the “population bomb” thinking present there. It’s as if these folks’ low self-esteem has sort of expanded out into a “humans are a blight on the face of the earth” mentality.

Certainly I don’t mean to sound snarky about any of this; often it has been the common love of animals that has been the basis for friendships with people with whom I don’t share much else in common. I’ve hoped in the past that by living my faith and being a loving person I might get others to see that Catholics won’t bite and to maybe open their minds a little to the Church’s teachings. Like St. Francis (the animal saint!) - preach the Gospel always, when necessary use words.

I must say sometimes in the last 3-4 years it has grown trickier in some of these friendships. Have had to pray a lot more, and sometimes, sadly, to let go and entrust them to God if contact is sporadic or broken off completely.
 
3DOCTORS said:
It’s going to sound cliche’d but I’ve found that the atheists and vehemently pro-choice people I’ve been friends with are usually very wounded people, with loss and/or severe abuse in their early life, and unstable family upbringing in general.
**
Interestingly enough, some of them are very pro-animal-rights** and environmentalists (missing the fact that humans are mammals too :rolleyes:).
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I have a rabidly pro-abortion friend who once spent over $3000 on veterinary care for his pregnant dog. The entire time, all he could talk about is how he wanted to save his “puppies.” Not once were they fetuses or embryos, but always “puppies.” He didn’t see the irony in the situation.
 
I am a returning catholic. The majority of my friends are protestant. Not all but most of them do not like the catholic church. I am attending the RCIA in a couple of months time and none of them know yet. I do not intend telling them until I have completed RCIA or just before. Reason being, I know they will try to put me off. They are always trying to convert me. I don’t want any rubbish from them whilst I am going through RCIA. because I want to enjoy it.
I think they’ll start to get the idea though, because I intend to buy statues of Jesus and Our Lady next week. They often comment on my crucifix on my necklace instead of just having a cross because Jesus is risen.
Hopefully I won’t lose any friends, but I may do.🤷
 
That Christ is risen thing/hostility to Crucifix of course comes from knee-jerk historical hostility to Catholicism from Reformation times. I bought a crucifix once and the jeweler told me about a time someone had brought one in because the body of Christ had fallen off and he refused to fix it. I didn’t say anything because I was confused and taken by surprise. Now I wish I had said with St. Paul, “I resolve to know among you only Christ, and Him crucified.” That’s what I’m going to try to remember to say the next time!
 
I have lots of atheist friends and I told them all, that I think, that they will go to hell. I lost non of them, because they agree that if Catholic Church is true they go to hell.
 
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