I don't want my son to be protestant

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ivonneperla

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What can I do to avoid my son to become “Protestant” ? Since I married a “Protestant” man totally Fundamentalist Baptist and I disappointed him the day I told him I don’t go to church with him anymore but my 8 years old son I am raising him all I possible “Catholic” but we have bible reading at home thing that anyway a good Catholic should do but sometimes we should go to my husband’s church for some activities my son begs me for not going but if I don’t do it at least for important dates like “Church anniversary” or things like that my marriage will fall apart, I try to tell my son to be careful and if he has any question I am ready to answer but he says he does like sometimes what the Pastor preaches ( He is a really good preacher) kinda confuses him but right after I talk to him he does say he is not anymore, what should I do, I don’t want him to be Protestant …
 
pray, pray, pray. and be an example of a good Catholic. If anything comes up that’s specifically protestant, offer what the Church teaches on that subject.
 
I don’t know but you might do better posting this in the Catholic Living “Spirituality” sub-forum. It fits better there and you’ll get lots of help there. Good people:)

There may be no easy solution that avoids tension with your husband. “Not peace but a sword”, as the Scripture reads:( I’ll say a prayer for you.
 
talk to your kid and spouse about Catholicism and about how its the Church are Lord and Savior Jesus founded
 
CountrySteve said:
talk to your kid and spouse about Catholicism and about how its the Church are Lord and Savior Jesus founded
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Impossible ! I left the baptist church he comes from a very weak Catholic knowledge, It is always ending in fight …😦
 
in addition to increasing prayer for both your husband and son. I would suggest ordering the catechism of the catholic , a catholic study bible, and a book on catholic apologetics.
 
Califman831 said:
in addition to increasing prayer for both your husband and son. I would suggest ordering the catechism of the catholic , a catholic study bible, and a book on catholic apologetics.
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I do I am studing apologetics and I am member of RCIA group of my church
 
I have a lot of experience with the group you mentioned. I agree with the other respondents.
  1. Pray.
  2. Live a model Catholic Christian life before him and your husband.
  3. Take your son to Mass every week and get him involved with other Catholic youth in your church.
  4. Buy the book “YOUCAT -Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church” and study it together with your son.
  5. On a simple level, help him understand the general flow of church history and how and where the Catholic church and this Fundamental Baptist church fit in.
  6. Correct wrong ideas but also be willing to praise the positives as well. Don’t always come across as negative or combative. There are things we can learn from them. We should respect, although may not always agree to the degree that they take things, that they are trying to live a holy, separated life that is pleasing and glorifying to God.
Peace be with you.
 
The truth is, that he must make (and life with) his own decisions in life. Also, by marrying a Protestant you have arguably contributed to the matter to some extent.
 
x1980x said:
The truth is, that he must make (and life with) his own decisions in life. Also, by marrying a Protestant you have arguably contributed to the matter to some extent.
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I do not appreciate your comment at all what you are doing is casting judgement on me thing that Jesus warned
I think that you don’t understand the point of the question, first, I think there is not point to blame on me this situation because I came back to the Catholic church time after we got married, Besides not knowing enough about what their believes are, this is not about what shouldn’t do it is what can I do now…Thanks for your comment
 
ivonneperla said:
Impossible ! I left the baptist church he comes from a very weak Catholic knowledge, **It is always ending in fight **…😦
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Friend, perhaps this indeed is the ‘telling’…how can one reflect the Light of Christ and be a witness with anger in one’s heart…“fighting” about religion is always counter productive…“Let you light shine shine before men…”…be “salt” and “leaven”…fighting and strife will not assist the situation…“as far as it be up to you, be at peace with all men…”

Once anger enters into the discussion concerning the Prince of Peace…the “message” is lost to all involved.
 
ChinaMission99 said:
I have a lot of experience with the group you mentioned. I agree with the other respondents.
  1. Buy the book “YOUCAT -Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church” and study it together with your son.
Peace be with you.
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The YOUCAT is undergoing revision due to translation errors, so the original poster may want to wait a while before buying it.
 
ivonneperla said:
I do not appreciate your comment at all what you are doing is casting judgement on me thing that Jesus warned
I think that you don’t understand the point of the question, first, I think there is not point to blame on me this situation because I came back to the Catholic church time after we got married, Besides not knowing enough about what their believes are, this is not about what shouldn’t do it is what can I do now…Thanks for your comment
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The poster wasn’t judging you and you’re over-reacting to the comment. You have to understand that by marrying a Protestant, you cannot expect him to give up his beliefs in regards to raising his son in his faith. I’m considering becoming Catholic, but my wife has made it clear that she will not convert (she’s protestant). I recognize that if I do this there will need to be compromise in how we raise our children in the Lord. What you can do now is pray as others have mentioned, and talk to your husband about how to go forward. Ask him what he thinks Catholics believe and then show him from the catechism what they really believe. As for your son, you may have to accept that he may choose to follow his father and become Protestant. There may be nothing else you can do but live out the Catholic faith to it’s fullest and hope this impacts your son.
 
At some point your son will have to make his own choices about what to believe.

In the mean time get him some books on the lives of the saints, especially the ones who defended the Church against various heresies and the great miracle workers, like St. Anthony and St. Padre Pio.

Try not to let you dispain for Protestants show through, that can only be counter productive. We are ALL brothers in Christ, and we must always be Christ-like to everyone even folks who do not share our beliefs.

There are many worst things that becoming Protestant. What do you do if they choose to be atheist or some other non-Christian faith ?

For your son to embrace your faith he should learn to love the faith and all that it has to offer. Teach him what the mass and sacraments are all about. Show him all the great works that the Church does for the poor. Show him how Mary has always been watching over the Church and its saints throughout the centuries. There is a reason why Christ and Mary appears almost exclusively to Catholic saints and seldomly to other faiths.

IF you can prove to him that the Church is the best place for him, then he will never have reasons to look elsewhere.

You need to show him that you will recognize Christ’s followers by the love that they exhibit for everyone and NOT by their disdain for fellow Christians.

God bless you and your family.
 
ivonneperla said:
What can I do to avoid my son to become “Protestant” ? Since I married a “Protestant” man totally Fundamentalist Baptist and I disappointed him the day I told him I don’t go to church with him anymore but my 8 years old son I am raising him all I possible “Catholic” but we have bible reading at home thing that anyway a good Catholic should do but sometimes we should go to my husband’s church for some activities my son begs me for not going but if I don’t do it at least for important dates like “Church anniversary” or things like that my marriage will fall apart, I try to tell my son to be careful and if he has any question I am ready to answer but he says he does like sometimes what the Pastor preaches ( He is a really good preacher) kinda confuses him but right after I talk to him he does say he is not anymore, what should I do, I don’t want him to be Protestant …
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Let him be what he wants to be. If he was homosexual you wouldn’t throw him out on the street (unless you were that much of a homophobic idiot, which I doubt) so why would you do it if he was Protestant? I’m not just saying this because I’m Lutheran, I’m saying this because if you just let your child figure it out for themselves, they’ll pick what is right for them. If you force something onto a child too much, they will rebel one day, and I think Protestant is better than Atheist, so be settle.
 
ivonneperla said:
What can I do to avoid my son to become “Protestant” ? Since I married a “Protestant” man totally Fundamentalist Baptist and I disappointed him the day I told him I don’t go to church with him anymore but my 8 years old son I am raising him all I possible “Catholic” but we have bible reading at home thing that anyway a good Catholic should do but sometimes we should go to my husband’s church for some activities my son begs me for not going but if I don’t do it at least for important dates like “Church anniversary” or things like that my marriage will fall apart, I try to tell my son to be careful and if he has any question I am ready to answer but he says he does like sometimes what the Pastor preaches ( He is a really good preacher) kinda confuses him but right after I talk to him he does say he is not anymore, what should I do, I don’t want him to be Protestant …
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Since you already with him and i am sure he also refering to the same bible as catholic do. I beleive by living base on what stated in the bible, the couple would stay together. The most important things is,…pray with him together and read the bible together…I am pretty sure Our God Jesus Christ will help both of you in settling this matter out…God Bless and peace be with you.
 
ivonneperla said:
What can I do to avoid my son to become “Protestant” ? Since I married a “Protestant” man totally Fundamentalist Baptist and I disappointed him the day I told him I don’t go to church with him anymore but my 8 years old son I am raising him all I possible “Catholic” but we have bible reading at home thing that anyway a good Catholic should do but sometimes we should go to my husband’s church for some activities my son begs me for not going but if I don’t do it at least for important dates like “Church anniversary” or things like that my marriage will fall apart, I try to tell my son to be careful and if he has any question I am ready to answer but he says he does like sometimes what the Pastor preaches ( He is a really good preacher) kinda confuses him but right after I talk to him he does say he is not anymore, what should I do, I don’t want him to be Protestant …
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I sympathise with you; we mothers want what is good for our children.

But don’t panic, don’t give in to negative thinking. Be not afraid. 🙂

The big danger is that the child will conclude that Christianity is not true if it causes fights and tension and negativity in the home.

Seek to present the truth of Catholicism in a positive way because from my observation of mixed-religion marriages, the child usually rejects the party that is most negative.
So you don’t need to spend a lot of time telling him how wrong the protestants are. Just present the Catholic teaching in a constant and loving way.

If possible, stay with him when he goes to the protestant church to protect him from people who might want to tell him how wrong the Catholics are.

Here are some good resources for you. Try to cover the main points over the next few years because after they are about 12, a lot of kids don’t take on board much of what parents say. Of course, there are always exceptions. 😉

Catholic & Protestant

When Non-Catholics Say… You Say…

And this is just a really good website that seeks to be a bridge between Catholics and Protestants:
davidmacd.com/catholic/born_again_catholics.htm#Good News for Ecumenism
 
Definitely pray. Also, do some research on apologetics and take the initiative and talk to him about things that Fundamentalist Baptists might bring up such as the myth that Catholics worship Mary or that Catholics are not Christians. I think you should be aggressive in defending the Church here. Fundamentalist Baptists are extremely anti-Catholic. Many of them believe the Church is the “whore of Babylon” as one example. They are very ignorant of what the Church actually teaches and believes. Therefore, combat these things head on. Also, get him some books refuting Fundamentalism. One that I would highly recommend is “The Catholic Verses: 95 Bible Passages That Confound Protestants” by Dave Armstrong. I also recommend “Catholicism and Fundamentalism: The Attack on “Romanism” by “Bible Christians”” by Karl Keating.

That said, you must pray for him. Pray the Rosary every single day for him. Pray the Rosary with him! Also, recite the Saint Michael the Archangel prayer frequently. Here it is if you don’t know it:

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray and do thou oh prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, cast into Hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
 
Holly3278 said:
Also, get him some books refuting Fundamentalism. One that I would highly recommend is “The Catholic Verses: 95 Bible Passages That Confound Protestants” by Dave Armstrong. I also recommend “Catholicism and Fundamentalism: The Attack on “Romanism” by “Bible Christians”” by Karl Keating.
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Holly, maybe you missed that the boy is only 8 years old? I have the Keating book and while it is a very good book, it is way beyond an 8-year-old.
 
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