I'm becoming Catholic, family and friends are Baptist

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Fahey0115

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I’m a former Southern Baptist who is beginning RCIA this fall. My family (Mom, Dad, Sister, Uncles, Aunts and Cousins) are all devout Southern Baptists. When I break the news of my conversion, it will come as a shock, and I am expecting a tough road ahead. I’m divorced, and I share custody of my nine year old son, who I want to raise in the Church as well. I’m expecting much more resistance and emotion from my family on this point than from my ex-wife. Does anyone have similar experiences or any advice on how to break the news? I would also greatly appreciate any suggestions on books or online material that would be helpful as well.
 
I’m so happy that you are coming into the Catholic Church. I, too, expected significant opposition from my beloved older sister so, on advice from a wise woman, I wrote a letter to her and to my Mother (who lives with my sister). My Mother, the most nonjudgmental person on Earth, sent me a very sweet note the next week telling me she loves me and is praying for me. My sister did not disappoint. She sent me a four-page diatribe telling me how wrong wrong wrong I was to even think about being Catholic. She will never be happy about my conversion but we have come to terms after a several months long estrangement. And for that I am so grateful to God.

I say all of that to say this–why not consider writing a letter giving your reasons for converting. It would seem to be the wimpy way out (that’s what I thought at first) but they will know exactly why you are doing this and there won’t be any misunderstands about your reasons. You’re probably going to get some pretty significant opposition, too, but hang in there because you are doing the right thing.

And here’s what happened to me in respect to my sister. Every day I prayed that the Holy Spirit would soften her heart. Every day I prayed that prayer. As I was going to her home to babysit her after surgery I realized while praying the rosary on the drive up there, that it was MY heart that needed softening. I had wallowed in my hurt feelings and, quite frankly, was enjoying the wallow. So my prayer became, Please Lord, take that away from me and soften my heart. That very evening, when we were having devotions, the very words out of her mouth in prayer were the very things I had thought and said about her–she is rigid in her beliefs, she has an obsessive need to be right, she is sometimes harsh in her words to others (she had blasted our sister-in-law a few days earlier unnecessarily). When I heard those words come out of her mouth, BAM, I knew my prayers had been answered. But I had to change my own hard heart first.

God bless you on your journey HOME.
 
Ditto!

I was confirmed in January. I’ve realized in my case my cousins I’m not really close with anymore and haven’t been there for me in quite some time, so their opinions I really don’t value. The people who’s opinions I did value, were very supportive, but as family does, the topic does pop up from time to time.

Like the poster above mentioned, I would pray about it, and in the mean time, focus on what’s in common. Remember, people don’t coverts hearts and minds, the good Lord does!

Feel free to send me a message if you need to vent! 😃

God bless you, and WELCOME!
 
Welcome Home!!!

May God Bless you on your journey and our Holy Mother guide you with the Holy Spirit of God.

You definitely want to get:

Crossing the Tiber by Steve Ray.

He and his wife come from a Baptist background as well.

At the parish you attend there’s probably a package/selection of CD/DVDs from Lighthouse media.

Get anything from Steve Ray, Scott Hahn, Matthew Kelly.

Also get Karl Keating’s Catholicism and Fundamentalism

He founded this website after all :). An amazing book thou.

The most important thing is: Pray and deal with any opposition out of love, patience and understanding. You once were in their shoes and they have played an important part in the growing of your faith.

Our Faith is demonstrated by Faith and Works, not by Faith alone as we are never alone!!!

Your walk will be much louder than your talk.

God Bless you,

Jose
 
I highly recommend buying the “Catholic Answers” Topic Tabs. These tabs stick onto your bible pages. They are color coded by topics. They will put at your finger tips, Biblical verses of Catholic Teaching. For instance Holy Spirit/trinity is yellow, The Eucharist references are lavendar, Purgatory/statues are brown, references to the pope are white… you get the idea. It is emensely helpful when they start attacking the Church to have the Bible references that prove the Churches teachings. After all the Catholic Church existed for over 300 years before writing, and compiling the New Testament, and giving it to the world! 🙂 The Bible is Catholic Teaching!
 
Well, im a former Baptist as well, I decided i wanted to be Catholic at 16, and I just told my parents that and they refused to let me convert, nevertheless, when i turned eighteen, i signed up for RCIA and am on my way to converting now, but my advice is just tell them kindly, and defiantly don’t make my mistake and start theological debates either, this just turned them even more away from Catholicism, but if they ask, by all means, I shall pray for your conversion, and the Catholic faith, I have found is so much more richer and beautiful and has the fullness of Truth, than the Baptist faith. God bless
 
Welcome to all new converts!

The Deep South is the place of many new conversions now. I have Catholic friends who are former Baptists and some have relatives wanting them to come back, and they say, “No way!”

There is alot of misunderstandings and fears about Catholicism down there. My mother was a former post-Baptist. By that I mean, her family tree had a plantations in Missouri, and after the Civil War, around the 1900’s they came out to re-settle in the Pacific NW. On this journey, they lost their faith as practicing Baptists…still claiming they are Christians and believe in the Bible, but that is about it.

They moved not too far away from a place where the movie, ‘The Egg and I’ got its inspiration. My grandmother acted alot like TugBoat Annie. She cussed like a typical logger’s wife. My grandpa was indeed typical from those beliefs and practices in the Deep South, and he died in a logging accident when my mother was 6. She became a Catholic when she moved to Seattle. She later met my father who left the seminary. She was a wonderful human being.

What is redeeming about my Tugboat Annie Grandma was when the next door neighbor made fun of ‘the telephone ringing’ during the Nuptial Mass of my cousin. My grandmother really told off the neighbor and defended the sacredness of the Mass, and really respected the Catholic faith. My aunt was considering becoming a Catholic but died suddenly, but I think her desire was her baptism of desire.

My girlfriend, an Afro American who became Catholic, moved to Kentucky with claims she was done in parish ministry. All her new parish family both adopted her and drafted her into starting a new Bible ministry. She is now a reader of the ‘New Oxford Review’, high intellectual Catholic reading, and active in a Catholic evangelical program, very on fire for her faith and maintaining her Alleluia Baptist ways. We all love her.

She said she never got the parochial school kids’ crank/prank phone calls because she put holy water on the phone. Her husband did not go to church, so she said she would bless him with holy water as he slept at night, so he would go to church, but that has not happened yet.
 
Karl Keating’s “Catholicism and Fundamentalism” is still the gold standard for reference when you’ve been assaulted by friends and family for consorting with the “Whore of Babylon” (i.e. the catholic church). Feel free to skip the first several chapters that deal with now aged and retired anti-catholics and get to the meat of the actual attacks and responses in later chapters. It’s a little out of date when it comes to characters, but anti-catholics have been using the same script for a hundred years, so the real content is still razor sharp.

Welcome home!
 
Fahey0115 said:
I’m a former Southern Baptist who is beginning RCIA this fall. My family (Mom, Dad, Sister, Uncles, Aunts and Cousins) are all devout Southern Baptists. When I break the news of my conversion, it will come as a shock, and I am expecting a tough road ahead. I’m divorced, and I share custody of my nine year old son, who I want to raise in the Church as well. I’m expecting much more resistance and emotion from my family on this point than from my ex-wife. Does anyone have similar experiences or any advice on how to break the news? I would also greatly appreciate any suggestions on books or online material that would be helpful as well.
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I’m happy for you, but as a fellow convert years ago, I understand your concerns. My love of apologetics greatly helped me and since I already knew the anti-Catholic way of thinking, I was prepared to explain why I came into the CC using only their own bible.

But first and foremost, what people should immediately see IMHO is a person’s christianity. By this I mean we are called to be “a light to the world”. Yet a light is something SEEN and not heard isn’t it? Your happiness and inner peace will say more than your words ever can. Learn what it is you believe using apologetic tracts, online Catholic resources, or books from authors like Keating or Scott Hahn, but use them to explain your faith and not merely to aggressively “convert” others.

Knowing how to explain what you believe will become your “armor” against anti-Catholic attacks and will strengthen your faith over time but your joy and inner glow will be enough for those family and friends who truly love you. 🙂
 
No one is righteous and none of us should boast in what denomination we may belong to. All of our good works come to nothing apart from Christ.

I will pray for you and your family that God will replace confusion with truth, misunderstanding with wisdom and finally, fear with love.
 
inChristAlone33 said:
No one is righteous and none of us should boast in what denomination we may belong to. All of our good works come to nothing apart from Christ.

I will pray for you and your family that God will replace confusion with truth, misunderstanding with wisdom and finally, fear with love.
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Whos boasting? denomination does matter imo.
 
CountrySteve said:
Whos boasting? denomination does matter imo.
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It’s a general suggestion.

Catholics don’t like the Protestant divisions of the church and I agree with them.

I do not want to sideline the thread so I will leave it at that. 🙂

God Bless you.
 
Fahey0115 said:
I’m a former Southern Baptist who is beginning RCIA this fall. My family (Mom, Dad, Sister, Uncles, Aunts and Cousins) are all devout Southern Baptists. When I break the news of my conversion, it will come as a shock, and I am expecting a tough road ahead. I’m divorced, and I share custody of my nine year old son, who I want to raise in the Church as well. I’m expecting much more resistance and emotion from my family on this point than from my ex-wife. Does anyone have similar experiences or any advice on how to break the news? I would also greatly appreciate any suggestions on books or online material that would be helpful as well.
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I told my family members individually in person when I decided to become a Catholic. I had been a Methodist.

One family member was upset but all my immediate family plus my boyfriend showed up at the Easter Vigil Mass at 5:30 am in 1986 to see me join the Church.

You might be surprised at people’s reactions.

Also, reactions might vary over time, as happened in my family. By the time you actually finish RCIA, they might be more supportive.
 
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