I’m not a convert but I love conversion stories. One of my favourites is Scott Hahn’s. After he became convinced that the Catholic church was where he should be, he faced a crisis of conscience. He had made a promise to his wife (who was not making the journey at that time) not to convert right away but to wait. He tried to honour that promise but, as he tells it, the longer he waited the more it felt like he was disobeying God. As much as he loved his wife, he loved God more and felt he had to follow where he was being led without delay. Is this the kind of struggle you’re having?
Hi Seagal. Thank you for sharing about Scott Hahn. I love conversion stories too. I also like Scott Hahn’s story. Is this the kind of struggle I’m having? Yes.
WT1:
I hope you find the answer to your question
Thank you for sharing. I appreciate it. You listed good reasons. I’ll keep them in mind. It wasn’t the answer I was looking for though.
TimothyH:
Conscience is a witness. Conscience accuses and excuses us, bears witness to our behavior and actions.
They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them (Romans 2:15)
Conscience is a judge. We respect judges, rising when they enter the court and taking our hat off. The judgment of the judge is final. We should respect our conscience as a judge of our actions.
By rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith, (1 Timothy 1:19)
Conscience is one of the highest authorities.
TimothyH, thank you for posting this. “By rejecting conscious, certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith” really speaks to me. I don’t want to reject my conscious and shipwreck my faith. On the other hand, people I know view me as being led astray away from
the bible and Christ because of their own conscious perceiving my actions as wrong. Certainly I agree with what you said. Christ speaks to our conscious and it is our judge as to what is right or wrong. But to the protestant who desires for me to not to be led astray, they believe their conscious is right and my conscious is wrong. I could make it that issue, but how do I in love tell those who disagree with me, such as my wife, that it is a matter of conscious without deriding their faith?
I’d like to say “It’s a matter of conscious. I am convinced that if I don’t cross the tiber, I’ll shipwreck my faith.” I was in a situation where I was asked repeatedly “why do you want to convert? What do you find is better there?” It was not an issue of conscious but turning into an issue of doctrine disputes, which I did my best to avoid. The advice I’ve been given here on Catholic Forums is to avoid deriding my wife’s faith and to not play the role of an appologist. That leaves me with offering material that I may read, but my wife and others aren’t so interested in reading catholic books and materials.
Sure, I could say “Concious is that inner voice where God speaks to us and which tells us what is right or wrong.” By the protestant believes that catholic doctrines go against their conscious…
I hope this helps provide greater understanding about what I mean. Thank you for contributing to the thread and sharing your thoughts.
Bookcat:
You have become convinced that Jesus founded the Catholic Church etc - and so you cannot do otherwise than enter into full communion with the Church - for you have set out to follow Jesus - that is the great desire of your heart - and not to do so would go against your conscience.
And it is more than something your convinced of in your conscience - tis more than that - tis involving the Holy Spirit…following Jesus in love etc etc
I told my wife this; I told others this. The pastors that my wife are listening to are convinced Jesus took the reformers out of the Catholic Church and that the Church that Jesus established has been left behind. My wife goes along with what they believe and teach, and she wants me to listen to them. When I told her I heard them, as in I listened, but disagreed with what they said. She asked me why can’t I listen to them. I told her it’s a matter of conscious. She responded that it’s not a matter of conscious.
I didn’t pursue the discussion further nor did I define what conscious means. I left the discussion and then posted on here. A little back story for you guys.
So, yes. The pastors at the protestant community agree that the Catholic Church is the Church Jesus established, and my wife may recognize that too, however when I said it’s where God’s Holy Spirit is leading me, the pastors replies that it isn’t where God is leading me because my wife doesn’t want to convert, doesn’t want me to convert, and God has not called me to convert because my wife and I are married and one flesh and we can’t make decisions without one another. And Jesus doesn’t want division. God isn’t a God of division, so therefore they assert that I am the problem. I’m the one who would be destroying my marriage by converting and, in their words, taking a step back into something worse, which would be sad. I’d fall out of step with biblical teaching. I’d be following into error no differently than when a christian claims he needs to become Jehovah’s Witness to follow God because it is a matter of conscious. They have a personal conviction, but to those around him, his personal conviction is in error due to being led astray by others or false teachings.
Which brings me back to conscious. How do I get into the topic of conscious without actully deriding their faith? I like what you said about “you have set out to follow Jesus - that is the great desire of your heart - and not to do so would go against your conscience” but I don’t know how to communicate this without deriding my wife’s faith.
