Just curious - why do non-Catholics hang here?

[colliric]

I believe there are some of them here who want to learn more in an attempt to ascertain if they want to convert.

I came here for that, but also because my mind was previously made up to leave the pentecostal faith and I’m looking for support to become a catholic like most of my extended family are, because I know the pentecostal people I normally hang with on Sunday are going to try and convince me otherwise, so I need another source to balance it out and make a balanced decision on my own, which I now have. I still want to be friends with these people, but I don’t solely want to hear them out on religious matters without hearing the opposing catholic point of view.

Plus I’m partial to Catholicism’s main doctrine because I very strongly believe in heaven and hell because I was raised with an Anglican school education. I never ever believed I would be bodily resurrected on this planet like most Pentecostals believe, I was simply taken in by their form or worship which at the time seemed to be the more correct and interesting way of doing it.

I did however, slowly become sick of hearing the usual anti-catholic, anti-Anglican(yes they attack other protestants), anti-orthodox, anti-Christendom bigoted messages they purport onto their congregations. I notice the Catholic response to them is simply in defense of their incorrect attacks, and I also noticed I was the only one who took the Anglican point of view that all Christian churches including Catholics, are valid Christian faiths. While this is not Catholic teaching, in my research into your doctrine, I realized that you guys did not teach that “the opposition is the antichrist” and that catholics somewhat believe most “Christians” will at least make it into purgatory and this is the most heartfelt and compassionate doctrine other than that of the Anglicans.

I also noticed that they attack the catholic church for being political, yet at the same time pushed and supported a right-wing political party in my country as a whole(as in most pentacostal churches allowed themselves to become tools for the party in question).

I heard a lot of catholics become fundamentals(I mostly heard it from fundamentals!), Well here’s someone going the other way!

 

[AlegreFe]

I stumbled in here to help myself discern the differences between my Baptist faith and Catholicism. Glad I did, as two years later I am on my parish’s RCIA team.

Oh wow! I’m so glad to hear that! :dancing: You will be in my prayers!

 

[AlegreFe]

Well, I found this place by accident! Actually, I have been considering converting to Catholicism for some time since both of my adult children are in the process. Also, I am growing tired of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod becoming more and more like any other main-stream Protestant church.

I find the discussions very stimulating and I am able to have many questions answered here.

Plus, Roman Catholics do church like it should be done!

I can assure you it was no accident that you found this place! Congrats to your two adult children and I hope you can decide to follow them because they are certainly following Jesus to His Church! You and your family are in my prayers.

 

[AlegreFe]

I can’t speak for all of us but I’m simply trying to learn. I’ve been reading books by Catholic authors and they’ve gotten me thinking about converting. I’m now reading the Essential Catholic Catechism (Alan Schreck).

I’m so glad you’re studying the Catholic faith! I hope one day you can come Home to the Catholic Church! My prayers are with you.

 

[KarenNC]

You are right Karen. I hope that in your experience, this has been the exception rather than the norm.

Carol Marie,
I could wish it were so as well. I have been part of these forums since Dec. 21, just shy of two weeks. In that time I have been called a demonic spirit, equated with white supremacists, deniers of the Holocaust, neo-Nazis, members of lynch mobs, a loser incapable of dealing with society and stuck in a fantasy role playing game, mentally ill and/or mentally incompetent, etc. Someone also called for an online exorcism. This doesn’t even begin to get into the descriptions used for others who identify as Neopagan or Neopaganism itself.

Entertaining since I am a happily married stay at home homeschooling mom with a college degree and 16 years professional work experience in the same career, never played a fantasy role game in my life, came very close to converting to Judaism (and still have friends from the temple) and have actually attended lectures by and met Holocaust survivors. I am also now and have been in the past actively involved in interracial efforts at poverty and hunger relief, civil rights, religious freedom, etc and count/counted African Americans as my friends (as well as being related to an African American and many Native Americans by marriage). Rather boringly average, really.

Granted there have been some sane and civil posters (and they were greatly appreciated) but they have unfortunately not been in the majority.

My husband, who gave up posting here in disgust after about a week or so, says that he is glad this has not been his only exposure to Catholics. Our previous experiences in discussing religion with friends who were either born or converted Catholics had lead us to hope for a somewhat higher standard of discourse overall than we have found in discussions with other more conservative evangelical Protestant Christian groups.

 

[Zooey]

Well, I got sent over here for a “Catholic Answer” by someone on another site, at a point when I was determined that I would never, ever, take part in any online discussion with other Christians again…
The ones I had met elsewhere were determined to turn me into a KJV-only fundie, if they had to http://bestsmileys.com/hitting/11.gif to get me there!! (Have you ever had some :whacky: woman in Alaska email you that God told her to tell you, that your next-door neigfhbor’s children were going to go to hell, if you read a Harry Potter book? How about “God told me to tell you that He wants you to stop wearing jeans, & stay home with your husband”?? ( I am single. Never married. And I believe that God knows this…I also believe that God has several more important things to do than tell women in Alaska to tell me to get rid of my blue jeans…)

Anyhow, I rapidly discovered that CAF is the home of some of the nicest Christian people on earth. (None of whom are hearing http://bestsmileys.com/silly/18.gifLittle Voices Tell Them To Tell Me Anything!)
So, I have:thumbsup: stayed!!

 

[Brian_C]

Karen, I sympathize (I thought I was a rather enlightened Baptist when I first began posting) but you’ve got to realize that neopagans get presented very badly in the media. Heck, about the only time you hear about them they are dancing around Stonehenge or something…Not meaning to be uncharitable but the only neopagan couple I’ve ever been friends with were just sad sack intellectuals who felt Christianity was completely below them. It was as if they wanted to be athiests but that wasn’t cool enough, they had to be pagans. Granted, all I ever saw of their religion was them taking drugs and going on vision quests, but…

As for the usefulness of this subforum, it was quite helpful for me in learning the differences between protestant ideas of salvation and Catholic… As good as our posters are, I more or less used their responses not as outright truths but as starting points to dig deeper into readings on the early Church and the history of the Reformation… I can’t claim to be an expert now but I was convinced enough to hear the call of Mother Church. Out on the main catholic.com page, there are some excellent topical readings on various tenants of Christianity as well as a multitude that by explaining various topics, show how Catholicism differs from the rest. And if you have spare change in your pocket, the Catholic.com shop has some wonderful books and audio resources that go further into Church history and apologetics…

 

[colliric]

Reading Karl Keating’s “Catholicism and Fundamentalism - the Attack on ‘Romanists’ by ‘Bible Christians’” was a turning point for me. It’s a wonderful book which finally explained Catholicism to me, as opposed to what I was told it was.

 

[KarenNC]

Karen, I sympathize (I thought I was a rather enlightened Baptist when I first began posting) but you’ve got to realize that neopagans get presented very badly in the media. Heck, about the only time you hear about them they are dancing around Stonehenge or something…

Believe me, I know that (sigh). Media does no religion any favors it appears–they are only interested in the sensational. Catholics should be very aware of that. Catholics feature prominently in the news over things like the sex scandal, someone sees the Virgin Mary in their grilled cheese sandwich and sells it on ebay, or are portrayed as mindless automatons blindly following their leaders.

Every religion has its share of folks who are spiritually immature or have emotional or psychological issues. One can only hope that such folks will either mature in their religion, get the emotional/psychological help they need or get bored and move on quickly (whichever will help them with their particular issues) and try to help them when possible.

A poster on another thread was bemoaning that all Christians suffer from the Jerry Falwell stereotype. Neopagans suffer at least as much from the “Buffy, Charmed, D&D mage wannabe to irritate my parents” stereotype. The folks like that are as much a problem and irritant to the larger Neopagan community as they are to anyone else, if not more.

The vast majority of the Neopagans that I have met (just like the majority of Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims) are functional adults, with families, steady jobs, responsibilities, who don’t feel the need to drip with religious jewelry or act bizarrely in public to prove they are “real.” We’re too busy going to soccer games, business meetings, the grocery store, getting the car worked on, working with charities, etc–living our lives-- to be interested in playacting to attract attention.

Honestly it is exactly to combat that sort of stereotype that I try to participate in forums such as this (that purport to be for discussion of comparative theology) when they show up in my life for some reason. I am hoping to be able to clear up misconceptions about my religion, just like Catholics often need to do.

I found it ironic that the supporting evidence the one poster gave for calling me a demonic spirit was that I was being “too kind.”

 

[Janet_S]

I came here for that, but also because my mind was previously made up to leave the pentecostal faith and I’m looking for support to become a catholic like most of my extended family are, because I know the pentecostal people I normally hang with on Sunday are going to try and convince me otherwise, so I need another source to balance it out and make a balanced decision on my own, which I now have. I still want to be friends with these people, but I don’t solely want to hear them out on religious matters without hearing the opposing catholic point of view.

Plus I’m partial to Catholicism’s main doctrine because I very strongly believe in heaven and hell because I was raised with an Anglican school education. I never ever believed I would be bodily resurrected on this planet like most Pentecostals believe, I was simply taken in by their form or worship which at the time seemed to be the more correct and interesting way of doing it.

I did however, slowly become sick of hearing the usual anti-catholic, anti-Anglican(yes they attack other protestants), anti-orthodox, anti-Christendom bigoted messages they purport onto their congregations. I notice the Catholic response to them is simply in defense of their incorrect attacks, and I also noticed I was the only one who took the Anglican point of view that all Christian churches including Catholics, are valid Christian faiths. While this is not Catholic teaching, in my research into your doctrine, I realized that you guys did not teach that “the opposition is the antichrist” and that catholics somewhat believe most “Christians” will at least make it into purgatory and this is the most heartfelt and compassionate doctrine other than that of the Anglicans.

I also noticed that they attack the catholic church for being political, yet at the same time pushed and supported a right-wing political party in my country as a whole(as in most pentacostal churches allowed themselves to become tools for the party in question).

I heard a lot of catholics become fundamentals(I mostly heard it from fundamentals!), Well here’s someone going the other way!

Colliric, you are on the right path. Becoming a Catholic is the best thing you can do with your life. How fortunate you are that God blessed you to become open to the Catholic Church in spite of all the lies you were taught. I will pray for you while you make this journey. The Catholic Church is not perfect–we are a Church full of sinners–but we need your help to make it better.

As for me, I love the Catholic Church because when I became a Catholic, I became a member of a huge family that extends all over the world and that extends throughout time (See Ephesians 2:19-22). You can travel to any country in the world and can always find a Catholic Church where you feel at home and where you can follow along at Mass and know what is going on.

Catholic Answers is a great website, and you will learn a lot here. I would like to recommend a few other websites:

The Coming Home Network (a website for those on the journey to the Catholic Church)

chnetwork.org/

EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network)

ewtn.com/

I am not sure where you live, but EWTN is a world-wide Catholic television network. If it is not available where you live, you can listen to the programs on your computer. Because of EWTN, Many people discover the Truth of Catholicism while channel surfing.

There are so many other things available for you, but I don’t want to overwhelm you, so I will mention only these two for now.

 

[DRIVING_BEAR]

Simple , because we love you guys and gals.
It is my hope to share the “truth” of Jesus Christ" with you
so you will have an antidote to the lies and halftruths that come out of Rome

 

[Linnyo]

I

Plus I’m partial to Catholicism’s main doctrine because I very strongly believe in heaven and hell because I was raised with an Anglican school education. I never ever believed I would be bodily resurrected on this planet like most Pentecostals believe, I was simply taken in by their form or worship which at the time seemed to be the more correct and interesting way of doing it.

!

Since when did pentacostals believe that?? I take it this was not a mainstream pc church.

 

[Linnyo]

Simple , because we love you guys and gals.
It is my hope to share the “truth” of Jesus Christ" with you
so you will have an antidote to the lies and halftruths that come out of Rome

Driving Bear - you will never get anywhere by slagging off a person’s ‘parents’. Think about it!

Anyway, they are no more wrong than you are and you may well be right. Remember, cathilics and Christian believers are not far enough apart to not be brothers and sisters in Christ.

 

[Church_Militant]

Simple , because we love you guys and gals.
It is my hope to share the “truth” of Jesus Christ" with you
so you will have an antidote to the lies and halftruths that come out of Rome

Yeah sure…right.

So… please, for the sake of my soul enlighten me as to what these alleged “lies and halftruths that come out of Rome” are? (This of course before I report you for disrespecting the faith of the Catholics here on this forum. Have a look at Conduct Rule 7 which you agreed to when you joined us here at CAF.)

I don’t believe that you can offer any such “lies and halftruths”, because, having done my own homework on Catholic beliefs and being well knowledgeable in the Word of God, I would never have returned to the Catholic faith if I had found any such to be the case.

So please, enlighten me and watch as I refute that anti-Catholic propaganda and prove it to be the “lies and halftruths”.
By all means, bring it on!
Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum.

 

[AlegreFe]

I came here for that, but also because my mind was previously made up to leave the pentecostal faith and I’m looking for support to become a catholic like most of my extended family are, because I know the pentecostal people I normally hang with on Sunday are going to try and convince me otherwise, so I need another source to balance it out and make a balanced decision on my own, which I now have. I still want to be friends with these people, but I don’t solely want to hear them out on religious matters without hearing the opposing catholic point of view.

Plus I’m partial to Catholicism’s main doctrine because I very strongly believe in heaven and hell because I was raised with an Anglican school education. I never ever believed I would be bodily resurrected on this planet like most Pentecostals believe, I was simply taken in by their form or worship which at the time seemed to be the more correct and interesting way of doing it.

I did however, slowly become sick of hearing the usual anti-catholic, anti-Anglican(yes they attack other protestants), anti-orthodox, anti-Christendom bigoted messages they purport onto their congregations. I notice the Catholic response to them is simply in defense of their incorrect attacks, and I also noticed I was the only one who took the Anglican point of view that all Christian churches including Catholics, are valid Christian faiths. While this is not Catholic teaching, in my research into your doctrine, I realized that you guys did not teach that “the opposition is the antichrist” and that catholics somewhat believe most “Christians” will at least make it into purgatory and this is the most heartfelt and compassionate doctrine other than that of the Anglicans.

I also noticed that they attack the catholic church for being political, yet at the same time pushed and supported a right-wing political party in my country as a whole(as in most pentacostal churches allowed themselves to become tools for the party in question).

I heard a lot of catholics become fundamentals(I mostly heard it from fundamentals!), Well here’s someone going the other way!

Your openness to the Catholic Faith is a gift from God indeed!
God bless you on your Journey!
You are in my prayers.

 

[AlegreFe]

Simple , because we love you guys and gals.
It is my hope to share the “truth” of Jesus Christ" with you
so you will have an antidote to the lies and halftruths that come out of Rome

Oh how nice of you to try to “save” us from Rome.

Fortunately and Gracefully the Catholic Church has no “lies and halftruths” like you think she does. So no need to enlighten us unless you want to open yourself up for debate.

 

[AlegreFe]

Simple , because we love you guys and gals.
It is my hope to share the “truth” of Jesus Christ" with you
so you will have an antidote to the lies and halftruths that come out of Rome

Oh by the way, I was so tempted to hit the button → http://forums.catholic-questions.org/images/buttons_cad/report.gif so as to report you but I thought it would just be better for you to try to bring us these “lies and halftruths” instead so that we can enlighten you with the FULLNESS of Truth that comes from the Church, the Bridegroom of Jesus Christ! God bless you.

 

[Pacbox]

I want to take a moment and thank the Non-Catholics who hang here for being here. Yes there are few who are need of prayers (Non-Catholic and Catholic alike who really may not be here to learn and teach but to stir up trouble) but pretty much every Non-Catholic who posts is mature, diagrees with civility and backs it up with their reasons why, does their very best to be charitable and apologizes when they are not or even when they are close to being uncharitable but have yet to cross the line, respects other posters’ opinions, and are generally are an all around good bunch. I can say with all honesty that the Non-Catholic posters here are of great quality. So thanks.

 

[lak611]

Well, I got sent over here for a “Catholic Answer” by someone on another site, at a point when I was determined that I would never, ever, take part in any online discussion with other Christians again…
The ones I had met elsewhere were determined to turn me into a KJV-only fundie, if they had to http://bestsmileys.com/hitting/11.gif to get me there!! (Have you ever had some woman in Alaska email you that God told her to tell you, that your next-door neigfhbor’s children were going to go to hell, if you read a Harry Potter book? How about “God told me to tell you that He wants you to stop wearing jeans, & stay home with your husband”?? ( I am single. Never married. And I believe that God knows this…I also believe that God has several more important things to do than tell women in Alaska to tell me to get rid of my blue jeans…)

Anyhow, I rapidly discovered that CAF is the home of some of the nicest Christian people on earth. (None of whom are hearingLittle Voices Tell Them To Tell Me Anything!)
So, I have:thumbsup: stayed!!

I am glad that you have stayed. You are one of the nicest Christian people on this forum!

 

[CatholicGal1977]

Simple , because we love you guys and gals.
It is my hope to share the “truth” of Jesus Christ" with you
so you will have an antidote to the lies and halftruths that come out of Rome

Oh Please! If you were a true Christian then you wouldn’t be here to cram it down our throats. Christ NEVER crammed what he believed down anyone’s throat. He preached and they either accepted it or didn’t accept it and if they didn’t accept it then he moved on the the enxt person.

Not everyone is going to believe what YOU believe! Christ taught tolerance my Protestant friend and thus you should be tolerant of us if you’re going to be here and understand that you just can’t cram something down our throats and then get upset when we choose not to agree with it.

And never speak for an entire group. It’s dangerous. Just use “I” and speak for yourself. All the other non-Catholics here have their own mouths so let them use it.