Maybe we all should just chill a bit

[pyro_alchemist]

IMHO things are getting out of hand in this forum, especially in the “Moral Theology” section. I see very little Christian love being demonstrated. Remember, Christ dined with sinners and tax collectors. I doubt if he would have been invited if he demonstrated the “social grace” of many of the posters here. Even if you have the correct message, presenting it in a hateful and viscous way will do nothing to convince those in error. I was driven away from the Catholic church I love several years ago by this forum. If you search hard enough you will find a similar, non active screen name. By the grace of God I came back to the Church. I believe it may be my calling to keep others from falling because of ignorance and bigotry.

 

[rciadan]

Praise God for your return!
My prayer is that no-one lets anyone separate them from the Blessed Eucharist, especially a bunch on anonymous opinion givers on a website who may or may not be providing the* truth* about what is really taught by our Holy Mother, The Catholic Church!
Always remember that no-one on these forums is speaking Authoritatively. Test what you hear against the Scriptures, Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the Magesterium of the Church.
Always remember also that that passionate people can very often forget manners and decorum. This is no excuse, but it is true nonetheless!

 

[Jack17]

Powerful forum.

 

[North_of_Nod]

IMHO things are getting out of hand in this forum, especially in the “Moral Theology” section. I see very little Christian love being demonstrated. Remember, Christ dined with sinners and tax collectors. I doubt if he would have been invited if he demonstrated the “social grace” of many of the posters here. Even if you have the correct message, presenting it in a hateful and viscous way will do nothing to convince those in error. I was driven away from the Catholic church I love several years ago by this forum. If you search hard enough you will find a similar, non active screen name. By the grace of God I came back to the Church. I believe it may be my calling to keep others from falling because of ignorance and bigotry.

I agree. Sometimes people forget that there are people sitting on the other side of these screens. A lot of them may have genuine questions, so it would be best to respond patiently and respectfully. It’s sometimes easy to mistake one tone for another when all you have is text in front of you. Pyro, I’m glad you’re back. There are knuckleheads everywhere, no matter what their religion or creed may be. We should do our best to be kind to one another.

God bless.

 

[Al_Masetti]

Jesus didn’t dine with abortionists.

 

[Eucharisted]

Jesus dined with sinners, His feet were anointed by a sinner, He chose sinners as His Apostles, He gave Mary to sinners as their mother, and He was buried by sinners. Truly He loves sinners and we must too!

 

[LilyM]

Jesus didn’t dine with abortionists.

Says who? Abortion wasn’t unheard of in his day by any means. Jesus didn’t ALWAYS take a gently-gently approach, though. And certainly He always dined with them for the purpose of bringing them to repentance (sometimes with a bit of ‘rough wooing’ as Shakespeare put it).

Remember, too, that this is NOT a face-to-face method of communication either. So sometimes it takes a bit more forcefulness (not to call it anything worse) just to be heard.

 

[Seatuck]

Of course he dined with sinners. He also seems to have told sinners to “sin no more”. There don’t seem to be any recorded conversations where he says don’t worry you don’t have to stop sinning now.

 

[jenlovesyu]

Thanks be to God that you came back Home!
And I am also glad that you posted this. There was a period of time when I had to stay away from CAF because there surely is a lot of negativity flowing around. Even I am guilty of sowing discord at times which I am definitely not proud of .
I hope many others are at least reading your post and taking your words into consideration.

All that being said, it is a Christian’s duty to help others make it into Heaven. We should never encourage another to sin or ignore the fact that someone is deliberately indulging in sin. Jesus certainly did dine with sinners but it is important to distinguish between whether the sinners He dined with were repentant versus unrepentant.

Jesus ate with all sorts of sinners but I don’t believe He sat and just “took it” when people like the Pharisees were disrespecting Him. We should always be loving in our words and actions towards others. However loving another person includes helping them overcome the temptations that constantly try to lure them away from genuine happiness.

 

[John92]

Similar experience as OP. People can be WAY too harsh on this forum. We’re Catholics, not Puritans. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying good food, good drink, and good smoke as long as it is done in the proper way.

Of course we should never lead someone to think that a sin is not a sin with mealy-mouthedness but at the same time many of the posts here just seem to reek of spiritual pride - and don’t think for a second that it’s not a problem I deal with myself.

 

[teachccd]

Thanks be to God that you came home. Many here, including myself, can be so fervent that we forget the pastoral approach and end up instead with a bunch of pride. I would pray that no one would leave the Church that Christ founded because of an internet forum but you showed us that it can happen. You have allowed me the opportunity to sneak behind the scenes and see real consequences. Thank you for the wake up call. God bless…teachccd

 

[DominicVobiscum]

I have found that often, many times actually, that people use the anonymity of the internet to say hateful and stupid things that they wouldnt say to you face to face. I chalk this up to the nature of the internet. Here on CAF, some people may go overboard in their “advice”. Bear in mind, that this is not the perfect mode for effective communication in the first place.

I would offer, accept the limitations of this mode of communication, pray for those who come across as too harsh, and let it go. Or, you may always opt out if things get too rough.

Blessings to you and yours.

 

[jenlovesyu]

I have found that often, many times actually, that people use the anonymity of the internet to say hateful and stupid things that they wouldnt say to you face to face. I chalk this up to the nature of the internet. Here on CAF, some people may go overboard in their “advice”. Bear in mind, that this is not the perfect mode for effective communication in the first place.

I would offer, accept the limitations of this mode of communication, pray for those who come across as too harsh, and let it go. Or, you may always opt out if things get too rough.

Blessings to you and yours.

Totally agree with this and what John92 said

 

[ryecroft]

Jesus didn’t dine with abortionists.

Hmmm…what a thought - we do know he dined with “sinners” not always knowing what specifically their sins were. There have been ways to “get rid of a pregnancy” for literally thousands of years - although prenancy may have been seen by most as a blessing, those that were unmarried and/or adulterous would sometimes have this information found out by the size of the woman’s belly, so this could be hazardous to her health in many cultures due to punishment - so terminating the pregnancy would have been desirable to many women - (when the woman was in trouble this way her obvious belly indicated she had been active regardless of if she wanted to be or not-regardless they were generally the ones punished - I wonder why God didn’t have an indicator for the men that got these women pregnant) anyway, I digress -

my point is, how do we know none of the people that Jesus dined with - you can call them the sinners or just the people - how do we know some of them didn’t give out some of the herbal “remedies” for ending pregnancy or show how to use massage of the abdobmen to induce a miscarriage - the cervix could be dialated with a sharp object- or using mercury - or any other of the many ways other ways a pregnancy could be ended back then. The earliest record of an abortion is from 515 BC in China- and that’s just the written record - I believe it’s safe to assume that by the time it was recorded, it had been in practice for some time. - anyway, maybe Jesus did dine with an abortionist of the day -

regardless, I don’t think that Jesus would be too happy with some of the posters on here so perhaps the OP is correct - maybe we all should just chill out
God Bless
Annie

 

[Pug]

I’m glad God led you back! I agree that the tone of a message is important.

 

[kage_ar]

Seems the Bible had something to say about those who have “chilled a bit”

Revelation 3: 15-16

"I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. "

 

[rciadan]

Seems the Bible had something to say about those who have “chilled a bit”

Revelation 3: 15-16

"I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. "

You can be hot for the Lord and full of passion and still speak the Truth with love.

 

[John92]

Seems the Bible had something to say about those who have “chilled a bit”

Revelation 3: 15-16

"I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. "

Enjoy your self-righteousness!

To hell with this whole forum. I left it once before for the same reason and nothing has changed.

 

[Al_Masetti]

Of course he dined with sinners. He also seems to have told sinners to “sin no more”. There don’t seem to be any recorded conversations where he says don’t worry you don’t have to stop sinning now.

This is an important point.

That was Jesus’s second sentence after he said “I don’t judge you either” … He then said “Go and sin no more.”

[There are all kinds of “what ifs” … what if she did continue to sin … what if the “Good Samaritan” had been assaulted by robbers (we know the ‘good samaritan’ was ‘only’ a parable.]

And Jesus knew what peoples’ sins were … Jesus could read their hearts … and did so, over and over … remember that time … when He told the woman at the well she had had five husbands and that the man she was with now was not her husband.

So, Jesus knew.

Jesus did forgive … the first saint of the Christian Church was one of the worst of all sinners … the man we refer to as St. Dismas … also known as the Good Thief. Fr. Benedict Groeschel once said that Dismas was probably a sociopath … and Dismas did and said the right things at the end.

We all need to keep our eyes focused on THE GOAL … doing whatever it takes to be in the state of Grace so that, in the end, we can be with God.

The Church was established with seven sacraments and all sorts of other aids and assistances to help each one of us achieve that GOAL.

Ultimately, it falls to each of us individually.

 

[rotlex]

I can totally relate to the OP in this post. I like these forums, and have learned a lot here in the past year or so, but sometimes, they can be a huge turn off. I find that there are some posts, and posters, who could easily sway someone away from Catholicism the Church, and even God. I have read many a post where the “almighty I know everything Catholic” seems as though they can do know wrong, are quick to tell others how wrong they are, and are so blunt, you would think they wrote the rules themselves.

I return here however, as in between all that, there are a few good posters, and a lot of information in general. Just a quick example of what I’m talking about though. There is a recent thread about sexual sin, yeah, what else is new, LOL, and the OP was talking about the use of contracteption in marriage. Well, most follow ups of course stated, yep, it’s a mortal sin, if you keep doing it, and don’t confess it, your going straight to you know where. (OK, not exact words, but you get the idea).

No one would even touch on the concerns of the OP when wondering why this one thing would get you a one way ticket to hell no matter how well you lived. Yep, your going away, just like the guy that just murdered and raped 28 people in the next state.

Yes, an exageration on my part, but you get the idea, and there are a LOT of threads like that over time.

Anway, sorry for rambling on there, but just wanted to agree with the OP of this thread, that yeah, people here need to take it a bit easy at times, and realize we are ALL sinners, and require God’s grace, forgivness and love, to get where we ultimately want to be.