G
GB_Cherry
Guest
Hello Board! This is my first post, so before I get to my question I would like to thank everyone involved with this forum for the wonderful information that I have been able to gain so far.
As for my background, I grew up occasionally attending the Baptist church. At around the age of eight I attended a Vacation Bible school session where at the end of the week almost all the boys were “shamed” into professing our faith and getting baptized. I’ve felt guilty about how this took place for years now, but what can I do? After my wife and I got married I started attending the Methodist church with her, and have been doing so for the past 12 years. There never has been a strong foundation at this church and it consists mainly of her family with a few other community members. On a typical Sunday we would have eight in attendance for Sunday school, five of which are our family. To make a long story short I will just say that over the past year many things have happened that has caused my wife and I to seek something different. We started researching the available churches in our area, and to be honest with you, neither of us felt good about this new movement of nondenominational churches that are sweeping our region. It seems that the Joel Olsteen’s and Rick Warren’s of the world are all out to make a buck on the “health and wealth” believe, or what I call the feel good ideology. We decided to attend the catholic church and loved it! Upon walking in the doors we felt the “warm fuzzy” feeling of a congregation that loved their church, as well as the fellow parishioners.
Now you may be wondering where I am going with this? After attending Mass for the past three Sundays we feel like this is a move that we want to make. We both agree that besides filling the spiritual void in our life and allowing us to get into the “Traditional” setting that we are looking for, that it will also allow us to grow deeper in our relationship. The problem is some of our family and friends have totally freaked out about our decision. They have such a misunderstanding of the Catholic faith and are so blinded by the beliefs they’ve been taught that there is little that we can do to get them to listen to us. They want to argue their so called “facts” and don’t listen to our response due to the fact that they are thinking of what they will say next to dispute what they think we are saying. Today I was standing around with a few co-workers when one stated out of the blue, “my sister-in-law called the other night and said what this **** with Greg attending the Catholic church.” I tried to explain and she acted as though she understood, however I think she was just being nice. Later on I had a co-worker come up to me and state I understand that you are looking for something different, and I don’t have a problem with that, but I do have a problem with the Catholic faith.
What do I do?
As for my background, I grew up occasionally attending the Baptist church. At around the age of eight I attended a Vacation Bible school session where at the end of the week almost all the boys were “shamed” into professing our faith and getting baptized. I’ve felt guilty about how this took place for years now, but what can I do? After my wife and I got married I started attending the Methodist church with her, and have been doing so for the past 12 years. There never has been a strong foundation at this church and it consists mainly of her family with a few other community members. On a typical Sunday we would have eight in attendance for Sunday school, five of which are our family. To make a long story short I will just say that over the past year many things have happened that has caused my wife and I to seek something different. We started researching the available churches in our area, and to be honest with you, neither of us felt good about this new movement of nondenominational churches that are sweeping our region. It seems that the Joel Olsteen’s and Rick Warren’s of the world are all out to make a buck on the “health and wealth” believe, or what I call the feel good ideology. We decided to attend the catholic church and loved it! Upon walking in the doors we felt the “warm fuzzy” feeling of a congregation that loved their church, as well as the fellow parishioners.
Now you may be wondering where I am going with this? After attending Mass for the past three Sundays we feel like this is a move that we want to make. We both agree that besides filling the spiritual void in our life and allowing us to get into the “Traditional” setting that we are looking for, that it will also allow us to grow deeper in our relationship. The problem is some of our family and friends have totally freaked out about our decision. They have such a misunderstanding of the Catholic faith and are so blinded by the beliefs they’ve been taught that there is little that we can do to get them to listen to us. They want to argue their so called “facts” and don’t listen to our response due to the fact that they are thinking of what they will say next to dispute what they think we are saying. Today I was standing around with a few co-workers when one stated out of the blue, “my sister-in-law called the other night and said what this **** with Greg attending the Catholic church.” I tried to explain and she acted as though she understood, however I think she was just being nice. Later on I had a co-worker come up to me and state I understand that you are looking for something different, and I don’t have a problem with that, but I do have a problem with the Catholic faith.
What do I do?
