Protestant tactics used to draw kids away from the Church

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One pitfall to avoid is letting apologetics become a substitute for actual spiritual development and prayer time. It’s very easy to allow genuine zeal for Christ to become intellectual pride at having the “right” answer. Limit the time you spend on it compared to prayer and sacraments.

It’s too late for me, save yourself while you still can! 😃
 
You may want to look into the Friendly Defender flash card series. They are short answers to many protestant objections to Catholicism in a flash card format. You may want to teach your children to answer objections with “I don’t know, but I will find out & get back to you”
 
You may want to look into the Friendly Defender flash card series. They are short answers to many protestant objections to Catholicism in a flash card format. You may want to teach your children to answer objections with “I don’t know, but I will find out & get back to you”
 
I’m not Protestant, but I am raising a few kids and have thought about this problem myself. My resolution has been to arm them now (they are all still small) for the likelihood of having to deal with this. First, I unapologetically teach them the truth about the Catholic Church, that it is the one true Church of Christ and that Protestantism was founded by people who didn’t accept all that Christ wants us to accept. Second, I try to ground our family life in the Sacraments of the Church and various sacramentals to give them a Catholic worldview, one that would be shocked by a rock band standing where the altar is. I attend the EF (“Latin Mass”) with the kids in addition to going to our parish in the hopes to helping them to better understand what is happening at the Mass isn’t what is happening at Protestant services. Thirdly, as they get older I plan on teaching them about the Bible and while doing so to show them that the Bible came from the Church, as opposed to thinking the Church came from the Bible and should be judged by it. Lastly, I pray for them to stay faithful to the Church - this of course is the most important thing we can do for our kids (or anyone). I don’t know if any of that helps or if any of that will end up working for my little ones, but that is what I’m trying. God bless you and your family.
 
I live near protestants.Their tactics for luring children include one thing. Huge Budgets. The Baptists at the biggest churches have huge Trunk or Treats at Halloween and Huge Fall Festivals with dozens of blow up slides and bouncy houses. They have Touch a Truck for kids, Easter Egg hunts, Upward for sports, fantastic open to the public playground. One minister told me he was thinking of building a water park, believe it or not. Plus these Baptist’s have huge properties to do all these thing in the suburbs where folks can ride by and drop in on events. All new buildings. 5-10-20 years old buildings.
 
I think the best explanation of Catholicism, the reason to stay Catholic, the reason to convert and revert is the Eucharist. There is such depth in the Real Presence. It is something that no Protestant has. It is a great place to begin the explanation of the One True Faith. It is the Center of the Church and of the Universe. Eucharistic Adoration is wonderful. Leaving the quiet peace and entering into the world is a harsh transition. Quiet Solitude with Our Lord is awesome. None of the fun at playgrounds and bible reading could ever compare.
 
This is a great book. Perfect for pre teens and teens…In fact I bought it for myself . A friend who is protestant was really challenging me about my beliefs, and this helped me put into words what I believed…

It is written by Amy Welborn, and it is one of 4 in a series called “Prove It!!” The “church” book was the most helpful, I thought.

amazon.com/gp/product/B0037QF7ZW/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=1535523722&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0879739819&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0S6Z2ZA80EQ317YZCFK2
 
I was baptized as an infant, made my First Communion, and Confirmation in the Catholic Church. I loved God and understood that Jesus died for my sins. I attended church weekly and was very happy, involved, and comfortable in my faith. When I was 17 I had even taught CCD classes to 5th graders. When I was 19 I met a man (my now husband) who attended a non-denominational protestant church. Everyone there was so welcoming, friendly, and nice. They had Bible studies at people’s homes on Tuesday night and snacks.

It wasn’t long before they asked me if I was “saved”. I had never heard that term before so I told them I didn’t know. They acted like that was such a big deal. They told me “if you died tonight where would you go?” I said purgatory. They gasped. They told me all I had to do was say “The Sinners Prayer”, ask Jesus into my heart and that I would go to heaven. So I did. As a 19 year old I thought it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that it’s better to go to heaven than purgatory. Looking back, I have no idea why I believed them so unquestioningly. They were just SO convincing. They had such sincerety. And just like that, much to my grandparents dismay, I left the Catholic church and started attending that denominational church. Then they started hitting me with things like
  1. Crucifixes are wrong because Jesus isn’t on the cross anymore
  2. Rosaries are occultic beacuse it is praying to a dead person (Mary)
  3. The infallibility of the Pope is a joke because the Pope is just a man like everybody else
  4. A wafer really can’t become Jesus’ body just because a priest says it does
  5. Celibacy of priests is wrong because some of the apostles were married
  6. Purgatory isn’t real
  7. Mary had other children after Jesus and therefore shouldn’t be called the Virgin Mary
  8. A priest can’t forgive sins, only Jesus has that power
  9. Praying to saints is wrong because that’s communicating with the dead and they can’t hear you anyway because they’re not omniscient
That’s what I can remember off the top of my head, And I bought it hook, line, and sinker. I think they meant well. But after several years (it took me that long unfortunately) I began to question their teachings. There were other red flags that my husband finally started to see also - prophecies that didn’t come true, etc. We left there and attended a Baptist church for a while because my husband was not interested in Catholic anything. It got to a point though where I had to be honest with him and tell him that the Baptist church just felt like a cheap wanna-be imitation of Mass. I wanted the real thing again and I wanted to raise our 3 children the way I was raised. I, like the OP, all of a sudden felt a great deal of urgency. My husband was reluctant at first but he came to realize how important it was to me. Last month we had our marriage convalidated and our children baptized. I enrolled our oldest daughter in CCD and much to my disbelief my husband is going to start RCIA class this week :eek: My dream of us being a family of one faith may actually come true! I am praying he perseveres and finishes the classes.

I regret the day I ever left the Catholic Church and wish I never would have. I am still finding it difficult to de-program from the 16 years of false teaching that I heard while away from the Church. My best advice to young people is to date people that share their Catholic faith. I know from experience that their peers and boyfriends/girlfriends can be very influential. Love made me blind anyway. It was hard for my catechism knowledge to compete with young love.
 
olusteemom said:
I am a recent convert to Catholicism. The past 40 years I was a Baptist. I don’t feel the Baptist church I attended tried to draw children away from Catholicism. We tried to engage children with a knowledge of the saving power and grace of Jesus Christ. We never told them they were “wrong.” We encouraged them to attend church to learn about Jesus, and didn’t tell them we were the “only” church. I believe there are Christians in most “denominations.” If they attended Catholic church, that was fine. Many Catholics, I have found, don’t have a solid foundation of faith in Christ; many follow a ritual, not knowing why things are done as they are. It is important to follow Christ, and if they find Him in the Catholic Church that is wonderful.
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Really? How strange? If a Catholic practices his/her faith…attends Holy Mass on the Lord’s Day and – believes in – and receives Christ himself in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist…the source and summit of the Catholic Faith (per Vatican II)…there is no greater reality of a solid a foundation of faith in Christ…than that…IMHO.

If they believe that what Christ said in John 6 and said and did at the Last Supper – instituting the the priesthood, the Holy Sacrifice of Mass and especially the Holy Eucharist – there is no greater “solid foundation of faith in Christ”. Protestants who say there is…are “whistling in the dark”…IMHO. Catholics who believe Protestants and leave the Catholic Faith…don’t know what they are leaving and are either suffering from invincible ignorance or prideful hardness of heart…or maybe they just like to “whistle in the dark”.
John 6:52-59
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSV-CE)
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52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”[a] 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; 54 he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56** He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him**. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever.” 59 This he said in the synagogue, as he taught at Caper′na-um.
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Pax Christi
 
psalm126 said:
I enrolled our oldest daughter in CCD and much to my disbelief my husband is going to start RCIA class this week :eek: My dream of us being a family of one faith may actually come true! I am praying he perseveres and finishes the classes.
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GOD BLESS YOU!!!
I’ll be praying for you & your family!!

(oh, and welcome home!)
 
Qwikness said:
I live near protestants.Their tactics for luring children include one thing. Huge Budgets. The Baptists at the biggest churches have huge Trunk or Treats at Halloween and Huge Fall Festivals with dozens of blow up slides and bouncy houses. They have Touch a Truck for kids, Easter Egg hunts, Upward for sports, fantastic open to the public playground. One minister told me he was thinking of building a water park, believe it or not. Plus these Baptist’s have huge properties to do all these thing in the suburbs where folks can ride by and drop in on events. All new buildings. 5-10-20 years old buildings.
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Big budgets because of faithful tithing. Baptists are known for giving at least 10%. Catholics, no. You have to respect that. They are taking the fruits of their labor and creating Christian community events and activities that draw young people in.

I wouldn’t put that down as just fun and games, these people mean business when it comes to pulling out their pocket books and supporting their church:thumbsup:
 
Country_Gal said:
Big budgets because of faithful tithing. Baptists are known for giving at least 10%. Catholics, no. You have to respect that. They are taking the fruits of their labor and creating Christian community events and activities that draw young people in.

I wouldn’t put that down as just fun and games, these people mean business when it comes to pulling out their pocket books and supporting their church:thumbsup:
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Partially true. Catholics tend to support schools.
It seems though that young people are drawn in by fun.
 
Cardinal Newman said “To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.”

In addition to Keatings “Catholicism and Fundamentalism” I would recommend a couple of other books-

“Faith of the Early Fathers” edited and translated by Jurgens- at a minimum Volume I.

'Surprised by Truth" collected and edited by Patrick Madrid. Conversion stories of protestant ministers.

You have two issues as I understand it:

First issue. Concern for your kids. Have them read the bible as well as the books that have been recommended. I find ‘Faith of the Early Fathers’ particularly helpful in countering protestant arguments that the Catholic church has strayed from the practices of the earliest Christians. (St. Justin the Martyr’s description of a mass in the year ~148 is something I read to my 7th grade CCD class. Other than not mentioning singing, it is exactly what we do today).

Since we as Catholics believe in scripture and Sacred Tradition, and most protestants emphasize Sola Scriptura- you need to address that with them. What is our and the protestants authority for accepting our respective versions of the Bible as scripture? We rely on the Church’s authority- what do protestants rely on in accepting their version of the Bible as scripture? Kids do need to know this, that there are differences (deutero canonical books). As well as the Catholic Church teaches the whole truth which consists of Sacred Tradition along with scripture. A couple of handy quotes for your kids to see this is in fact biblical in responding to protestant criticism.

. 2 Thessalonians 13-17
13 But we must always thank God for you, brothers whom the Lord loves, because God chose you from the beginning to be saved by the Spirit who makes us holy and by faith in the truth. 14 Through our gospel he called you to this so that you should claim as your own the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

15 Stand firm, then, brothers, and* keep the traditions that we taught you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. *
16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father who has given us his love and, through his grace, such ceaseless encouragement and such sure hope,
17 encourage you and strengthen you in every good word and deed.

John ch.20
There were many other signs that Jesus worked in the sight of the disciples, but they are not recorded in this book. 31 These are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing this you may have life through his name.

Second issues- continuing apologetics work, which requires really knowing the scriptures. Particularly entire passages vice the snippets protestants tend to quote. Really hard work, I find it beyond my abilities at the moment.

I could go on about it, but Keatings and Madrids books are a very good start in common protestant criticisms and responding to them. In addition to the solid grounding the Faith of the Early Fathers will give you in understanding the early church.
 
I have to say I am surprised at the remarkably benign references to tactics used to draw kids away… it’s really not a Protestant thing as much as a Baptist thing and it is precisely because many branches of the Baptist Church feel Catholicism is not Christian but a devils cult… and they feel it is perfectly acceptable to use the devils own tactics to save the children :eek: when my son was in pre school and kindergarten we lived in a neighborhood 2 houses away from a Baptist Minister and his family… mild mannered, plain dressed… seemingly supportive and caring… their kids were always wanting to come over and play- but once they learned we were Catholic-my son become a behind the scenes target for them… the kids would come over and want to play my sons music in his room and then start telling him how it was the devils music… his toys were repeatedly stolen out of the back yard- anything he enjoyed was disrupted and he was constantly told it was because the devil was after him and he needed to be “saved”… I’d go to the parents and would get a sweet smile and assurance they would talk to the kids- of course I knew where it was coming from-the kids weren’t acting on their own-but foolishly believed once I had confronted the parents directly that it would stop… but instead they stepped it up to an unforgiveable level that summer-while I was at work- they lied to the daycare provider (another neighbor who lived a few more houses down) and said they had permission to take my son to their children’s Bible classes… I was livid- not only at them but also that the daycare provider assumed we were all neighbors and he was a minister -so it must be ok without verifying it… and the most predictable ridiculous outrageous outcome of it - was that they justified it all- by saying that my anger was validation they were saving my son from the devil working in me because I wasn’t “saved”- because only the devil wouldn’t want my son at Bible classes… I told them they were very fortunate I didn’t have them arrested and would pray for their children- that must have been enough to scare them 😃 and thankfully they moved a few months later… that wasn’t an isolated incident though- the Baptists used to drive a bus through my sister’s neighborhood - 300 miles away- promising a new bike to every kid they stopped to talk to- if the kids would attend all Bible classes during the summer… so lies, bribery, kidnapping, and who knows what else:confused: apparently are all acceptable means of “saving” everyone who doesn’t believe as they do… I’m not saying ALL Baptists groups are this way- because I also have good friends who are the best of the best… but some of these groups/people need to be watched and the fruits of the spirit scrutinized closely if your kids are involved:thumbsup:
 
JCnMe said:
I have to say I am surprised at the remarkably benign references to tactics used to draw kids away… it’s really not a Protestant thing as much as a Baptist thing and it is precisely because many branches of the Baptist Church feel Catholicism is not Christian but a devils cult… and they feel it is perfectly acceptable to use the devils own tactics to save the children :eek: when my son was in pre school and kindergarten we lived in a neighborhood 2 houses away from a Baptist Minister and his family… mild mannered, plain dressed… seemingly supportive and caring… their kids were always wanting to come over and play- but once they learned we were Catholic-my son become a behind the scenes target for them… the kids would come over and want to play my sons music in his room and then start telling him how it was the devils music… his toys were repeatedly stolen out of the back yard- anything he enjoyed was disrupted and he was constantly told it was because the devil was after him and he needed to be “saved”… I’d go to the parents and would get a sweet smile and assurance they would talk to the kids- of course I knew where it was coming from-the kids weren’t acting on their own-but foolishly believed once I had confronted the parents directly that it would stop… but instead they stepped it up to an unforgiveable level that summer-while I was at work- they lied to the daycare provider (another neighbor who lived a few more houses down) and said they had permission to take my son to their children’s Bible classes… I was livid- not only at them but also that the daycare provider assumed we were all neighbors and he was a minister -so it must be ok without verifying it… and the most predictable ridiculous outrageous outcome of it - was that they justified it all- by saying that my anger was validation they were saving my son from the devil working in me because I wasn’t “saved”- because only the devil wouldn’t want my son at Bible classes… I told them they were very fortunate I didn’t have them arrested and would pray for their children- that must have been enough to scare them 😃 and thankfully they moved a few months later… that wasn’t an isolated incident though- the Baptists used to drive a bus through my sister’s neighborhood - 300 miles away- promising a new bike to every kid they stopped to talk to- if the kids would attend all Bible classes during the summer… so lies, bribery, kidnapping, and who knows what else:confused: apparently are all acceptable means of “saving” everyone who doesn’t believe as they do… I’m not saying ALL Baptists groups are this way- because I also have good friends who are the best of the best… but some of these groups/people need to be watched and the fruits of the spirit scrutinized closely if your kids are involved:thumbsup:
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How unfortunate, and not at all a good way to show Christ’s love. But every church I’ve been part of doesn’t target Catholic kids to lure them away; we’re much more worried about nonChristian children!
 
Catholics are the opposite. Most use no tactics to attract people to church. The Church will even give parents a hard time getting their kids into a First Communion class, having an attendance requirement. And, whenever I brought a friend to church, they were NOT made to feel welcome. They cannot receive communion, people are unfriendly.

I remember we had a big blow up at my old parish, with the priest having a falling out with the fellow who did the religious ed, practically banishing him from the parish because some of the traditionalists complained. Then he put the top traditionalist in charge, who totally botched it, he ended up a couple of years later actually getting banished from the parish by the priest for threatening him or something on that order. Meanwhile, the traditionalist made sure that no children of any Christmas and Easter Catholics were allowed in the class. :rolleyes: It was a disaster.
 
… heidi_storage … and that’s exactly what they considered Catholic Children to be- nonchristian … some simply refuse to see Catholics as Christian
 
@JCnMe: It sounds like your Baptist neighbors were borderline lunatics. I am glad they moved away. Most Evangelicals I have been associated with view Catholics as not being Christians. Not all of them, and yes, there are plenty of children who are not being raised in any religion. I never came across one who would just grab somebody’s child to “share the gospel.” But they do make Catholics are target. But from my experience is more from having a youth group outing or something like that.
 
Exactly my point. Fun for kids is directly related to Big Budgets (tithing). I don’t know if expenses go to mission work or back in to the church for these types of draws. It seems Catholics don’t know how to ask for money except for Maryknoll missions etc.
 
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