Protestants, where did you get to learn about Catholic beliefs about Catholicism? Catholics, where did you learn about Protestantism?

[Mannyfit75]

Protestants, where did you get to learn about Catholic beliefs about Catholicism? Catholics, where did you learn about Protestantism?

Many Protestants probably gotten some ideas about the Catholic Church from Ex-Catholics, and books from Lorraine Boettner’s book Roman Catholicism (a lot of misinformation contained about that book concerning the faith of Catholicism). As well as history books by the secular society.

Catholics also learn about Protestantism from history, from Ex-Protestants, books, etc. So here is the question.

For Protestants: When was the first time you heard about the Catholic Church, and did you find the information you received about Catholicism to be true?

For Catholics: When was the first time you heard about Protestantism, and how accurate was the information.

As a Catholic, I learn Protestantism from history books in public school and from Ex Protestants, current Protestants and I find many of their beliefs of essential Christian belief to be diverse and vary due to their doctrine of Scripture Alone…

 

[fbl9]

i learned all about the “evil” catholic church from a few pentacostal friends,and the non denom church which sprang from the same pentacostal church.(lol in hind sight).but the most i learned about protesants beleifs are from this forum and a radio program that airs about 4-6 different preachers a night.sometimes i agree with them but there are some things that get me a bit riled up.as a catholic i can’t see how any person could even try to undertake a study of all the different beleifs outside the church.one could spend a lifetime and not even come close to plumbing the depths of catholic teachings.

 

[TriuneUnity]

Protestants, where did you get to learn about Catholic beliefs about Catholicism? Catholics, where did you learn about Protestantism?

Family, and RCIA. I married a Catholic.

For Protestants: When was the first time you heard about the Catholic Church, and did you find the information you received about Catholicism to be true?

As far as I could tell, unless the priest was lying about anything. Further study revealed it to be pretty accurate.

 

[RC_Matt]

Protestants, where did you get to learn about Catholic beliefs about Catholicism? Catholics, where did you learn about Protestantism?

If you want to learn about a particular faith, the only reliable (and fair) means of doing so is to read the official dogma as taught by that faith yourself. Former members may be biased, non-members can’t be expected to have a good handle on the material and even practicing members may be uninformed or misunderstand some tenets. With the internet, this is hardly an arduous task. It’s particularly important if someone says something about a particular faith that sounds a little “off.” Sometimes it turns out to be true, or even worse, but usually it’s just nonsense or ignorant bigotry.

 

[gcnuss]

Protestants, where did you get to learn about Catholic beliefs about Catholicism? Catholics, where did you learn about Protestantism?

Manny,

I have read extensively about Catholicism, including parts of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, books by Scott Hahn, Father Benedict Groeschel, Karl Keating, among others, and I frequently look at some of the discussion programs on EWTN (The Journey Home, Life on the Rock).

Many Protestants probably gotten some ideas about the Catholic Church from Ex-Catholics, and books from Lorraine Boettner’s book Roman Catholicism (a lot of misinformation contained about that book concerning the faith of Catholicism). As well as history books by the secular society.

I am not acquainted with Lorraine Boettner’s book.

For Protestants: When was the first time you heard about the Catholic Church, and did you find the information you received about Catholicism to be true?

My first introduction to Catholicism, other than fragments from my childhood friends who were Catholic, came from my Lutheran pastor who was about as anti-Catholic as anyone I have known. He influenced my perceptions of Catholicism for many years – although I relented when my wife (also a life-long Lutheran) wanted to send our daughters to the local parochial school.

I got into serious reading about Catholicism 12 years or so ago. Strangely enough, it was after I began that reading that I began to feel the call to study for the ordained ministry in the Lutheran church (ELCA). After retiring from my first career, I completed seminary studies and was ordained.

I have made a long journey from being rather anti-Catholic to being committed to ecumenical efforts between Lutherans and Catholics. As far as a swim across the Tiber is concerned, I have yet to be convinced that the other side of the river is a better place than where I am.

 

[Syele]

Protestants, where did you get to learn about Catholic beliefs about Catholicism?

Ohhh I get to write a mini-novel! hehe

Growing up I heard a few vague random negative comments from a rrelatives cousins sisters friend (hehe you know right along with the stories of Kidney thieves!) stuff like that Catholics worship Mary and that they have to stand up and sit down too many times in Church, they think Clapping is evil etc. I had never met a Catholic at that point so I might as well have been hearing about tribbles or something.

Then I managed to get engaged to a Catholic. I asked him LOTS of questions, he didn’t know the answers. He just handed me his Catholic Bible and showed me what his rosary looked like. I read all the forwards in it (It had several), followed by all the books I was unfamiliar with. That led me to more questions. Whats with all the Mystery stuff? What is Purgatory? etc. He didn’t know those things either. I got grumpy. How can people claim to be a religion they know nothing about!? We read some book together that his Catholic friend recommended on Catholics. I don’t recall who wrote it, or the title… it was kinda dry. Then I read some stuff I found in the Catholic section of the used bookstore, a book called “Purgatory” It was visions a woman had about purgatory - a Saint, but I don’t now remember who, St. Catherine? It talked about how she prayed to suffer on earth to get out of suffering in purgatory too. It was a pretty drastic choice for intro to Purgatory 101. It was then that I started considering becoming Catholic. Many things intrigued me and I began insisting my BF go to my church and mass with me every Sunday. His mother was insisting we be married in the Catholic Church. We started weekly meetings with the priest for pre-marital counseling. The priest was downright hostile towards me in every way. Informed me that I and the man who baptized me were going to hell. he also gave tests with trick questions and shouted at me alot. (yes I know he was not a typical priest, he also is no longer a priest and I think in jail for embezzlement so that says something there)Things kinda went downhill from there. Not just in my learning more about Catholics but in my engagement and the rest of life too, not cause of the priest, just life and the way it goes I suppose. So the wedding plans were stopped, the learning about Catholics stopped as did many other unrelated things.

A few years later I moved to a new place and again considered becoming a Catholic. This time I really didn’t get far at all. Too many things I disagreed with plus my family was freaking out intensely. God led me to an Episcopal Church where I was very happy for a long time. it was still a couple more years later that I found this website and CAF inspired me to read all the CCC and some writings of St. Augustine. The rest I learned from the forums.

For Protestants: When was the first time you heard about the Catholic Church, and did you find the information you received about Catholicism to be true?

Well I already answered about the first things I heard. I found you don’t worship Mary but you still give her more devotion than any Protestant would. Some Catholics go overboard in this, most don’t. as for the standing and sitting… well you do do that alot, but I do like the liturgy very much, so its forgivable . And the clapping… well I have encountered some Catholics who clap and a few that freak out over clapping and music style way too much.

 

[Ruthie]

What about us converts?

I was raised Unitarian; in Sunday School they taught us about Buddhism, Confucianism and Judaism but not much about Unitarian beliefs.

My Grandparents were Congregational; I learned about the Trinity from them, but not about their church’s tenets.

When I became a Christian, I joined a “non-denominational” church that was based in Baptism.

I knew nothing about Catholicism, except that they had beautiful churches and lots of ritual - two things I like.

Then someone on a Bible Study forum posted a diatribe about Catholics, based on the Chick tracts and Boettner’s nasty book. I knew on instinct that it was untrue, but wanted to be able to refute it “from the horse’s mouth.” So I stumbled across Catholic Answers, and read my way through the Library. I kept finding myself saying, “but that’s what I believe!”

So I signed up for RCIA, swam the Tiber, and now I keep on studying my Church.

Ruthie
Gosh, I hope this makes sense - it’s way past my bedtime!

 

[inJESUS]

I heard the term “protestants” from some history class. I do not know protestants since they are very rare in our community and so i was not exposed to their belief nor was i interested as it is not something we even discuss over here. I only read about some of the beliefs here on CAF. I always knew there are protestants, but never knew there are so many protestant churches until i joined this forum. Truth be told, am not sure i can understand everything they believe in since i don’t have time to dedicate to all their denoms but from what i read so far, i gather that the major issue is the Church’s authority…if you reject it, you will reject some of her teachings as well and end up forming your own belief, and someone will have yet another belief, and chaos at the end…as such, i don’t think i will dedicate my time to what x or y thinks is correct because with personal interpretation without authority, you might end up believing anything as is seen with Protestants, JW and Mormons…i cannot put Protestants with JW or Mormons obviously, but the basic for their belief in the same : personal interpretation and rejection of Church’s authority.

 

[mothom]

I first learned of Catholic beliefs from the pastor and visiting ministers at the AOG church I grew up in, and other Pentecostal churches we frequented when I was a youngster. The next source would be the Dake Bible. After that would be the Baptist radio programs I used to listen to, as well as Jimmy Swaggart. Another source would be the encyclopedia - the cheap one sold in tiny volumes at the grocery store. Then I became a distributor of Jack Chick tracts. I was older at the time, and the things he said against the Catholic Church bothered me. Because of that, I embarked on a quest to check things out for myself. Another influence was a guy who I met in Church who was raised Catholic and still considered himself to be one. Why he was attending a non-denominational church I don’t know. He tried to recruit me for Amway. The subject of Catholicism came up, and I mentioned that Catholics weren’t allowed to read the Bible and believed whatever the Pope tells them to. That’s when I discovered he was a Catholic. He set me straight on the matter. He told me he was schooled in a Catholic school and they read out of the Bible everyday, which was a shock to me as I was always told that Catholics were forbidden to read the Bible. One of my High school teachers was a Catholic and he died of a heart attack. I went to his rosary with a fellow student who was a Baptist. We did what we saw everyone else there do. It left no impression on me. One of my brothers is married to a Hispanic woman who comes from a Catholic family, although she’s not a practicing Catholic. They attend a large non-denominational church. She was raised Catholic and received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit in the basement of a local Catholic Church. The Charismatic movement in the Catholic Church sowed seeds of doubt in my mind about the claims made against the Catholic Church. My sister-in-law’s dad died. I attended his funeral mass. It blew my mind. It was in English. I was always told Catholic services were conducted in Latin. The Priest preached a sermon and quoted scripture after scripture after scripture right out of the Bible. That blew my mind. Her brother died last year and I went to his funeral mass too. Nothing changed. All those Pentecostal and radio Baptist preachers who told me that Catholics didn’t read the Bible were wrong. What else were they wrong about? Well, I’ve been conducting my own research and have found out that they were wrong about a whole lot of things. I’m not through studying. Probably the biggest source I have tapped into is Karl Keating’s apologetics at Catholic Answers, as well as the Catechism, the Dogmas, and the Canon Laws. I go over and try to read James White’s comments and compare. (His articles are awful long winded.) I’m reading in the Church Fathers right now. I’ve found myself listening to Catholic radio quite often. I have made the conclusion that the Catholic Church is not a false religion, is not a cult, is the original Christian denomination, is truly Christian, God has his people in the Catholic Church, and they don’t need to come out of her to make it to heaven, and even though they have a different take on the meaning of “saved” their faithful aren’t any less “saved” than the Baptist or Pentecostal faithful, who in turn aren’t any more “saved” than the Catholic faithful, (although I do have my doubts about the many Baptists who act on their belief in OSAS, and those Catholics who attend mass only twice a year and think that will suffice to getting them into Heaven), and the pope isn’t the anti-Christ and neither is the Catholic Church the whore of Babylon, the figure on the crucifix isn’t Tammuz, nor is Mary Semiramis, as well as a number of other things. That doesn’t necessarily mean I now agree with her on everything. In my studies, I am keeping my mind open to what the Catholic Church has to say so as to give her a fair shake. I’ve heard all my life what her critics say about her, and now I’m giving her her chance to speak. And I must be totally honest about it, in studying the Catholic Church, I do feel a pull. As for swimming the Tiber, I don’t know how to swim yet. Anyway, I think you devout Catholics are good Christians.

 

[mothom]

I’m sorry for writing such a big block of unbroken text. I hope you’re not bored with it.

 

[water]

I’m sorry for writing such a big block of unbroken text. I hope you’re not bored with it.

Don’t worry. I read every single word of your post and I am very happy that you actually learn about the Catholic faith from both perspective. I would say that your continuing study about the teaching of the early Fathers will help you learn even more about the Catholic faith.

 

[water]

For me, I am still learning about my own faith, but I have chance to read some posts from CAF, and learn a bit about non-Catholic faith from my own brother and sister. My sister does not believe OSAS, and my brother is an awesome man who has such a great faith in what he is doing.

 

[MDK]

Manny,

I have read extensively about Catholicism, including parts of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, books by Scott Hahn, Father Benedict Groeschel, Karl Keating, among others, and I frequently look at some of the discussion programs on EWTN (The Journey Home, Life on the Rock).

I am not acquainted with Lorraine Boettner’s book.

My first introduction to Catholicism, other than fragments from my childhood friends who were Catholic, came from my Lutheran pastor who was about as anti-Catholic as anyone I have known. He influenced my perceptions of Catholicism for many years – although I relented when my wife (also a life-long Lutheran) wanted to send our daughters to the local parochial school.

I got into serious reading about Catholicism 12 years or so ago. Strangely enough, it was after I began that reading that I began to feel the call to study for the ordained ministry in the Lutheran church (ELCA). After retiring from my first career, I completed seminary studies and was ordained.

I have made a long journey from being rather anti-Catholic to being committed to ecumenical efforts between Lutherans and Catholics. As far as a swim across the Tiber is concerned, I have yet to be convinced that the other side of the river is a better place than where I am.

Apostolic Succession. Get your swim trunks on!

 

[Mannyfit75]

this is a good topic.

 

[fbl9]

I’m sorry for writing such a big block of unbroken text. I hope you’re not bored with it.

yeah this is more like remeber the kiss principal (keep it short s*****)…the pervious post was an execllent post…