Should My Teen Sons Volunteer At A Fundy Vbs?

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Friends: I am so confused. My teens would love to help out in a couple weeks at our local Calvary Chapel VBS. I just don’t know. As a new Catholic, I am concerned they might be gathering false doctrine, yet again, usually the VBS’ are all about Jesus, learning about Him, Praising and Worshipping Him, learning Bible verses, etc., and generally alot of fun, with no anti-Catholic anything. I feel this would help the spiritual life of my teen boys alot, teaching them to assist others, etc., and looking around, I have found NO Catholic VBS anywhere (what a shame). Why is this? I just do not know.

What do y’all think? Would appreciate your advice?

Isn’t it better to learn about being a Christian period? than to not?

I struggle with this. I know many of you might say, bring them to a Catholic Youth, Catholic VBS, Catholic this and that, but there aren’t any!
 
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sparkle:
Friends: I am so confused. My teens would love to help out in a couple weeks at our local Calvary Chapel VBS. I just don’t know. As a new Catholic, I am concerned they might be gathering false doctrine, yet again, usually the VBS’ are all about Jesus, learning about Him, Praising and Worshipping Him, learning Bible verses, etc., and generally alot of fun, with no anti-Catholic anything. I feel this would help the spiritual life of my teen boys alot, teaching them to assist others, etc., and looking around, I have found NO Catholic VBS anywhere (what a shame). Why is this? I just do not know.

What do y’all think? Would appreciate your advice?

Isn’t it better to learn about being a Christian period? than to not?

I struggle with this. I know many of you might say, bring them to a Catholic Youth, Catholic VBS, Catholic this and that, but there aren’t any!
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Are your children going to spend every waking moment for the rest of their lives with only Catholics?

How about the opportunity to show a genuine a Christian faith as a Catholic to other Christians?

I wish I had something like that when I was their age.

Peace
 
I say go for it. 👍

Some think you need to protect them from diversity.

Others, like me, think it is good that they experience diversity because then while they are still home they have a context in which you can better define your own beliefs.

If they stay inside the Catholic box all the time, then they neither will know the world around them or know what to look for if they get lost in it sometime.

[edit] it also helps them un-demonize those who we feel may be misled, and helps advance unity.

Alan
 
Well first of all Calvary chapel is very anti-catholic. Secondly our late great Pope JP II said “it is worse that a man has learned error than to be in ignorance”. No it is not good to “just” learn about Christ if the teaching is filled with error, which a Calvary Chapel VBS will be. Children are not strong enough or knowledgable enough in their faith to be put on the front lines which is what you are doing. It would be a grave mistake.

Blessings
 
There you go

pro and con

yin and yang

and so it goes

guess it’s up to you.

Either way you will have some who will agree with your decision, some who will disagree, and others to just be with you and wish you well which ever way they go.

I’m one of those in favor of letting them do it. 😃 (I still wish you well whichever way you go though so I kind of cheated.)

God bless.

Alan
 
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AlanFromWichita:
There you go

pro and con

yin and yang

and so it goes

guess it’s up to you.

Either way you will have some who will agree with your decision, some who will disagree, and others to just be with you and wish you well which ever way they go.

I’m one of those in favor of letting them do it. 😃 (I still wish you well whichever way you go though so I kind of cheated.)

God bless.

Alan
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Ditto

God Bless you and your children
 
If you really feel they should be there, perhaps you could be there too. That way, if you hear that they are being taught any kind of doctrinal error, false teaching, or anti-Catholic bias, you could set it right or pull them.
 
I’m afraid I would have to agree with Thessalonian on this one. When they learn bible verses, understand that they will learn bible verses to support the Calvary Chapel position (like “call no man father” or “all have sinned” or “traditions of men”, etc.). All in all it could wind up being a very confusing situation. I have no doubt that I could make any teen doubt any christian denomination by quoting certain bible verses to the exclusion of others, and when they memorize these verses they take them as their own. Without you there to provide balance and solid catechetics, I’m afraid they may end up exactly where Thessalonian has said.

May God bless you and keep you,
RyanL
 
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EA_Man:
Ditto

God Bless you and your children
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EA you can’t tell me your ditto doesn’t have in mind making protestants out of them in the end. After all the doctrinal differences are minor and it doesn’t matter to you if one is Catholic or not. We are just debating the finer points that don’t really matter here, right?

I’ve got some swamp, I mean land for ya in floriday.
 
Half of the protestant Churches are filled with former Catholics who did learn THEIR FAITH when they were young and thus were stripped of it in the end. Some went to Catholic schools but had liberalism and indifferentism pumped in to their maluable minds. If you want your kids to remain Catholics they need to be fed solid food of the faith.
 
Some people said they should go??? MY GOD. You don’t help heretics spread error, or give tacit approval even if they don’t explicitly mention it. The entire line of preconciliar papal teaching (at least from the late 19th century up) was that you don’t even go to these things unless you have to, much less participate in them. No Catholic VBS-start one. If we want to draw the contrast a little further to make the picture clearer, would you send them to help at a Mormon VBS? Same type of thing, only degree of error is different.
 
I personally would not send my (7 & 8 yr. old) daughters to a protestant Bible school. I really do not htink it is a good idea, unless:
  1. They are well versed in their faith.
  2. They have studied apologetics.
  3. They are prepared to go and defend their position if pushed on it.
So minimally it depends on their ages (teens versed in apologetics?), and knowledge, but I would have to ask, why send them?

I wonder if they would be free to make a sign of the cross when praying and before meals. Are they free to carry a rosary? If this would offend or bother the church school, then say no way. In fact they really should not pray with protestants, except under certain controlled situations (if at all).

I understand the issue of necessity, but there must be other options available.

Mark
www.veritas-catholic.blogspot.com
 
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AlanFromWichita:
I say go for it. 👍

Some think you need to protect them from diversity.
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You don’t need to protect from diversity, but you wouldn’t hand “The Book of the Law” to someone unless he was ready for it- the same goes to Protestant arguments cogent on the mien.
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Alan:
Others, like me, think it is good that they experience diversity because then while they are still home they have a context in which you can better define your own beliefs.

If they stay inside the Catholic box all the time, then they neither will know the world around them or know what to look for if they get lost in it sometime.
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You can tell them about Protestant beliefs- that doesn’t mean you put them in the middle of it. You don’t teach your kids about “the birds and the bees” by having him sit in on you-know-what.

Alan said:
[edit]
it also helps them un-demonize those who we feel may be misled, and helps advance unity.

Alan
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For un-denominaztion, you can just say, “They aren’t demons.” You don’t have to go and assist their VBS. You don’t help to advance unity by Protestants and Catholics acting like we’re pretty much all in the same place, which is the message going would send. The Church has unity, and Protestants, who do not belong to the Church, need to come back to it.
 
“They aren’t demons.”

Frued again.😃 Or dislexia. 😉 I don’t know, maybe it came out the way you meant it.:bounce:
 
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sparkle:
Friends: I am so confused. My teens would love to help out in a couple weeks at our local Calvary Chapel VBS. I just don’t know. As a new Catholic, I am concerned they might be gathering false doctrine, yet again, usually the VBS’ are all about Jesus, learning about Him, Praising and Worshipping Him, learning Bible verses, etc., and generally alot of fun, with no anti-Catholic anything. I feel this would help the spiritual life of my teen boys alot, teaching them to assist others, etc., and looking around, I have found NO Catholic VBS anywhere (what a shame). Why is this? I just do not know.

What do y’all think? Would appreciate your advice?

Isn’t it better to learn about being a Christian period? than to not?

I struggle with this. I know many of you might say, bring them to a Catholic Youth, Catholic VBS, Catholic this and that, but there aren’t any!
Click to expand...
Absolutely not! Start the Catholic groups in your area.
 
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challenger:
Should’ve been “un-demonization” and “demons.”
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Ah, I thought you were talking about the anti-denomination stance of the Calvary Chapel Churches. 🙂
 
Tis a bit late to be starting a Catholic VBS in your parish/area for this summer, but next summer lies ahead and what finer thing than to start your kids out on the ground floor of organizing and getting one set for next summer. I am sure your parish must have other parents/grandparents who could get really excited about a VBS for their younger ones. I am happy to participate with other Faiths in lots of other things like scouts, 4-H, soccor etc. but a Bible School? You know very well that it will be slanted in a protestant direction. Go for the future! 👍
 
I would not do it unless your sons are familiar with apologetics and can defend their faith. Then it would be a great chance for them to be witnesses to the faith and provide opportunities for them to share it.
As an alternative, there usually are conferences throughout the country. Just look them up on the internet.

I just came back from the National Catholic Family Conference which was a great experience. Here is a link so you can have an idea what it was about.
catholicresourcecenter.org/conferences.shtml

Almost every month a new event is going on throughout the country to participate in.

The Bible was created to be used in liturgy and to be read in that context, not just to be prooftexted for beliefs. Attending a non-Catholic bible study without a background in the understanding of the Bible can lead to problems with interpretations. This is why we have so many different intepretations and understandings of the Bible. So that is why I would not recommend this unless they understand and can defend what they believe in.

God Bless
Scylla
 
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