The Members of What Religion, in your Opinion, are the Toughest to "Covert" (Discuss the Faith with)?

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i tend to think it is the Seventh Day Adventists… and i have to admit, i don’t know as much as i should about their beliefs…

I have also had a hard time with Baptists. :hypno: :ouch: :hmmm:
 
Personally, it’s the lapsed Catholics that are hard for me. But I keep trying. The Baptists usually are open to most people who are willing to talk to them. They are usually pretty respectful. It’s getting the former or lapsed Catholics back to the faith that are very difficult to me, especially if they have joined another church. More reasons to pray.
 
distracted said:
i tend to think it is the Seventh Day Adventists… and i have to admit, i don’t know as much as i should about their beliefs…

I have also had a hard time with Baptists. :hypno: :ouch: :hmmm:
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Look up all posts by the euphemistically named Protestant101. Better yet, get a copy of The Essential Catholic Survival Guide, coincidentally available right here! shop.catholic.com/cgi-local/SoftCart.exe/online-store/scstore/p-F0607A.html?L+scstore+rntl2649ff799c79+1277226878
It also has great sections on your front door visitors. The USCCB should mail a copy to every Catholic in the US!

Christ’s peace.
 
Ravyn_Guiliani said:
Jehovah’s Witnesses hands down.
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Yeah, they’re not even allowed to look at any materials that may contradict what they believe. I tried to make a date to compare lit with a young JW and she said she would, but she didn’t return my calls to nail down a time. I think she told her trainers she was going to work on me at our meeting and they put the kibosh on it. Later I heard they have a rule against reading conflicting materials, at least for newbies.
 
strngrnrth said:
Yeah, they’re not even allowed to look at any materials that may contradict what they believe. I tried to make a date to compare lit with a young JW and she said she would, but she didn’t return my calls to nail down a time…
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JWs never come back to talk to me either. 🤷
They say they will, but they don’t.
I find that the concept of Church Authority is the most powerful argument against the JWs, especially in relation to scriptural interpretation.
 
distracted said:
i tend to think it is the Seventh Day Adventists… and i have to admit, i don’t know as much as i should about their beliefs… :
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The 7th Day Adventists run regular seminars on the End Times/Last Days. They give away a free bible to those who attend. In these seminars they are very anti-Catholic, and interpret the Catholic Church as the whore of babylon and spew other anti-Catholic rhetoric forth in the seminar. I wanted the free Bible, so I went to the seminar with a college friend. 😊

I wouldn’t suggest it to anyone. But at age 18 I wasn’t very grounded in my Catholic faith to defend it.
 
stbruno said:
Personally, it’s the lapsed Catholics that are hard for me. But I keep trying. The Baptists usually are open to most people who are willing to talk to them. They are usually pretty respectful. It’s getting the former or lapsed Catholics back to the faith that are very difficult to me, especially if they have joined another church. More reasons to pray.
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Keeping praying! I’m living proof that your prayers do not go unanswered.

I was a lapsed Catholic, joined an Evangelical Church, woke up and came home… 👍
 
I cannot think of mainstream Protestant denomination whose membership I have not encountered in RCIA. Without doubt the hardest people to see all the way from their first tentative inquiry through real conversion, initiation sacraments, and remaining in the Faith are JWs, with Mormons a close second.

Admittedly my sample size is small but out of 20 or so people I cannot think of a JW or Mormon who I have met at some stage of the RCIA process who is still Catholic, and only a few of those who participated in the process for at least a year actually came to the sacraments eventually. There does not seem to be a way to approach their beliefs about their own religion, nor Catholic doctrine, by means of reason and logic and resort to scripture. Since their idea of what constitutes scripture and divine revelation is so skewed, what is effective with a well-read well studied devout Lutheran or Presbyterian is simply useless with someone coming from a more cult like background.
 
Atheists. Not that I convert anyone God does that I just try to nudge them along. At least with Protestants they believe in Jesus so you have something to work with but for people who dont believe in anything it`s hard.
 
I have trouble talking to the people I consider True New Agers – those who believe that 1) there is truth in all religions 2) but not very much 3) “eastern” religions are more true than other ones 4) but shamanic/Native American traditions are exotically wonderful as long as 5) you paternalistically redefine them for your own needs, 6) which always come first and 7) God is something inside everyone 8) since we are all part of God, 9) who divided into pieces long ago in order to have many experiences 10) which are all unique, making 11) truth and untruth totally subjective anyway 12) not counting this stuff, which is all true and 13) anyone who disagrees is hateful, slow-witted, old-fashioned, brainwashed and unimaginative and just needs to be exposed to New Age thinking, whereas 14) trying to persuade people by repetition and intimidation isn’t brainwashing at all but a reasoned argument is if it’s a Christian giving it.🤷
These people have such a complex and multilayered set of defenses against even hearing the idea that Christians have ideas to talk about in the first place – it’s hard to know how to get started.
 
I have dedicated weeks and countless hours to meeting with JW’s one two different occasions only to have them determine that I was incorrigible. As it turns out, (or at least according to one of the “missionaries” I spoke with) the only people the JW believe go to hell are incorrigibles like me who have heard the entire truth and refused to be converted. It did not sound good for me.

I still believe you should talk to them, but don’t hold your breath. My guess is 99% of the time the best you are going to do is lay the groundwork for others later on. One plants the seed and others harvest and all that. Reason with them if you can, pray with them for sure, and above all be kind and respectful. Be everything they are told you are not.
 
graceandglory said:
JWs never come back to talk to me either. 🤷
They say they will, but they don’t.
I find that the concept of Church Authority is the most powerful argument against the JWs, especially in relation to scriptural interpretation.
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i think that is the best argument against ANY of them… 🙂
 
graceandglory said:
I wanted the free Bible, so I went to the seminar with a college friend. 😊

.
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Yeah, but was it a “good” Bible… meaning valid version…? If it is a Bible Catholics don’t honor… you didn’t do yourself much of a favor…

Do they use the KJV?
 
whizkid43 said:
Keeping praying! I’m living proof that your prayers do not go unanswered.

I was a lapsed Catholic, joined an Evangelical Church, woke up and came home… 👍
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what caused you to reconsider (first reconsider)?
 
puzzleannie said:
II cannot think of a JW or Mormon who I have met at some stage of the RCIA process who is still Catholic,
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you are saying they converted and then left the Catholic Church?? Wow… that’s a new one for me… I’ve never seen anyone do that… but then, i don’t socialize much… 😦
Since their idea of what constitutes scripture and divine revelation is so skewed, what is effective with a well-read well studied devout Lutheran or Presbyterian is simply useless with someone coming from a more cult like background.
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hmm… pretty scary… and pathetic…
 
vee8 said:
Atheists. Not that I convert anyone God does that I just try to nudge them along. At least with Protestants they believe in Jesus so you have something to work with but for people who dont believe in anything it`s hard.
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but i was asking about members of a certain religion… Even so, i think someone once proposed to make Atheism an actual religion, protected as such by the Constitution… I wonder what ever happned about that?
 
graceandglory said:
…they are very anti-Catholic, and interpret the Catholic Church as the whore of babylon and spew other anti-Catholic rhetoric forth …
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That part would fit the Church of Christ members - my husband left me as he said he could not be married to a Catholic. I had a Baptist friend support my decision to be Catholic.
 
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