Were you raised Evangelical or Fundamentalist and Convert to Catholicism?

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Were you raised Evangelical or Fundamentalist and Convert to Catholicism? If so, what was the reaction of your family and your old church(s)? What was said and how has it affected your family relationships and friendships? What denomination were you?
 
I was raised Baptist, became Covenant when I was in early 30s then Catholic at age 59. My parents are both deceased but my dad has probably been turning over in his grave several thousand times by now. I have no siblings so nothing to deal with there. I did have a couple of church friends who I’m sure are still praying for my soul!!!
 
i was raised in the baptist and AoG churches. i converted this year and it has been great.
my mom doesn’t mind. she’s AoG but her grandmother was Catholic. my dad doesn’t say anything. he’s the baptist one. his parents, my grandparents, think that i’m crazy but as long as i’m going to church… they have tried to talk me out of it.
my moms mom is very anti-catholic since she’s in this Christian but want to be Jews cult/group… last thanksgiving she went all to hell trying to talk me out of joining the CC.
most other people that have known me think it’s strange i converted. i laugh because now i don’t have to listen to long winded sermons about hell fire for an hour! Mass is so much better anyway. they have one thing the other churches don’t have and that is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord. (which is the main reason i converted)
 
Baptist/Lutheran going Catholic here. One of my brothers knows of my change. He’s Lutheran and teaches at a Lutheran college, but he doesn’t care if I switch because he highly respects the Catholic Church.

I don’t think my parents or my other brother would care what church I attend as long as it’s within the Christian umbrella. My parents grew up with so many Catholics that they also respect the Catholic Church. My other brother simply wouldn’t care because he’s not big on church attendance.

My Baptist wife cares. She won’t follow me until the day that Catholic priests start preaching inside their churches during mass. Hey, she has a point. She has a very, very good point.
 
I was raised Catholic, I started to read the Bible at eight years of age and became a Baptist when I was eleven.
 
Yep. Been there and done that.

Family:

The news of being Catholic came with mixed reviews. Some were happy for that I found a faith that can sustain me. Others are skeptical and curious about why does a Catholic take Communion only in Catholic parishes but not in a Presbyterian church.

Friends:

I went from popular to unpopular in 4 years of being Catholic. Most of the Protestants don’t talk to me anymore because they think I am crazy. I have been begged to leave the Catholic church. They think it’s a cult! I mean, there is no suicides or cannibalism. Catholics are embraced by Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and a huge Catholic Christian community here on earth and in heaven. That’s what made the Catholic church so attractive to me.
 
scottm said:
My Baptist wife cares. She won’t follow me until the day that Catholic priests start preaching inside their churches during mass. Hey, she has a point. She has a very, very good point.
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Welcome home, Scott! Could you explain the preaching thing? I don’t understand.

Thanks and God bless!
 
I was too young to remember most of it, but my family church-shopped for a while before finally settling down into Catholicism. The last one before that was Southern Baptist. My mother converted to Catholicism a while before Dad swam the Tiber (and we kids wiggled our way across on waterwings and foam noodles along with him). Being all of five at the time, I wasn’t exactly privy to the conversations of the adults, but I do distinctly remember the Sunday school teacher telling me ‘we’re all praying for your mother to get her head back on straight’.
 
Well, I was raised Jehovah’s Witness and became Catholic, does that count? Splintered the entire family, lost all of my 'Hovie friends. But I’m used to it by now.
 
SerenaHC said:
Well, I was raised Jehovah’s Witness and became Catholic, does that count? Splintered the entire family, lost all of my 'Hovie friends. But I’m used to it by now.
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Welcome home! God bless. Anyways, I am a cradle Catholic but it so good to hear (err, read) all these stories.
 
I was raised Southern Baptist and my dad is a Southern Baptist Preacher. Mom and dad try to be supportive but it is very hard for them. I basically can no longer discuss spiritual things with them because they get fixated on my conversion. Also my mother is in this strange denial. She just assumes that she must have been completely wrong about my spiritual maturity and so now assumes that everything I did before in the SBC must have just been a lucky fluke, and that I apparently hadn’t been paying attention.

Anyway, I don’t think that the rest of the family has even been told. As they make Catholic jokes around me.
 
I’m adding my comments to “Hijikata” because I too am a cradle Catholic – I can’t imagine any other religion – to me, the most important things that Jesus said were “Thou art Peter and upon this rock I shall build my Church” and “This is my Body, This is my Blood, do this in memory of Me”. The Eucharist and the Rosary are the two most important things in my life, and they are the only things that keep me going. My children and grandchildren are very far away and my husband died nearly 7 years ago – Christ in the Eucharist is with me each and every day – also my Rosary – each decade I pray for all the important people in my life. PLEASE stay with the Church – it has everything to offer us to keep going.
 
I am in the process on converting and am enrolled on RCIA/instruction.

My parents aren’t that bothered as they’re largely agnostic/athiest. My wife, however is a completely different kettle of fish. At first she humoured me and I think she was glad that I had started to rediscover my faith.

Now things are becomming more serious for her. Each Thursday (RCIA) and Sunday is really hard and the tension in the house is very aparent as she is convinced that what I am doing is “just wrong.”

Nevertheless, I’m a very stubborn mule and would not let her deter me in any way shape or form from coming home. As I asked my wife, if you were moved by God to convert, what would you do? Obey Him or go your own way?
 
Rasied a JW, converted to Catholicism as an adult.
what was the reaction of your family and your old church
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It was something like this: :bigyikes:
What was said and how has it affected your family relationships and friendships
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Years of serious animosity with my parents. Still continues to this day, but it’s not in my face as much as it used to be.
 
EDKidd said:
I am in the process on converting and am enrolled on RCIA/instruction.

My parents aren’t that bothered as they’re largely agnostic/athiest. My wife, however is a completely different kettle of fish. At first she humoured me and I think she was glad that I had started to rediscover my faith.

Now things are becomming more serious for her. Each Thursday (RCIA) and Sunday is really hard and the tension in the house is very aparent as she is convinced that what I am doing is “just wrong.”

Nevertheless, I’m a very stubborn mule and would not let her deter me in any way shape or form from coming home. As I asked my wife, if you were moved by God to convert, what would you do? Obey Him or go your own way?
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I had a similar situation. My husband and I married in the Lutheran tradition (ELCA) and he felt called to become a Lutheran pastor. Then I felt that I was being called to become Catholic. He was very angry because no ELCA congregation is going to call a pastor with a Catholic wife. He said I ruined his life and that he would never become Catholic and I’d better not try to convert him and I’d better not “Catholic Up” the house.

Ours was a tense household, to put it lightly.

Two years later, my husband became Catholic. I was shocked when he told me he’d decided to start RCIA. I asked him recently what made him want to convert. He said that, beside the logic and obvious truth of Catholic doctrine, it was the way I changed after I became Catholic. He said that I was very joyous and contented spiritually and he’d never known me to be that way before. He wanted some of that for himself and figured that, if it had that effect on me, there must be something to it.

He converted in spite of himself and now is thrilled to be Catholic. 👍

Moral: Don’t give up and don’t give up on your wife, no matter how rocky the road. Remember, Scott Hahn’s wife didn’t convert until five years after he converted and their friends even counseled her to divorce him! It’s tough coming into the Church with spousal opposition but it’s a journey worth taking.
 
scottm said:
Baptist/Lutheran going Catholic here. One of my brothers knows of my change. He’s Lutheran and teaches at a Lutheran college, but he doesn’t care if I switch because he highly respects the Catholic Church.

I don’t think my parents or my other brother would care what church I attend as long as it’s within the Christian umbrella. My parents grew up with so many Catholics that they also respect the Catholic Church. My other brother simply wouldn’t care because he’s not big on church attendance.

My Baptist wife cares. She won’t follow me until the day that Catholic priests start preaching inside their churches during mass. Hey, she has a point. She has a very, very good point.
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She won’t follow you until the day that Catholic priests start preaching inside their churches during mass???

What if Catholic priests preached about Catholicism during the sunrise Easter service? That would be very interesting.

Or…

What if Catholic priests preached on a college campus during a moonlight mass?

I’ll be praying for your wife. It can happen.
 
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