What does he mean by that?

[kresbrook]

I have an uncle (married to my mothers sister) who is an ELCA Lutheran Pastor. I don’t see him often as they live about 2000 miles away. However, wherever I do see him he never fails to mention that a lot of his parishoners are fallen away Catholics. He once even indicated that they actively seek fallen away Catholic’s but I will admit I may have misunderstood his statement.

So my question: do you think he does that to justify his beliefs/views (which I have to admit was my initial reaction), or because he is trying to point out that so many have figured out they were wrong, and when am I going to realize that?

He is a very kind person, and I’ve never thought anything but good things about him. But we have never discussed theology either. So from a protestant view, what would you think his intentions are?

I know I should just ask him, and I might just do that the next time I see him. But I need to make sure its a time when it is just the two of us. He would not shy away from debate, but the rest of the family would claim we weren’t playing nice. They like to pretend disagreements don’t exist.

 

[Newbie2]

Ask him.

 

[spoiltvictorian]

Yes, we shouldn’t put malicious thoughts into your head. And even if you disagree with his theology, you should continue to think nothing but good thoughts about him because he obviously means well.

 

[SpaceNeedle]

I wouldn’t take what he’s said as a “negative”, a good friend of mine is an Episcopal deacon, and always talks about how many fomer Catholics are at their church. I don’t think they really mean anything by it; just one of those things. Maybe even could be considered “small talk”.

 

[spoiltvictorian]

I wouldn’t take what he’s said as a “negative”, a good friend of mine is an Episcopal deacon, and always talks about how many fomer Catholics are at their church. I don’t think they really mean anything by it; just one of those things. Maybe even could be considered “small talk”.

Reminds me of a hilarious moment at my old job. Every Friday we would have these awkward all-hands lunches. At one of them it came up that our boss’ wife was an office manager at a dentist’s office. Invariably 2-3 people would blab the first thing that came into their heads by way of conversation. This time they all started talking about horrible and unethical office managers they had encountered in the past - billing issues, nasty phone calls, using red tape/policy as a weapon, etc. My boss just looks embarrassed. Everyone else looks at their plate and prays for a fire alarm. AWK-WARD!

 

[kresbrook]

thank you spoiltvictorian & SpaceNeedle you are very correct. I need to just keep thinking the positive things that I have always felt about him and not let the devil sway me.

Thank you!

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

I have an uncle (married to my mothers sister) who is an ELCA Lutheran Pastor. I don’t see him often as they live about 2000 miles away. However, wherever I do see him he never fails to mention that a lot of his parishoners are fallen away Catholics. He once even indicated that they actively seek fallen away Catholic’s but I will admit I may have misunderstood his statement.

So my question: do you think he does that to justify his beliefs/views (which I have to admit was my initial reaction), or because he is trying to point out that so many have figured out they were wrong, and when am I going to realize that?

He is a very kind person, and I’ve never thought anything but good things about him. But we have never discussed theology either. So from a protestant view, what would you think his intentions are?

I know I should just ask him, and I might just do that the next time I see him. But I need to make sure its a time when it is just the two of us. He would not shy away from debate, but the rest of the family would claim we weren’t playing nice. They like to pretend disagreements don’t exist.

He is the speaker - so he, not we, should be his best interpreter. ​

 

[JonNC]

I have an uncle (married to my mothers sister) who is an ELCA Lutheran Pastor. I don’t see him often as they live about 2000 miles away. However, wherever I do see him he never fails to mention that a lot of his parishoners are fallen away Catholics. He once even indicated that they actively seek fallen away Catholic’s but I will admit I may have misunderstood his statement.

So my question: do you think he does that to justify his beliefs/views (which I have to admit was my initial reaction), or because he is trying to point out that so many have figured out they were wrong, and when am I going to realize that?

He is a very kind person, and I’ve never thought anything but good things about him. But we have never discussed theology either. So from a protestant view, what would you think his intentions are?

I know I should just ask him, and I might just do that the next time I see him. But I need to make sure its a time when it is just the two of us. He would not shy away from debate, but the rest of the family would claim we weren’t playing nice. They like to pretend disagreements don’t exist.

Just for fun, and really mean that - for fun - see if you can get an idea of how many former Lutherans are members of your parish, and mention, with a big grin, to him how many “fallen away” Lutherans your church has.

Jon