What's your view on this Catholic woman converting to a Islam after marrying cricketer husband

[Rozellelily]

Thanks for the link.
How ever did we survive once before the internet existed .
Interesting about how people rarely change religions due to marriage/partner.
It’s also interesting that the Catholic Church seems to be sustaining the greatest losses of people.
I wonder what needs to change or whether this is something just to be expected?

 

[Rozellelily]

I see what you mean.
At the same time though,in her case,she said herself that she had never even met a Muslim before him so maybe not so much lack of maturity but life experience?

She meets one great Muslim,falls in love and is impressed by his kind personality and commitment to his faith so that is enough to convert.
I wonder whether would she have done the same or not if he was Hindu for example?
Not that there would be anything wrong with that but I mean more regarding her decision making process.

 

[Rozellelily]

So does that mean God/Holy Spirit has like a hand in all this?

 

[ConfusedLucy]

I think a lot of people’s religious affiliation comes from meeting a good person of said faith and developing a relationship, platonic or romantic.

 

[Rozellelily]

They all live in Australia including his parents so they are influenced by the progressive,secular etc values and laws of the Australian society so there is no concern of the type of things that you are referring to.
In Australia most people are moderate including Muslims,Catholics,other Christians etc.

 

[Rozellelily]

This would seem a bit different though as she wasn’t coming from a place of being agnostic/without religious belief but was already Catholic.
Or at least 60 minutes made it sound that way…it’s hard to tell whether that actually was the case or whether she just went to a catholic school and the 60 minutes program played up the “catholic bit” to make it sound like a more sexy story?

 

[ConfusedLucy]

There are definitely a lot of cultural only Catholics these days. If you define a Catholic as someone who goes to mass every week then it’s a much smaller number.

 

[Erikaspirit16]

It’s also interesting that the Catholic Church seems to be sustaining the greatest losses of people.

I wonder what needs to change or whether this is something just to be expected?

What struck me the most in the Pew poll was on pp. 21-22: of those who were previously Catholic but are now unaffiliated, 68% attended religious classes as a child; 32% belonged to religious youth groups as a teen; and 20% attended a Catholic high school. The numbers for those former Catholics who became Protestants are similar: 68% (same), 29% (3% lower); and 16% (4% lower).

My own conclusion is that most Catholics have a child-like understanding of religion in general and Catholicism in particular. You can see that in this forum all the time. So when they reach their late teens, they begin to ask questions (How can Jesus be both man and God? How can there be one God but three persons in God?) and their “religious education” is totally inadequate to answer them. So they stop going to church or join a Protestant church which is only too happy to provide answers.

The same with converting to Islam. After you watch a few of these conversion videos, you see patterns emerge. Like this Australian woman, they meet a Muslim and are surprised (!) by how nice and friendly they are. They are impressed by how religious they are, they ask their questions, and they get definite answers. So they convert. Not a surprise.

My other conclusion is that Catholic “religious education” is too based on emotion–I attended a series of RCIA classes as an observer, and the presenters (most of whom were former Evangelicals), were constantly bursting into tears. Meanwhile, if a potential convert asked a totally predictable question, such as “Why do Catholics believe in Purgatory?” they were baffled and fumbled around for an answer. And some of the presenters had been doing this for 20+ years… There are perfectly logical reasons Catholics believe what they do, based in history and scripture. But these reasons seem to be sadly lacking in current religious education.

 

[Erikaspirit16]

Australians converting to Islam: Just go to YOutube and do a search on “Australian converts to Islam” and you’ll find tons of videos. Some are from Australian TV interviews.

is an example of one of the large rallies I mentioned earlier. Six young women come forward to convert and the crowd goes wild.

Perhaps the most prominent Australian convert is Barbara Carland, who seems to be a favorite of Australian TV. She’s pretty, she can talk, she has a PhD in feminism in Islam, and she teaches at Monash U.

(If you do a search on “Barbara Carland + Islam” something like 50 videos come up.) She converted at 19…what a surprise! I believe she is also a former Catholic.

 

[PickyPicky]

I guess it was England that I saw. (For some reason it’s pronounced CLARKenwell by those in London and the same for store clerk. I see some who’ve posted here are from the UK, can anyone answer why?)

As Middle English evolved into Early Modern English (C14 to C17) there were a series of pronunciation changes in England, known by linguists as the Great Vowel Shift. One of these was a change in the pronunciation of the vowel in “-er” words from a pronunciation similar to that we hear in French or German (approximately the “fair” or “hair” vowel). Such words changed to a pronunciation with an “-ar” sound. Some changed their spelling to suit (sterra became star, bern became barn); some changed their pronunciation but not their spelling (clerk, Berkshire, Derby).

With the spread of the printed word and the rise in literacy there has been a tendency towards “pronounce as spelled”. This has produced modern pronunciations (by some) of words like covert, often, forehead, victuals. I imagine it is this process that has produced the American pronunciation of clerk and derby, although not with the original “fair” vowel.

 

[Roseeurekacross]

Best we don’t discuss cricket…

 

[PickyPicky]

Or Australians?

 

[IWantGod]

We are up against a new ethical code, a counter culture. In their eyes, saying that you are catholic is basically saying that you are against the gay lifestyle or identity, you are against transgenderism, and you are against contraceptives and the right of a woman to have an abortion. And we as Catholics are against these things because God and the Catholic Church is against it. The problem is we no-longer live in a Christian culture where Catholic morality is respected. We live in a society that is arguing in favor of the counter culture. It’s not us but they who are the morally good ones. So i imagine many of us will either remain silent or fall down like peter and claim we don’t know Jesus. And it’s going to get worse.

Society doesn’t just want Catholics to tolerate the Gay identity, they want Catholics to accept it as true and good along with abortion and transgenderism. And those who do not will be labelled as fascists and troublemakers. Who was it that said that Catholicism is the last acceptable prejudice?

 

[Rozellelily]

Yes,not now lol

 

[SuperLuigi]

I am opposed to anyone giving up his or her Catholic faith.

It’s not surprising that 60 minutes would revel in this story. It’d probably kill them though to know about all of the people in Arabia and Africa who are named Mohammed but are Christian to the core.

 

[Roseeurekacross]

Yep, coming home in absolute disgrace…

It’s just not cricket

 

[CaptainPrudeman]

We were told that we would be hated because of Jesus. If anything, the intense hostility towards Catholics from nearly all parts of society tells me that we’re doing something right.