Which religion goes to church the most?

[Tommy999]

Yes the Catholic Church does have a “Sunday Obligation” but it is still left up to our “Free will” to be there.

I understand, Memaw. Likewise, I attend out of the desire to commune with God and grow closer to Him through His beloved Son, Jesus. But if I can’t attend, I don’t commit a grave sin that separates me from God, according to my church leadership. I’m glad you and most other Catholics on CAF go because you desire a closer walk with God. That’s the way it ought it be for all Christians, in my opinion.

I attend probably 90% of the time, and only miss when I’m sick or when I’m on-call at my job and get called into work on a problem. I may also miss if I am on vacation, but I will try to attend if I am near a church where I would feel comfortable attending. For example, if Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, or a church like Westboro Baptist were the only choices, I’d probably not go at all. Most other churches I would attend, unless I knew they were really liberal (churches that marry homosexual couples, etc).

They don’t send anyone out looking for us.

Do Catholic parishes have people who do visitation? If so, that is not unlike my church. There are folks who love God and love people who enjoy visiting folks and consider it their role and gifting to show the love of Christ to church members and visitors who express a desire to be visited. They are not bounty hunters who round up non-attenders to send them back to the pokey.

The Catholic Mass is profoundly different from protestant Sunday services. The Mass is all about Jesus Christ! Not just a sermon, fellowship and songs. Evidently they don’t know or care what they are missing if they are not there.

That is a bit of an unfair characterization, in my view. Any person who goes to one of our services and has a heartbeat can easily find the presence of God there in the praise, the worship, and the lives being changed through the preaching of the Word of God which inspires our parishioners to live out our faith on a daily basis, turn away from sin, and to turn to God as our sole Savior and redeemer and to give us the hope of heaven. To imply that a conservative evangelical Protestant service is not about Jesus is just as prejudiced as the guy who told you he had never once heard the name of “Jesus” at a Catholic Mass.

I went to Catholic Mass once and felt God’s presence there, too. It doesn’t have to be an “either/or” choce, in my opinion where the Lord is only present in one church.

I had a protestant man tell me one time that he attended Mass with his wife for 10 years and NEVER ONCE heard the name of Jesus mentioned. I asked if he had ear plugs on.

See above. There is no excuse for such prejudice that the man displayed to you, unless he went to a Mass where everything was in Latin and he didn’t have a clue what they were saying.

I just wonder how many people he told that to. Like Archbishop Sheen said, people only hate what THEY THINK the Catholic Church teaches. God Bless, Memaw

I still have some issues with the Catholic Church, but I like and respect it, especially the historicity and ties to the early church, and the sacraments. I think I would pursue Catholicism even more vigorously if I knew more Catholics had a higher regard for my current faith that has been so near and dear to me and led me to Christ and helped me to become the man I am today.

 

[Tommy999]

We do have an obligation to attend Mass unless there is a valid reason we can’t. There may very well be some who attend just to fulfill that obligation but for most of us it’s not about an obligation, it’s about what we receive and what we give when we attend Mass, more like an Sunday opportunity. I know for me I find my life somehow lacking if I’ve missed the opportunity to receive Jesus and spend time in communion with my brothers & sisters in Christ.

So I guess for me it’s more about getting to go to Mass rather than having to go to Mass.

I like and admire your attitude, Horton. You are a fine example for all other Christians to follow, in my opinion.

 

[TimothyH]

I’ve often wondered about this.
Places like Chick-fil-A‎, owned by evangelicals, close on Sundays because they do not believe in working on the Lord’s Day.
Yet these SAME people rush to the Golden Corral buffet to be served by people who DO work on Sundays.

I do find Chick-Fil-A to be hypocritical.

It’s a sin for them to work on Sunday but not a sin for them to hire teams of minorities to do their blue collar tasks on Sunday. All around Atlanta you can see the parking lots being resealed, stores being painted and grease traps being cleaned by teams of Mexicans, all of which is done exclusively on Sundays.

My Evangelical friends call that “Straddling the fence.”

-Tim-

 

[Pulvis]

I do find Chick-Fil-A to be hypocritical.

It’s a sin for them to work on Sunday but not a sin for them to hire teams of minorities to do their blue collar tasks on Sunday. All around Atlanta you can see the parking lots being resealed, stores being painted and grease traps being cleaned by teams of Mexicans, all of which is done exclusively on Sundays.

My Evangelical friends call that “Straddling the fence.”

-Tim-

Very true Tim. If you are going to preach it, you have to live it.

 

[808Catholic]

Hello,

As a Catholic, the Catholic priest in my area doesn't know I exist.  If for some odd reason I wanted to attend church I could and then leave and he still wouldn't know I exist unless I did something to cause him to notice me.  
If I was LDS the Bishop would know where I live.  I would have two people visiting me every month encouraging me to attend church.  If I moved they would send my membership records to my new Bishop.  If I moved and didn't tell them where they would contact my relatives to find out my new address.  I also think 75% is a little high but I'm not surprised they have a higher percentage than Catholics.

The LDS church does many admirable things to keep their retention and participation rates as high as they can. We Catholics can take some lessons from them if we were more serious about retention and participation but here’s another angle that’s worth noting.

Most Catholic priests I have direct conversation with tell me there are “3 times” Catholics: those who attend Mass 3 times in their lives. Once when they are born (and Baptized), once when they are married, and once for their own funeral. While it sounds rather depressing from a regular Sunday Mass Catholic’s point of view, I take the view that these Catholics understand the importance of the Sacraments given to us by God to mark some of the high points in our lives. Unfortunately, these “3 times” Catholics miss out on some of the most important Sacraments, namely the Holy Eucharist and Reconciliation, but that’s another discussion for another thread.

My point being, the LDS church takes a direct action that is intended to keep their “sheep” together while the Catholic church takes an indirect action. We pray for our fallen away brothers and sisters. We encourage them to come back to celebrate the Eucharist daily if not weekly. We keep them in our social circles to be sure we’ve done everything we could as Christians so they will feel welcomed to return when the time comes. For me, just one of Christ’s “sheep”, I have a duty to know my Shepherd’s voice and to follow Him. I could wait for Him to come and get me or I could choose to listen and follow on my own.

If you feel your pastor does not know you, I recommend you flip the question around: “Do you know your pastor?” “Do you know your fellow parishioners?”

God Bless you.

 

[spedteacherita]

How does an atheist go to church? No one else wondered this when they saw the poll?

My brother-in-law is more agnostic than atheist but he’s swinging toward Christianity sometimes. He went forward in the church my sister attends and was baptized but he still struggles with “is there really a God.” He goes to church but has this serious spiritual struggle going on.

This could be why they have that category…just a thought…

God bless all!

Rita

 

[Horton]

My point being, the LDS church takes a direct action that is intended to keep their “sheep” together while the Catholic church takes an indirect action. We pray for our fallen away brothers and sisters. We encourage them to come back to celebrate the Eucharist daily if not weekly. We keep them in our social circles to be sure we’ve done everything we could as Christians so they will feel welcomed to return when the time comes. For me, just one of Christ’s “sheep”, I have a duty to know my Shepherd’s voice and to follow Him. I could wait for Him to come and get me or I could choose to listen and follow on my own.

If you feel your pastor does not know you, I recommend you flip the question around: “Do you know your pastor?” "Do you know your fellow parishioners?"

God Bless you.