Thank you for sharing your experience!. My point is that you have found something that resonated with you, and continues to resonate with something in you that you hold “true.” It is a bit judgmental in general (not you) for people to judge someone for trying to seek out a church that they believe is speaking true. I’ve heard many converts to the RCC say that is the way it was for them, so why should protestants be judged for doing the same thing that have lead many to the RCC?
And actually, the CC*** depends ***on non-Catholics doing this exact thing to “come home”. It seems the whole thrust of the Coming Home Network (they’re good at it, too).
Jon
I think so as well… on both counts.
Thank you for understanding that it isn’t my position that there are multiple truths. But for you, the key truth that you believe with your own will is that the RCC teaches truth and no error. I understand that, because anyone that comes to that point would then default to the RCC teachings because of that one point. That is where some of the main differences are at the very heart of the splits in Christendom.
Grace and Peace!
Well, as I told you, had I been Church shopping when I believed that contraception and capital punishment were just fine I would never had come to the Catholic Church. It is truth that we must seek, rather than agreement with our own views. And so we must discern from a different point of view than our own private notions as to what is truth. We must look at history, at the teachings of the first Christians (ECF’s), at the consistency of those teachings still present in the Church, at the promises Christ made concerning the Church that HE would build, at the apostolic succession of its bishops, at the reality that the Church has outlived every human institution since its inception. We must incorporate reason into this discernment process.
We cannot simply read Scripture and then choose a faith community that happens to agree with our own interpretation and understanding. When we do that we hold ourselves up as the final arbiter of truth.
I think Kliska brought out a very important point in this first quoted post which isn’t being adequately addressed.
First, I think the last scenario in Steve’s post happens much less often among us non-Catholics than some Catholics here seem to think. I don’t think most non-Catholics are all that much into being self-lead theological pioneers/private interpreters of Scripture. Some of you folks blame us for being Protestant sheeple who just believe what we’re taught by our pastors; conversely, as here, sometimes you folks blame us for the opposite, as if you almost seem to be imagining us sitting alone with an open Bible and coming up with all sorts of private interpretations which we write up into a shopping list and then go looking for a church which matches up with the beliefs on our list. Really, though, I greatly doubt the average non-Catholic is all that much into doing all the work that would be involved in the sort of private interpretation that Steve’s describing.
Instead, I think most of us non-Catholics defer to our trusted spiritual authorities quite well. For one reason or another we’ve come to trust our leaders (and before them our Christian parents if we had them) and more often than not we recognize that they know more than we do. Though it can be misused and abused, that willingness to defer to greater wisdom, life experience, and spiritual and theological knowledge is a necessary part of growth toward holiness. I actually think many of us non-Catholics are pretty good at cultivating that willingness and humility. If I may say so of myself, I’m a very intelligent, high IQ, gifted woman, and so it’s been particularly important for me as a step towards maturity to genuinely and deeply defer to the greater wisdom of my leaders.
Of course, thinking for oneself, questioning one’s beliefs, testing assumptions, and being willing to re-think something we thought we understood already is very important, as well.
This is where I see irony and inconsistency on CAF at times. You folks, ISTM, expect us to **exalt our own truth-seeking ability **above that of our spiritual authorities. You applaud converts for “being wiser than (their non-Catholic) teachers”, and many of you seem to lap it up when converts turn around and denigrate and bash their former leaders. It does, ISTM, take a great trust in one’s own reasoning ability over and against other people’s reasoning ability to switch from being non-Catholic to Catholic. For someone who’s not a cradle Catholic, to become convinced that one has correctly identified the “One True Church” (if such a thing exists as a discrete human organization on earth), of necessity requires a great trust in one’s own ability to research all avenues, trust in one’s intelligence against that of others who have examined the same evidence but reached differing conclusions, and trust in one’s truth-seeking sincerity, among other things. You folks here on CAF applaud potential converts for doing this when we end up as Catholics, yet judge us harshly when (in your perception) we do the exact same thing by church shopping within the family of non-Catholic churches.
