Why Catholics....

[storm807]

Blessings to all!

I was speaking to a co-worker at my job and he was joking with me about why was I reading a book called,‘The dead Sea scrolls.’
I ve known this guy for over 7 years and he told me that hes an atheist but was raised catholic as he grew up. He was telling me the reason that he does not believe is that the faith was rammed down his throat(his words) all his life and he said that after a while the teaching became hard to believe to him.
He is the 3rd catholic I know who has truned from their faith but my question is why do they speak so harshly about the catholic faith? Im not catholic but baptist and wondering how strict is the catholic faith? He went as far as being a atheist now. It amazes me that when he speaks of his catholic teachings it shows that he was taught very well.

All comments welcomed!

 

[e61iuser]

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.
(G.K. Chesterton What’s Wrong with the World)

This applies to the utmost with the Catholic Church.

 

[JRKH]

Blessings to all!

I was speaking to a co-worker at my job and he was joking with me about why was I reading a book called,‘The dead Sea scrolls.’
I ve known this guy for over 7 years and he told me that hes an atheist but was raised catholic as he grew up. He was telling me the reason that he does not believe is that the faith was rammed down his throat(his words) all his life and he said that after a while the teaching became hard to believe to him.
He is the 3rd catholic I know who has truned from their faith but **my question is why do they speak so harshly about the catholic faith? **Im not catholic but baptist and wondering how strict is the catholic faith? He went as far as being a atheist now. It amazes me that when he speaks of his catholic teachings it shows that he was taught very well.

All comments welcomed!

My suspicion is that, if you dig a little bit, most of what these people complain about has less to do with the beleifs of the faith than with the “culture” of the faith. By that I mean they have a “mean” teacher, strict parents, an unsympathetic priest, and/or they don’t like “having” to go to Church every Sunday and Holyday; they don’t like going to confession etc. and it leaves a bad taste. Eventually, once they get away from home they simply stop going. This is the start…

After a while, the world intrudes with a lot of divergent views on religion and God, (most not sympathetic) and the person becomes dissalusioned withe whole Idea of God. They may calim to be athiest, but in fact they are more agnostic. They really need to have God proven to them again. Once that happens, it’s possible they might return to the Church.

I really isn’t any different from what I’ve heard and seen in people from Baptist or any other denomination. Young people especially are suseptable to “falling away”, as one fella said on a CD I have, “At 10 your all about the Lord, then comes 11, then comes 12 and then comes girls”. This is followed by all sorts of tempations, confusing messages, etc…

Anyway that is my take on it.

Peace
James

 

[daeve]

Catholicism requires a certain amount of humility and discipline. Not everyone is willing to put forth the effort to follow the teachings of the Church. As a small and simplified example, you HAVE to go to Mass. Mass isn’t an option. If you don’t feel like getting up some Sunday, it’s a big deal. You’ve committed a mortal sin and then you HAVE to confess it. For some people, they weigh the effort against some other standard and decide it isn’t worth it. Sometimes you actually have to go to Mass on a weekday, after work even! Again, not an option, you go. Birth control and remarriage after divorce are two more big deals that a lot of people just won’t accept.

If you’ve decided that the faith your family believed forever, that you were raised believing, is too much trouble, you almost have to vilify it to justify leaving.

 

[hasikelee]

The teacher of my Holocaust class was like what you describe. He just really disliked the Church. It almost became a pain to go to class because he would yak on and on about his dislike of the Church and how he fell away. Fortunately, he was a good enough teacher that we just tolerated/ignored it and he settled down.

That being said, as the class progressed, so did the picture of his religious change. Seems to me, from listening to him rant, that he was very poorly catechized in a parochial school of mean nuns (so stereotypical eh) and someone important to him (a father maybe?) told him not to question or wonder about anything, but swallow it all.

I felt sorry for him. The depth and treasure of our Church history and its teachings is certainly up for discovery and questioning. Here he was, sure that he was in the right for abandoning a “one dimensional faith” as he called it…boy, he was missing out on everything because of one cranky mentor!

 

[Margarite]

If you’ve decided that the faith your family believed forever, that you were raised believing, is too much trouble, you almost have to vilify it to justify leaving.

This is exactly right.
They know they are wrong, for doing this or that, but instead of correcting themselves, they make the Catholic Church look like some sort of evil monster. It is easier for them. But they can’t just leave the Church and be happy because they know something is missing in their lives, so they go around angry with themselves, but they take it out on the Church by telling everyone they meet how bad it is. This way they feel a little better, and eventually, they sort of convince themselves that the Church is evil. Then it takes them really facing themselves and their mistakes to realize that the Church was right all along.

That is for the people who knew even a little about their faith. The rest left because they didn’t know anything. They were told “You have to go to mass every Sunday or you will go to hell.” but they weren’t told why, they weren’t told that it is for their own good, they weren’t told that God should always come first in our lives if we want to spend eternity with him, they were allowed to become too focused on themselves and on the world around them, and they stopped thinking about God, and heaven.

It is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sad, but it is the truth. People must be told the why and must be taught to agree with the why. They must also be humble enough, to stick with the truth, no matter how bad life gets. It is just sad, and all we can do is lead by example and pray for them.

 

[rpp]

I am a former atheist.

When I was about 12, I become involved with the Fundamentalist Baptist church through a friend at school. I was hooked.

At 18, I entered Bible college because I felt called to be a Baptist preacher.

I became quite disillusioned that first year by both the insincerity and mean-spiritedness of the Pastor who ran the school and the inability for the theology teachers to be able to logically connect Baptist theology into a consistent and congruent whole. (Because it cannot be connected; too many missing and incomplete ideas. Only Catholic Theology can be connected in this manner.)

I left the school and during the next year I first stopped praying, then fell away from church, then rejected the church, the reject the concept of God altogether. It took about a year or so, but I became an atheist.

It is hard for me to admit this to myself, but I became rabidly, even** fanatically**, anti-Christian.

I remained that way until I was 42. In 2003, I had my conversion experience, which was sudden and miraculous.

What other posters have said about vilifying their former church is true. That is what I did.

Who are the people who hate smoking the most? Ex-smokers. Who are the people most motivated to get people off drugs? Former addicts. The list goes on. When people leave a lifestyle, they often feel a need to vilify it. It seems to me to be a common human behavioral trait.

 

[rinnie]

My guess would be that either someone in the church made him mad, or possibly he is trying to get even with his parents. Whos knows but usually they come back. IT happens time after time. He is the lost sheep and God will welcome him home. Sometimes these are the people who end up becomming the best Catholics ever. Some just get lost, some are just angry, some are just comfused. Some are just lazy, but time will tell. But some how God will get his attention and usually when he does they run back to the Church. Just pray for him.

 

[MarcoPolo]

Often when someone continues to speak ill of another party even after parting with that party, is because the person still feels rejection and insecurity.

It’s really no different than a couple that breaks up and one person can say nothing but evil about the other person who rejected them.

 

[daeve]

My guess would be that either someone in the church made him mad, or possibly he is trying to get even with his parents. Whos knows but usually they come back. IT happens time after time. He is the lost sheep and God will welcome him home. Sometimes these are the people who end up becomming the best Catholics ever. Some just get lost, some are just angry, some are just comfused. Some are just lazy, but time will tell. But some how God will get his attention and usually when he does they run back to the Church. Just pray for him.

I imagine there are many reasons for leaving any faith. I left for a long time, probably right after high school and came back about 7 years ago.

 

[rinnie]

I imagine there are many reasons for leaving any faith. I left for a long time, probably right after high school and came back about 7 years ago.

You are right love, sometimes its just we know better than our parents, but then we grow up and see hey maybe mom and dad arent so bad after all. My son skips alot but he does pretty good, and now my daughter is 24 and getting married and shes taking it more serious even praying the rosary on her way to work now. its a shocker. Its just part of growing up, and i think you Mom and Dad like mine, and like me also, pray every day to see our kids come back to God. I bet they are so happy. ANd welcome Home.

 

[Ignatius]

Blessings to all!

And blessing to you also.

. It amazes me that when he speaks of his catholic teachings it shows that he was taught very well.

Actually, if he had been properly taught the Authentic Catholic Faith as Jesus gave it when he founded the Catholic Church, he could not have become an athiest.

Like so many with regard to Catholic Teaching, they are frequently in error but never in any doubt.

 

[aubreyL]

Catholicism requires a certain amount of humility and discipline. Not everyone is willing to put forth the effort to follow the teachings of the Church. As a small and simplified example, you HAVE to go to Mass. Mass isn’t an option. If you don’t feel like getting up some Sunday, it’s a big deal. You’ve committed a mortal sin and then you HAVE to confess it. For some people, they weigh the effort against some other standard and decide it isn’t worth it. Sometimes you actually have to go to Mass on a weekday, after work even! Again, not an option, you go. Birth control and remarriage after divorce are two more big deals that a lot of people just won’t accept.

If you’ve decided that the faith your family believed forever, that you were raised believing, is too much trouble, you almost have to vilify it to justify leaving.

I was wondering why it considered a sin to miss mass on Sunday and holy days of obligation? I mean, I know it’s good to go to mass, but why is it a sin if you miss it? And how is the Church able to say if something is a sin, if Jesus never mentioned it…?

 

[e61iuser]

I was wondering why it considered a sin to miss mass on Sunday and holy days of obligation? I mean, I know it’s good to go to mass, but why is it a sin if you miss it? And how is the Church able to say if something is a sin, if Jesus never mentioned it…?

To the first, it’s because we are commanded to keep the Lord’s day holy. This is the third of the ten commandments.

To the second, it relates to the Church’s power to bind and loose as given to it by Jesus Himself.

 

[JRKH]

I was wondering why it considered a sin to miss mass on Sunday and holy days of obligation? I mean, I know it’s good to go to mass, but why is it a sin if you miss it? And how is the Church able to say if something is a sin, if Jesus never mentioned it…?

The Church has the authority to “Bind and loose”. this authority was Given to the Church By Christ through Peter and the other Apostles.

Peace
James

 

[rwoehmke]

There is often an assumption that anyone who has been given “the knowledge” will never leave the Faith. I would surmise that there are and have been theologians that have been thoroughly educated who leave if not in fact at least in spirit. Persons with very little knowledge who have received a good spiritual formation, who have been able to come close to God, on the other hand rarely leave. In the end it comes down not to knowledge, but to relationship. If that is missing people leave. For the one with lots of knowledge and no relationship trying to live the Faith becomes hard work with little reward. With a strong relationship to Our Lord, the same work becomes something one loves to do. Maybe its a little bit like how baby ducks bond with their mothers.

 

[JRKH]

There is often an assumption that anyone who has been given “the knowledge” will never leave the Faith. I would surmise that there are and have been theologians that have been thoroughly educated who leave if not in fact at least in spirit. Persons with very little knowledge who have received a good spiritual formation, who have been able to come close to God, on the other hand rarely leave. In the end it comes down not to knowledge, but to relationship. If that is missing people leave. For the one with lots of knowledge and no relationship trying to live the Faith becomes hard work with little reward. With a strong relationship to Our Lord, the same work becomes something one loves to do. Maybe its a little bit like how baby ducks bond with their mothers.

Very Nicely Stated.

Peace
James

 

[daeve]

I was wondering why it considered a sin to miss mass on Sunday and holy days of obligation? I mean, I know it’s good to go to mass, but why is it a sin if you miss it? And how is the Church able to say if something is a sin, if Jesus never mentioned it…?

One of the commandments is to observe the Sabbath. Our Sabbath is Sunday, and the way we are told to observe it is by attending Mass. There’s a lot of lattitude on that too. Saturday vigil works fine. This is where the humility and obedience come into play…when you don’t see why you should have to do it and you do because God wants you to do it. There doesn’t have to be any other reason, because that’s reason enough.

 

[Margarite]

I was wondering why it considered a sin to miss mass on Sunday and holy days of obligation? I mean, I know it’s good to go to mass, but why is it a sin if you miss it? And how is the Church able to say if something is a sin, if Jesus never mentioned it…?

God is supposed to be the most important part of our lives, so when he commanded us to keep holy the Sabbath, the absolute least we can do is to go to mass each Sunday. Holy Mother the Church has made it a mortal sin to miss Sunday mass, because it is so important to our eternal salvation. I mean as Catholics we believe that Christ gave himself to us, that we consume his body and blood each time we go to mass. If you believed this, wouldn’t you say it was a grave sin to refuse such a gift from God. (Sin means refusing God)

The mass is the most important part of the Catholic faith, it is the most important prayer of our lives, it is what gives us strength for the long journey ahead, and what strengthens us against the devil.

Christ gave the Church the right to bind and lose. They can say what is or isn’t good or in other words, what will help us to heaven, or what will distract or hurt us on our way to heaven. The Church has 2000 years of experience in telling people what is right and wrong. Never has the Church changed her mind on important issues like Sunday mass (once it was made obligatory) and divorce.

Well, I think you get the point, and tell me if I wasn’t clear.

 

[mercygate]

The first thing to rule out is sex.

For 99.99% of people who reject the Church, the reason behind the reason they give you is atually the Catholic teachng on sexuality.