Why do Catholics become Protestants?

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lanman87

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I know, I’m full of questions today.🙂

If you know someone who was raised Catholic or was active in the Catholic and church and became Protestant, I’m wondering what their reasoning was?

I’ve read a book by a former Catholic, who is now a Protestant pastor, and he gives several reasons why Catholics become Protestant. I’ve also read books by former Protestants on why they become Catholic.

I think I’m seeing a trend going both ways across the Tiber.😃
 
I would say about half of the people baptized in our church say that “they were raised in a Catholic home” or some type of mainline protestant home. The main reason I find that they leave has to do with fervency within their church.

When Jesus says “Go therefore and Make Disciples of all Nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit” yet their church message is very sunday schoolish and watered down, they go to a church that teaches the more radical beliefs we find Jesus express.

That’s been my observation. Many people don’t want to live their life plus have Jesus. They want to live their life for Jesus. This isn’t always found in more traditional churches.
 
Talked to many former Catholics turned protestant. Also listened to many testimonies of individuals I do not know.

The reasons seem to very…but some of them are, in no particular order:
  • The scandals. God can’t possibly be with a Church that allowed such horrifying things to occur.
  • The middle ages. The Catholic Church chained bibles to keep people in the dark while they insidiously perverted the gospel.
  • I see people receive sacraments for decades and never change. CC claims and soteriology can not be true.
  • I read the bible for myself and discovered Catholicism is all wrong.(call no man father/dont bow to graven images, etc)
  • Jesus told me in prayer to “come out of her”…meaning the Catholic Church. 7 hills or mountains description in Revelation; so the RCC must be the wh#re of babylon since Rome has 7 hills.
I’m sure there are others I’m forgetting…
 
Before I came back to the Church, I bounced around several Protestant denominations, and I encountered quite a few former Catholics. It was common to hear ex-Catholics say things like “Once I started to read the Bible, I realised that almost everything we were taught was wrong”.
 
In my mind it would be because it is easier to be Protestant than Catholic. As a Protestant, doctrine & theology can be flexible. If one doesn’t like what he/she hears in a denomination, just change to one that fit their own personal ideas. Protestant churches also don’t make demands on members as the Catholic Church does on her faithful.
 
lanman87 said:
If you know someone who was raised Catholic or was active in the Catholic and church and became Protestant, I’m wondering what their reasoning was?
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Because they like the Devil!

Okay not really, I just wanted to see if I would suddenly become more popular with the Protestant posters once I said that.
 
I have been there. After coming back to the Catholic Church I am considering a move to the Orthodox.

Why?

Liberal parishes where the pastor won’t stand for things like Pro Life, and soft homilies that don’t deliver the full Gospel.

Very poor teaching, for generations now, leaving almost no qualified CCD teachers, and a very mixed congregation. I’m tired of arguing with life long Catholics that gay marriage is not OK, and that abortion is only another issue among many.

Cold, unwelcoming community, and church management.

And I support no contraception - so no issue there.

I’ll stop there.
 
Horton said:
In my mind it would be because it is easier to be Protestant than Catholic. As a Protestant, doctrine & theology can be flexible. If one doesn’t like what he/she hears in a denomination, just change to one that fit their own personal ideas. Protestant churches also don’t make demands on members as the Catholic Church does on her faithful.
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Exactly.

With the divorce rate so high what nominal Catholic isn’t going to leave so that they may “remarry”? Or who want to contracept? Or want to take the summers off from going to Church?

During my conversion all my friends (all Protestant and over half who are ex-Catholics) said they didn’t have a relationship with Jesus as a Catholic. I know for absolute certainty that two of them received the Eucharist while in the state of mortal sin…that, I am sure had some bearing on their “relationship with Jesus”.
 
The two major reasons I’ve seen have been:
  1. The Catholic person married a non-Catholic and joined the spouse’s church because the spouse felt more strongly about their religion than the Catholic person did about Catholicism.
  2. The Catholic person found the Catholic Church to be unwelcoming either because they were looking for more of a social or outgoing atmosphere, or because the Catholic person was looking to do something not permitted by the Catholic Church like remarry after a divorce, so they went church shopping and found another place where they felt more “welcome”.
Sometimes it’s a combination of 1) and 2) especially for the divorce and remarriage bit.
 
Becaues they chose to answer Jesus question in John 6:67 with a yes, and they found the answer Peter was searching for in the next vs.

Peace!!!
 
I know and heard many catholics,who left for evangelican churches ,then reverted.some returned ,when theyre already on moribund state.they want their final rites be officiated by catholic priests rather than their protestant ministers.majority of those ,who left the church,were inadequately catechized or uncatechized at all,including many lay ministers,altar servers et al.i have two siblings,who became anti catholic.one reverted,other still active in his baptist faith.
 
lanman87 said:
I know, I’m full of questions today.🙂

If you know someone who was raised Catholic or was active in the Catholic and church and became Protestant, I’m wondering what their reasoning was?

I’ve read a book by a former Catholic, who is now a Protestant pastor, and he gives several reasons why Catholics become Protestant. I’ve also read books by former Protestants on why they become Catholic.

I think I’m seeing a trend going both ways across the Tiber.😃
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Indeed people do swim both ways across the Tiber. 😉
 
I was going through a faith crisis while in school and the Protestants were there for me. QED.

ICXC NIKA
 
It does work both ways…Catholics are easily duped by Evangelical Protestant because they don’t understand their faith…and they don’t understand the Bible…on the other hand Protestants who become Catholic do so because they begin reading the early church fathers and realize there was nothing Protestant in what they taught or wrote…the church was Catholic from the beginning… the questions on what did Christ mean when he said you must drink his blood and eat his flesh…they either ignore that text altogether…or twist it to suit their own purpose…same when Jesus told Peter that you are a rock…and upon this rock I will build my church…all of a sudden it doesn’t mean what Jesus plainly stated…that depends on what Protestant church you belong to what he really meant…many times converts to the Catholic church are more zealous in their faith because they took the time to seek the truth…(seek and ye shall find).in fact when my wife converted from her Protestant church she was utterly amazed when going through RCIA how the Catholic church has always interpreted scripture and how the tradition…the early writings of the church …the authority given to the church…were completely in line with scripture…she had never been taught anything about those things…it was the Bible as her particular denomination interpreted it…and nothing else.
 
It works both ways for spouses too. My father and my husband’s uncle both converted to marry their Catholic wives. I’m still working on my husband 🙂
 
Peebo said:
It does work both ways…Catholics are easily duped by Evangelical Protestant because they don’t understand their faith…and they don’t understand the Bible…on the other hand Protestants who become Catholic do so because they begin reading the early church fathers and realize there was nothing Protestant in what they taught or wrote…the church was Catholic from the beginning… the questions on what did Christ mean when he said you must drink his blood and eat his flesh…they either ignore that text altogether…or twist it to suit their own purpose…same when Jesus told Peter that you are a rock…and upon this rock I will build my church…all of a sudden it doesn’t mean what Jesus plainly stated…that depends on what Protestant church you belong to what he really meant…many times converts to the Catholic church are more zealous in their faith because they took the time to seek the truth…(seek and ye shall find).in fact when my wife converted from her Protestant church she was utterly amazed when going through RCIA how the Catholic church has always interpreted scripture and how the tradition…the early writings of the church …the authority given to the church…were completely in line with scripture…she had never been taught anything about those things…it was the Bible as her particular denomination interpreted it…and nothing else.
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This is so true. Almost always when a Catholic leaves, they are nominal at best and don’t know the faith. The opposite is true for the other way…Protestants that know their faith, know the Bible start asking hard questions, search for the truth and convert. And it always boils down to authority…it was that way for me.
 
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