Why do converts hate their former faiths so passionately?

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Roy5 said:
6. One final example. A couple I know that was active in a Catholic church apparently went to Mass regularly. One Easter-time they both went to confession and said they were using artificial birth control because they already had three children and that was the size of family they wanted and could afford. The priest told them not to worry, but follow their conscience. Then they moved to another state and a different church. When they confessed this to their new priest…
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I’m curious as to why they felt the need to confess this to their new priest, when (1) the old priest said it as OK; and (2) they had no intention to stop using birth control.
 
Ahimsa
I don't know if I have a full response to your question as to why the couple felt the need to confess their use of birth control to their new priest in their new community. As I recall, the husband said something about reading in a Catholic periodical how sinful it was. Maybe that led to it. I sensed that the wife especially had qualms, but I never asked personal questions about their private life.
 
Jack_Bauer said:
We used to harass guys with their hands in their pickets and say “this isn’t the Air Force.” My dad was Air Force. I was Army 1985-1989 and National Guard on and off for 6 more years. Last hitch was after volunteering to go shoot some… people that made me angry… let’s say. Actually I was still Protestant and was working on a way to become a Chaplain. Never supported the war because I knew better. I have a Geography degree and studied a little about the region. My targets were always on Afghanistan and possibly Pakistan. A moron could have told us that.

I must be a bit more calloused than you then. I have no problems speaking frankly to folks. Political correctness is why our country is in a tailspin now.
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LOL! Yeah and we used to say: Come on men this is not the Army or Marines,none of you scored 30% on the entrance exam to get in…😛

Oh…make no mistake…I still the military side in me. 😃

BTW: Where you an officer or enlisted?
 
Nicea325 said:
LOL! Yeah and we used to say: Come on men this is not the Army or Marines,none of you scored 30% on the entrance exam to get in…😛

Oh…make no mistake…I still the military side in me. 😃

BTW: Where you an officer or enlisted?
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:rotfl:
Fortunately, some of us scored really high. But I purposefully chose a field that I’d get promoted fast (E-5, SGT, in 2 years) and learn to be a jerk. I was such a naive and gentle man that I didn’t think it worked for being effective. My first year of college was the seminary. Long story. I met my wife while stationed at Ft. Sill, OK, cannon cocker. that’s where they put all those 30% folks that can’t make it in anything that requires brains. I was picked for special duties as a result, Special Weapons, and I don’t mean hand weapons.

I still have a rough military side to me as well. It’s hard to shake.
 
Jack_Bauer said:
:rotfl:
Fortunately, some of us scored really high. But I purposefully chose a field that I’d get promoted fast (E-5, SGT, in 2 years) and learn to be a jerk. I was such a naive and gentle man that I didn’t think it worked for being effective. My first year of college was the seminary. Long story. I met my wife while stationed at Ft. Sill, OK, cannon cocker. that’s where they put all those 30% folks that can’t make it in anything that requires brains. I was picked for special duties as a result, Special Weapons, and I don’t mean hand weapons.

I still have a rough military side to me as well. It’s hard to shake.
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Awesome! Cool career. I entered OCS and got commissoned. I was an electronic warfare officer. I know what you mean about shaking off the military side…😃
 
I don’t really know, so far as personal experience. I’ve changed faiths I guess five times in my life, and in none of those changes did I develop negative feelings toward my former faith(s). Rather the opposite, having been through it, I had more understanding and sympathy for them even though I was no longer in agreement with them. I don’t count changes of denomination within Protestantism, which I’ve done several times, since I consider that very minor, like moving to a different parish within the Catholic Church.
  1. I changed from not having any formal spiritual beliefs to being a “born again” Christian in the Baptist style. That was at age 12 (or thereabouts – I’m not good with dates).
  2. During my teen years, I drifted out of Christianity altogether, and became a seeker, not knowing what the truth was, but looking everywhere for it, in parapsychology and New Age stuff, in all the major world religions and in the Pagan traditions, and some secular philosophies such as Existentialism.
  3. Toward the end of that period, having done a lot of study and reading, and finding no answers I could be happy with, I called myself an agnostic. And I was allied with, though not wholly on board with, Ayn Rand’s philosophy of rational self-interest, which she called Objectivism.
  4. Penultimately, before returning to the Christian fold, I found a blend of Eastern religions I liked and was comfortable with: the Alan Watts melange of Zen Buddhism, Taoism and Vedanta. And I think that served for me as a stepping stone back toward Christianity from materialism and rationalist skepticism.
  5. Reading C.S. Lewis’ spiritual autobiography, Surprised by Joy, was a turning point for me. Like me, he had been a materialist and a rationalist skeptic… but became convinced, even though he didn’t want to believe it, that the Gospel story was actually true, and that Jesus was Lord. He didn’t convince me of all of that… but he did convince me that a very intelligent and educated intellectual was able to believe that, and that I had better look into it for myself. And so I did, which resulted in my returning to the Christian fold, and getting baptized, which was something I had not done in my childhood conversion.
And no, in case someone is wondering, I never considered Catholicism, at least not until recently. I wasn’t raised in the Catholic tradition and had no experience with it, no contact even. The question was always “Christian or not?”, not “Catholic or Protestant?”. I always did think of Catholics as Christians, but like Eastern Orthodox, a type of Christian outside of my culture and experience. But I’ve been reading (and now re-reading) Why I Am a Catholic by Garry Wills, and he makes being Catholic sound like something that might be possibly be within my range. I am by no means convinced, but now it’s become something to consider.
 
Izdaari said:
I don’t really know, so far as personal experience. I’ve changed faiths I guess five times in my life, and in none of those changes did I develop negative feelings toward my former faith(s). Rather the opposite, having been through it, I had more understanding and sympathy for them even though I was no longer in agreement with them. I don’t count changes of denomination within Protestantism, which I’ve done several times, since I consider that very minor, like moving to a different parish within the Catholic Church.
  1. I changed from not having any formal spiritual beliefs to being a “born again” Christian in the Baptist style. That was at age 12 (or thereabouts – I’m not good with dates).
  2. During my teen years, I drifted out of Christianity altogether, and became a seeker, not knowing what the truth was, but looking everywhere for it, in parapsychology and New Age stuff, in all the major world religions and in the Pagan traditions, and some secular philosophies such as Existentialism.
  3. Toward the end of that period, having done a lot of study and reading, and finding no answers I could be happy with, I called myself an agnostic. And I was allied with, though not wholly on board with, Ayn Rand’s philosophy of rational self-interest, which she called Objectivism.
  4. Penultimately, before returning to the Christian fold, I found a blend of Eastern religions I liked and was comfortable with: the Alan Watts melange of Zen Buddhism, Taoism and Vedanta. And I think that served for me as a stepping stone back toward Christianity from materialism and rationalist skepticism.
  5. Reading C.S. Lewis’ spiritual autobiography, Surprised by Joy, was a turning point for me. Like me, he had been a materialist and a rationalist skeptic… but became convinced, even though he didn’t want to believe it, that the Gospel story was actually true, and that Jesus was Lord. He didn’t convince me of all of that… but he did convince me that a very intelligent and educated intellectual was able to believe that, and that I had better look into it for myself. And so I did, which resulted in my returning to the Christian fold, and getting baptized, which was something I had not done in my childhood conversion.
And no, in case someone is wondering, I never considered Catholicism, at least not until recently. I wasn’t raised in the Catholic tradition and had no experience with it, no contact even. The question was always “Christian or not?”, not “Catholic or Protestant?”. I always did think of Catholics as Christians, but like Eastern Orthodox, a type of Christian outside of my culture and experience. But I’ve been reading (and now re-reading) Why I Am a Catholic by Garry Wills, and he makes being Catholic sound like something that might be possibly be within my range. I am by no means convinced, but now it’s become something to consider.
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Very interesting and thanks for sharing. Remember conversion is a life time process and may God guide you through your spiritual journey. So if you do ever become Catholic,you will look back and reflect on your journey. God Bless.
 
Nicea325 said:
Awesome! Cool career. I entered OCS and got commissoned. I was an electronic warfare officer. I know what you mean about shaking off the military side…😃
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I got accepted to OCS, but ended up realizing I really wanted out. If I was to be commissioned, I wanted it to be in something professional, like Chaplain or Doctor. God had other plans for me.
 
Ahimsa said:
I’m curious as to why they felt the need to confess this to their new priest, when (1) the old priest said it as OK; and (2) they had no intention to stop using birth control.
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Probably because they realized it as being a sin, since “the law of God is written on the hearts of men”.

🤷
 
Khalid said:
I’m curious as to why they felt the need to confess this to their new priest, when (1) the old priest said it as OK; and (2) they had no intention to stop using birth control.
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In order for a confession to be valid, it should be sincere. One should make an examination of conscience, which will entail examining that ‘law of God written on one’s heart’ as much as anything else.

Every Latin Catholic should know the Act Of Contrition in some form.

It is a prayer, not to the man in cloth, not to some spiritual intermediary, but directly to God Himself at the conclusion of the solemn act of confession …

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all-good and deserving of all my love.

I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin.

Amen

Amen indeed!

If one ‘confesses’ a sin one has no real intention of resisting in the future, that could conceivably be be an even greater offense to God.
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Hesychios said:
If one ‘confesses’ a sin one has no real intention of resisting in the future, that could conceivably be be an even greater offense to God.
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For sure. I forget exactly whats its called, but there’s a specific name for this sin. Its in my memory somewhere 😃 Getting Old Bro.

Peace
 
Marybeloved said:
👍 This is true. I’ve seen this respect/appreciation you both speak of in many conversion stories to the Church from other Christian groups. You can tell they were not running from anything when they came to the Church- rather, its almost like they were “compelled” to come but would have happily remained in their respective faiths had they not stumbled onto truth. Those kinds of stories are always so much better than angry ones. 👍
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I was one of those that stumbled into truth. For a while I had noticed that I was surrounded by Catholic things but didn’t take the hint and felt no need to convert(not recognizing the uniqueness of Rome) until God helped me realize that “Sola Fide”, or faith alone, wasn’t true. If Sola Fide wasn’t true then all bets were off. I still didn’t take the hint and wandered off in the direction of Orthodoxy but started having questions about what the Orthodox teach on the Pope. Hindsight is 20/20 btu it’s amazing how long it took:o

I try to be civil but I have bad feelings toward the heresies I was taught - they blind people:mad: Sometimes this has boiled over into anger at those still trapped by heresy.
 
I find that to be doubly true when the heresy is especially damning or egregious, such as Mohammedanism, Jehovah’s Witnessism, and Mormonism. Normal Trinitarian, or, for lack of a better word, Christian Protestantism just isn’t as bad (and it generally doesn’t treat people as badly, either) as those groups that are called or call themselves Christian, yet are not theologically Christian. It seems that there’s a strong link between “restorationism” or “primitivism” and cultishness. Islam teaches that it’s the restoration of the true teachings of the Prophets and of Christ; Jehovah’s Witnessism teaches that it’s the restoration of the true teaching of the Prophets and of Christ; Seventh-Day Adventism teaches that it’s the restoration of the true teaching of the Prophets and of Christ; Mormonism teaches that it’s the restoration of the true teaching of the Prophets and of Christ: see the connection?
 
I’ve always found converts to a religion (ANY religion) to be much more zealous for their new faith than many cradle believers. And this works into the question of the OP in that converts can often feel they have to ‘prove’ something to their new faith community in terms of their fidelity to their new beliefs and that they aren’t doing it for ulterior motives.
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This can feed into the whole thing about hating their previous religion. It can be too easy to fall into a trap of thinking ''I've found the truth'' and then this feeds the (mistaken) hatred for their previous faith, out of some arrogant or possibly misguided notion that because they are 'enlightened' they suddenly have to denounce everything which doesn't agree with their new positiion.
Converts, like any other person on the planet, are human and so they have their weaknesses like anyone else.
 
Jack_Bauer said:
I got accepted to OCS, but ended up realizing I really wanted out. If I was to be commissioned, I wanted it to be in something professional, like Chaplain or Doctor. God had other plans for me.
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I hear you out! After 10 years in the Air Force…God called me to serve His army.
 
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