Posted on 12/28/2012 11:34:34 AM PST by marshmallow
(Reuters) - Thousands of Dutch Catholics are researching how they can leave the church in protest at its opposition to gay marriage, according to the creator of a website aimed at helping them find the information.
Tom Roes, whose website allows people to download the documents needed to leave the church, said traffic on ontdopen.nl - "de-baptise.nl" - had soared from about 10 visits a day to more than 10,000 after Pope Benedict's latest denunciation of gay marriage this month.
"Of course it's not possible to be 'de-baptized' because a baptism is an event, but this way people can unsubscribe or de-register themselves as Catholics," Roes told Reuters.
He said he did not know how many visitors to the site actually go ahead and leave the church.
About 28 percent of the population in the Netherlands is Catholic and 18 percent is Protestant, while a much larger proportion - roughly 44 percent - is not religious, according to official statistics.
The country is famous for its liberal attitudes, for example to drugs and prostitution, and in April 2001 it was the first in the world to legalize same-sex marriages.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Inshallah!
Chapter 10 of Hebrews tells us who it hurts:
29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
These people don’t realize what awaits them. Sad that so much of their life focuses around genitalia.
“There are two things I just can’t stand...people who are intolerant of other peoples cultures, and the Dutch!”
My point exactly: they’re not hurting the church, they’re just hurting themselves.
Something tells me they are not real big on tithing.
Not necessary to leave the “Church”.
Once you turn your back on the Word of God to side with the sin of the perverts you can consider yourself already gone.............
I suppose that if you can fabricate “gay marriage”, you can concoct “de-baptisms”.
Quite unnecessary. They will all go to hell whether they “unBaptize” or not.
There’s an element of judgment inherent in baptism. One is taken through the sea, as it were — through a symbolic judgment ordeal. Just as it is better not to partake of the Lord’s Supper if one would profane it, so too, probably, with baptism.
It might actually serve the church well for it to have a ritual of resignation. It could have several versions.
For those who leave the church but still respect it, there would be a means to turn in artifacts and icons, so that they would be treated with respect instead of thrown away or sold.
For those in contention with the church, they could be presented a document attesting that they are no longer Catholic, in case they are registered as such in other organizations. Likewise there would be a “records purge”, so they would no longer receive mailings or other communication from the church.
For those who now hate the church, a convenient way for them to leave online. And if they want, they can have a “no longer Catholic” letter mailed to them.
In a way, I have more respect for these lapsed Roman Catholics than for “Christians” who try to twist the Bible to say it supports things like homosexual behavior and abortion when it clearly does not.
As a point of information, the main Protestant denomination in the Netherlands, the mostly-Calvinist-but-a-little-bit-Lutheran PKN, permits individual congregations to decide whether to “bless” homosexual “unions”.
Once a person is baptized,that mark put on their soul by Gof, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, cannot be undone. People can’t undo God’s doing.
The three Sacraments leaving this “forever” mark on a person’s soul are Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Orders.
What about someone who leaves Christianity for Judaism? Wouldn’t that “un-do” a baptism?
I’m not trying to be a smarty-pants. What would the view on that be,at least from a Catholic perspective?
I think they would still be baptized. The Jewish faith had a baptism of repentance. I don’t see that the Catholic Baptism conflicts with that — in fact, I believe it goes farther than just repentance.
I was brought up in the Lutheran church but I was curious as to what the Catholic Church had to say.
Like Zionist Conspirator I’m a Noahide (I “converted” to Judaism through the Reform movement which is so far from being Jewish).
The Liberal attitudes at my synagogue make me want to scream and/or vomit.
“Once a person is baptized,that mark put on their soul by Gof, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, cannot be undone. People can’t undo God’s doing.”
Does Roman Catholicism view all Trinitarian baptisms(whether they be Protestant, Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox) this way or only ones performed by priests in the Roman Catholic Church?
oops
God, Father.....
I am not an expert in this field, but I believe that most Trinitarian baptisms are accepted by the Catholic Church. Not just by the Latin (you say Roman) Church.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.