Posted on 04/20/2011 12:07:28 PM PDT by AnalogReigns
This has been my experience as well. Sadly the Liberal USSCB does not realize this and at this time I don't think they would care if they did realize it.
The lack of vibrant spirituality and study of scripture as a foundation of faith are among the reasons they say they left the Catholic Church, so this survey rings true. At least for those who are willing to discuss it, doctrinal differences (abortion, gays, celibate clergy, etc.) had little or nothing to do with it.
In the case of the Disciples of Christ practice, that anyone who accepts Christ as his or her savior is acceptable to commune with us is what attracted me and, I think, also attracts Catholics who just want to be Christian and not separate themselves on the basis of doctrine from other believers. And it certainly leads to some lively give and take in the adult Sunday School classes.
AnalogReigns:
This article was discussed a while back. Nothing new. 81% of those Catholics who left enjoyed the worship or style of worship at their new Protestant group, which means they want to find a Liturgy or worship service that they emotoinally like are is one that fits the culture of the age. Most modern evangelical churches have worship services that look like Political rallys or rock concerts with microphones and big plasma tv screens. Looks nothing like ancient worship of the early Church, that can be historically documented.
As the author of the article stated [the liberal Jesuit Reese], in his view, the Catholic Church needs to be “more creative in its Liturgy”. Sorry, I don’t by that a bit. Creativity in worship comes from a marxist paradigm and is always a sign that worship is being made or created by groups of people or individuals to conform to “their image of worship” In other words, worship from that perspective is something that “people create on their own.”
No, Liturgy and Worship is something that we receive and participate in, not the other way around.
And while 1 in 10 americans are former Catholics, that means about 30 million, about 1 in 10 of those who leave join non-Christian faiths [3 million] and the other 90% who leave, almost hafl are unaffiliated so that means there are approximately 13.5 million former Catholics in some Protestant group. According to the article, about 9 million join evangelical churches and the others mainline [ELCA, Espicopalian, Methodist, PCUSA], which would be a move to more liberal Christianity which is probably the people who left over abortion, same-sex marriage, etc.
Of those who go to evangelical churches, that is a broad brush. Do they go because they like Rock band music and worship services that meet in what looks like basketball arenas and have the Preacher man on a big plasma TV screen. How many of these evangelicals are in groups like Joel Osteen, or maybe Mike Bells brand of Evangelicalism or maybe Brian Mcaren’s emergent church brand. How many go to the more fundamentalist branches.
I read evangelical blogs [never comment on them] but there is a growing gulf in the evangelical world that is about to split again and this is coming from many evangelicals themselves as even a few years ago, there was an evangelical Southern baptist who went by internet monk [he has since passed away] who predicted what he called the coming evangelical collapse.
I disagree with Reese as the type of Catholics were are loosing is because they want to worship the way they see fit, not as the Church has worshiped for years and once you start to mess with Liturgy [you pray as you believe and you believe as you pray], doctrinal chaos ensues.
The Catholic Church this year will have thousands coming in and these will be people like the Traditional Anglicans in England and the host of clergy, academics, scholars from american protestantism who have come to Rome in the last 20 years.
Even the leading Evangelical Reformed pastor named Piper was quoted as saying, Protestantism is getting people from the Catholic Church who most of which are those who don’t embrace Protestantism for the doctrinal arguments of Protestantism whereas the Catholics are getting many of the leading protestants from Universities and other scholars who embrace what Catholicism teaches.
Nothing new here, Protestantism will continue to fragment and many who go to it from Catholicism will change to another form of Protestantism than the one they intitially went to. Protestantism is incapable of challenging the secular culture and will always be fragmented into thousands of competing sects and groups.
There is no doubt that negligence of Scripture is shameful. But the Church has never done so. THe role of Scripture in the life and teaching of the Church has always been emphasized by the Popes and by scholars.
The problem is how to bring this down to the person in the pews. I believe Bishops should set up a study to find out just how many Parishes in their diocese offer adult Bible study classes. How many CCD programs focus on Scripture and how it relates to Church teaching.
If we lose members because they conclude Scripture is against Catholicism that means they have not been taught decent apologetics. Apologetics begin with Scripture.
If once they have been shown why we believe what we do and they still decide to leave I wish them Godspeed and all good things.
To quote a friend of mine when his pastor told him the liturgy needed "Spicing up": "Father your job is to say the black and do the red, the liturgy needs you to follow the rules."
I know many many ex RC’s that would list their religion as protestant.. and I agree with the observation that they did not leave because they wanted to sleep in on Sundays or have to go without mean on fridays during lent.. :)
All the ex’s I know are at church every Sunday .. and usually the have also attended an hour of Sunday school before the hour service... many also have small bible studies they attend during the week ..
So they made it up??
If we had a like button I would have hit it for this
If we had a like button I would have hit it for this
If we had a like button I would have hit it for this
Just curious, but what school were you and Peewee at? I went to St. Iggy in Chi-town. Our Jebbies were just as avante-gard as yours, no doubt. How did he get his nickname? I am curious about him because I challenged one of his articles in a letter to our diocesan newspaper in Hawaii.
I attend a Catholic mass and a Presbyterian service every week. If we were solely attending on “worship style” the Presbyterian church would win hands down. There we sing hymns glorifying God, long prayers for the congregation, and solid sermons based on lengthy Bible passages.
At the mass, we sing silly “We Are the Church” songs, the prayers are the same every week, and the homily is fifteen minutes of nothing.
I get that Catholics get more out of mass because you believe Christ is being offered as a sacrifice, etc, but anyone who doesn’t understand or feel that is not really going to get much out of most masses I’ve attended.
Sad that in all those years you never heard "This is My Body, which will be given up for you" and thought about it.
Fascinating article. On our side of the fence, the most thoughtful Protestants either go all the way, and discover the Reformed perspective, or swim the Tiber.
Catholics do not seem to understand the differences...
You are right.. on that observation
Fair enough, but in what sense? If you mean that the Catholic church isn't teaching to the Bible, then I would tend to agree that echoes the sentiments of most former Catholics that I know. But isn't that what the article is saying, too?
Thank you! This is exactly what I'm talking about.
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