Why Do Some People Have A Problem With Non-Denom People Self-Identifyi

[MithLuin]

I was involved with InterVarsity Chrisitian Fellowship in college. They are nondenominational, and many of the people who attended the meetings (gatherings) were also attending nondenominational churches.

They knew I was Catholic, and everyone was mostly alright with that. There were one or two other Catholic members of the group, and one Orthodox. The rest were all Protestant.

I did Bible studies with them, and said what I thought, and again, did not get backlash.

One of the Bible studies was on the book of John. Including the sixth chapter.

When literature for meditation was passed out on a retreat that included an aside about Catholics 'not really being Christian', the adult leader of the entire college group got up and apologized for that without either of the two Catholics on the retreat having said anything to complain. Clearly, it was one of the Protestants who pointed out the uncharitable line on our behalf.

So, I give them credit as [i]not[/i] being an anti-Catholic group.

They are, however, certainly not a Catholic group, either, and if one views the Catholic Church as the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church founded by Jesus, then...their efforts at evangelization fall short of the mark.



My mom attended a Bible study that was billed as 'Christian' and everyone was instructed to leave their denominational baggage at the door. The goal was to have a fruitful discussion without any infighting or bad blood between Christians. Fair enough; but in practice, this meant that if anything 'Catholic' were mentioned, the leader would say 'we can't have that here' and silence those voices. I was not there, so I can't say if something similar were done to members of other denominations, but my mom says the rule was being applied to Catholics only, even if they were sharing a personal story of their own faith life (ie, saying the rosary helped me through this difficult time, etc.) Eventually, all the Catholic members of the group left and found [url="http://www.cssprogram.net/"]Catholic bible studies [/url]to attend instead.

So, yes, I can understand the comment about trying to go to a Bible study with nondenominationals...but I would say that in my own experience, the implied criticism is not always present.

[ardillacid]

This seems like one of the more combative thread titles in some time: 'you got a.problem with me?' :boxing:

[dUSt]

:bump:

[Amppax]

A walk down memory lane. I miss a lot of people. 

[Anastasia13]

Ahh, non-denominationals. God love you.

[Lilllabettt]

the formatting problems makes the previous posts yucky to read.

[MarysLittleFlower]

I used to be "non denom". The reason I don't really feel comfortable with this description now is because - for one, it's not truly "non denom". The beliefs are most similar to Baptist or evangelical, usually, at least my community was, - which makes it Protestant in theology. The theology in "non denom" communities originated since the Protestant reformation. Another reason why I disagree with the term now is simply because I don't want to be "non denom", I  want to be in the visible Church, but that's why I'm Catholic

[MarysLittleFlower]

I see it was mentioned about having a Bible study with Protestants.. I used to attend Campus Crusade for Christ (now known as another title which I forget at the moment) - when I was Protestant. Then I continued attending during my conversion to Catholicism... but eventually, I found it really hard. For one thing, there was always an implicit sort of understanding (or even explicit) that "Catholics are not Christian". The theology was also very Protestant, and the Scripture translations were Protestant. It can be very easy for a Catholic to get confused in this situation, or it can lead to religious indifference and giving the impression that "it's all the same", or at the very least it would lead to a lot of mental pain for the Catholic. (I'm not generalizing Protestants because they don't all have this view, but SOME might see you as the "Mary worshipping person who believes you don't need grace"). I would advise against it. It's better to organize a Bible study at your parish if you don't have one, and invite the priest, - our parish has a monthly "theology group" like that :))

Edited June 3, 2015 by MarysLittleFlower

[MarysLittleFlower]

you need to be more succinct homes. I'm sure you've convinced yourself of how right you are. It's cool. I've done it too, and will probably do it again in the near future, but you don't seem open to the possibility that perhaps you are quite incorrect making dialogue rather fruitless.

I was born Catholic, but in my teens years I ascribed to this non-denom mentality (though never attended a church) and in my own head I had Catholicism figured out and I knew exactly how corrupt and manipulative it was. I was CONVINCED. And my logic was sound, and if anyone tried to poke a hole in it I'd patch it up right away. At this time I was also scared to look for the truth, because I feared that if I dug to much, I might find out that what I'm believing is a crock of poo. But I KNEW in my heart that Christ was God, and that was the most precious truth I was afraid to lose. So until then I only really looked for evidence that would comfort my rightness.

Eventually my mental health deteriorated to the point where this was no longer a viable defense mechanism because I realized that eventually the questions become too weighty and complex for a spin-off series to respond to let alone answer. It was actually by reading another Christian forum and seeing how, to my shock and surprise, the Catholics there (who were outnumbered btw) were able to respond more thoroughly than intelligent non-Catholics most of the time, and how it just seemed more authentic. Modern day Christianity had a lot of things and contradictions that didn't make any sense to me (sola fide, OSAS etc). Also finding out Luther was kind of a Johnsonville brat and not really the freedom-fighter high school portrayed him as, among other things.

Now I'm a lot more comfortable with my faith because on a daily basis I am confronted with how much I don't know. It seems more human to me. I'm not afraid to dig because I know that scholars and mystics have likely already confronted these questions and their knowledge is accessible to me, and if the details don't make absolute sense the core doctrines of the faith are thoroughly explained and when combined with prayer and faith the fear is eliminated.

Just sayin' you talk a lot, but you ain't sayin' much. I"m guilty of the same thing so I'm not tryin' to disparage you,

hollaz?

​I can relate.. I used to think when I was Protestant that Catholics:

- believe in salvation by works without grace

- worship Mary

- have a "non spiritual" type of worship

- that the Catholic Church is just a human organization and the "real Church" is only spiritual, not visible

- that Catholics don't "really know God" (probably the most insulting belief I had about Catholics, because this one got personal and wasn't even about doctrine anymore).

I even tried to evangelize Catholics..

Somehow I later ended up Catholic.   anyways I saw that ALL of my views about the Church were incorrect. So was a substantial portion of my theology. But I wasn't giving the Church a chance for a while because I was so convinced that I'm right about it. It turned out that everything I thought about Catholics was actually incorrect.