How many people...

[Tink]

Additionally, I have since attended one non-denominational service at a local Christian church. I did this for apologetic reasons, to come to understand exactly what was manipulating so many of my friends to accept such a practice. As expected, the service in question thrived on emotions, which, as we all know, do not dictate or serve as indicators of faith.

[Apotheoun]

[quote name='Micheal5403' date='Dec 30 2004, 09:12 PM'] [quote name='Apotheoun' date='Dec 30 2004, 1:27 PM']I do not think that attending Protestant worship services is the best way to inform oneself about Protestant beliefs.[/quote]
What is then? [/quote]
It would be more informative to study the history of the Reformation, the various Protestant formularies and the Catholic responses to them (with particular emphasis on the Council of Trent), rather than go to a worship service without knowing the reasons why the group you're visiting worships the way it does. To think that attendance at a Protestant worship service is going to teach you about the nature of Protestant belief is somewhat naive, and I say this as a former Protestant. As I said in my earlier post, I am not opposed to Catholics knowing more about Protestant belief, but they should do it in a way that does not lead to a false irenicism or the heresy of indifferentism.

God bless,
Todd

[cathqat]

Was raised Episcopalian with Evangelical leanings. Became an idol-worshipping pagan in high school. Became a practicing Christian in college, and a hardcore double-predestinarian, supralapsarian Calvinist. Received into the Catholic Church on the Feast of the Assumption in 1995.

What made me become Catholic? A combination of factors, of course. My intense debates with Arminians led me to the conclusion that the common Protestant interpretation of [i]sola fide[/i] was irrational. Studying Calvinism and simultaneously reading Augustine slowly convinced me that Protestantism is intrinsically Gnostic due its implicit nominalist assumptions. As I read more and more ancient Christian writings, Protestantism became less and less tenable. I befriended more and more Catholic and Eastern Orthodox friends who were able to answer my questions.

I have no objections to visiting other Christians' worship services. I lived in a Serbian Orthodox rectory for several years, after all, and my family is still Episcopalian. But there is no question that I am home as a Catholic.