Interesting experiences re: Protestant, Catholic

[Jacob4707]

At a non-denom forum I used to frequent, as an anonymous observer I recently witnessed a "meltdown" among some Sola Scriptura Protestants over issues related to Scripture. Someone was saying things that to some persons seemed to be disparaging Scripture vis-a-vis being led by the Spirit, acrimonious words and accusations were exchanged, sides were taken, and two members who refused to apologize for the things they wrote as part of their firm stance re: Scripture ended up being banned.

Also recently, a Catholic foolishly entered the forum and began defending or explaining Catholicism. He/she was met with the usual anti-Catholic quotes and book references, and his/her effort to explain things was regarded as proselytizing for the Catholic Church, and he/she was eventually banned. Before the Catholic person was banned, one person wrote that if, instead of proselytizing, that person had just shared their experiences of Jesus and not tried to convince people of the rightness of the Catholic Church, it wouldn't have become an issue.

(I personally didn't regard them as proselytizing, but simply trying to engage in conversation with those who were both asking questions about and villifying the Catholic Church, but apparently the leaders at that forum regarded this person's posts differently.)

Anyway, I came across this blog today: http://aimeemilburn.typepad.com/my_weblog/

This lady describes her journey to Christianity here: http://aimeemilburn.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/01/my_first_encoun.html (there are 5 parts to it - read them all)

and then her journey from Protestantism to Catholicism here (4 parts): http://aimeemilburn.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/08/i_believe_in_je.html

and her explanation of why she became a Catholic: http://aimeemilburn.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/03/why_i_became_a_.html

She wrote this interesting entry a year ago: http://aimeemilburn.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/06/acquiescence.html in which she stated: "I’ve begun to pay more attention to the growing faith in the Southern Hemisphere, and taken up an interest in Orthodox Christianity, about which until recently I was very ignorant."

I was entranced with her story, maybe because at one point she writes:

It was during that dark period that I turned to God, Whom I could still feel, even if not find, and said, “God, I have looked everywhere I can think of, and still have not found you. I don’t know where to look any more. Furthermore, I have made a complete hash out of my life, and I cannot help myself anymore. I don’t know what to do, and I don’t know where to look. If you want me to know where you are, you’re just going to have to show me yourself, because I can’t find you on my own.”

which is almost exactly what I said to God 30 years ago (though, unlike her, I could not even feel God at the time, and had no supernatural pullings from the Spirit leading me to this crisis point).

If you read it, I hope you enjoy it, too.

Maybe this lady's story of how Jesus affected her life as a Catholic (and a pre-Catholic) is what the people on that forum would have preferred hearing. On the other hand, they would then have been upset with the other things she had to say about the Scripturalness of Catholicism and historical Christianity compared to her former Evangelical Protestantism, because nothing, absolutely nothing, could convince them that the Catholic Church wasn't an unscriptural Christ-sacrificing Tradition-exalting Saints-and-Mary-idolizing communicating-with-the-dead cult. :)

[Guineverelyndy]

I didn't read her story yet, but I agree with you. When I was a Protestant I personally would have taken her story of basically finding God as a Catholic a little more easily than I would have taken all of the explanations of Catholicism. I think this is because we are not simply logical, head-knowledge people. There is a lot to be said for watching someone live, think, and experience something all at once that gives it more weight.

We are all looking for hope, and the answer to that hope is in Christ. The Church, in my understanding, preserves the message of that hope (I'm gathering this conclusion from Paul's exhortations to Timothy and the churches). I think maybe there is something still in us that recognizes that hope, and that is what makes it easier to accept the vehicle that is bringing it to us.

I'm probably not making any sense at all. Still digesting a lot of these thoughts.

[Akathist]

I didn't come to Orthodoxy because of some logical point of view, or because I studied something and came to a conclusion based upon that. (Though a lot of people do come to the Church for this reason.)

I came because I needed Christ in a way I just was not getting in the particular protestant churches I was attending. The Real Presence in the Eucharist was the pull for me. I wanted Christ to be literally inside me, inside my cells, I didn't even understand about sacrements, but when I did learn about them, I realized I wanted ALL of the sacrements. I needed the hospital Church... with the medicinal sacrements.

The rest of what is the EO Church ... the theology, the history, was something I knew nothing of before I came to visit the first service. But, I was already convinced that I had found where I needed to be well before I learned any of that.

It was purely illogical. And given my intellectual bent in life, it is also clearly not from me. My way of doing things is to be skeptical and study something in depth. This was beyond myself.

Sometimes it is very very good for me to remember this.

BTW, I have been told that even people who grow up in the Church have similar experiences where they make the conscious choice to remain in the Church too. Sometimes for illogical "can't explain it, but its right" reasons (like my conversion) and sometimes due to study.

I do think that in a setting like CF, emotional testimonies have a place. But there is also a place for using logic and helping people see the untruths about our faith that they have gotten from the propaganda out there.

[Shubunkin]

Before I found Orthodoxy, I was beginning to think the real Church didn't exist at all. Nothing else had what I needed. But here I am... the rest is history! :)