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September 25, 2010

2

Things Heard In The RCIA (and other statements that make me go ugh).

We attended our second RCIA this week, it was interesting, a little disappointing and a little frustrating. Let me see if I can articulate…

First Fr. Len gave about an hour talk on the history of the Church, he did a good job considering that he had to cover 2000 years in an hour. He talked about Luther and the reformation, he was fair and balanced and I was pretty happy with the whole thing. What irritated me was someone asked him why they become Catholic over any other protestant religion, I’m going to sin here for a second so hang on.

HOW STUPID CAN YOU BE??

Would you ask the Ford salesman why you should buy a Ford over a Chevy and decide your fate based on that conversation??, if your looking for someone to give you all the answers then your an idiot and you might as well just sit there and sit on your hands and not say a word, because *some* of us actually want to understand WHAT the Catholic Church actually teaches BEFORE we commit to anything.

You see in the book of Acts, Paul was preaching the word in Berea and the Bereans they took every word he said and went home and checked it against the scriptures (the old testament), the key here is that they didn’t just believe, they checked, they asked, they made sure that they understood before they believed. It’s important for anyone to make sure they understand what they are believing before they believe it, a few scriptures to make my point:

Hosea 4:6 my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.

Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools [a] despise wisdom and discipline.

Luke 10:27 He answered: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

The point is that if you are going to make a decision about your faith and your standing with God, should you not be careful about how to make such a decision. Would you buy a boat for a 3 year journey and just rely on what the salesman tells you??, if so, then head on out. I’ll be standing at the dock watching you leave and hoping you don’t sink. We have a society of idiots in this country, we get our news in little controlled tidbits, we don’t want to be bothered with doing the hard work, it’s all about what we can get now. We want others to tell us we are OK, because it’s too damn hard to make up our own minds. The American spirit is gone, it’s been replaced by this apathetic mentality that just grates me the wrong way.

All that being said, Fr Len did a good job with a bad question, how could he answer?. So he took the same path I would have taken and said it’s a decision and *he* personally thinks that the Catholic Church has the right of it.

The second thing that happened is something that I see a great deal of with people who are teachers, they have a propensity to want to create social situations. So in our RCIA class they had a list of questions like:

Tell about a time you know God was speaking to you
and
What are you looking to find in the Catholic Church

Those questions are meant to be answered in a group, well I have kind of have an issue with that. I’m there to learn about how the Catholic Church functions, what it believes, what it’s theology is. Not socialize, certainly if I join I’ll be joining a large family. But right now I have problems with that family and I’m more interested in answers than hearing about someones personal accounts that have *nothing* to do with the topic at hand. If I wanted to socialize I would go a church event, I’m there to learn, so do away with the touchy feely and let’s get down to business. I have no patience for anything else, in fact one of the reasons that I hate going to Church is that for us, it becomes about how to avoid being accosted while trying to figure out what they believe. At one church there was a woman who followed my Daughter into the bathroom and waited for her so she could find out all about the new people, that’s more than a little creepy. Of course we didn’t last long at that church, so much for other peoples privacy :)

So it’s a mixed bag right now, I’m still reading like crazy, Francis Beckwith has probably the best book I have ever read on converting to Catholicism. Hands down, it’s rich and informative and has spurred me on to keep reading. I’m also getting some static from my Hermeneutics class about my conversion process, some good points have been raised and I’m having to study to figure this out. I will say that once a Protestant is anti-Catholic it’s hard to have a level discussion with them. They stop being irenic whether they mean to or not, it’s a shame, but it’s also human nature. I have the same reaction to Calvinism, it’s a heresy that should be stamped out, so I guess I’m not any better 😉

That’s all I can muster today…

Blessings

-Paul-

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2 Comments Post a comment
  1. Sep 25 2010

    Paul:

    You’re very kind. Thank you.

    FJB

    Reply
  2. Oct 1 2010

    Even after my grumpy rant? it’s certainly void of any grace (groan)…

    You are far to kind to a grumpy old man :)

    But your book was awesome, and I wish Michael Patton would read it, he’s been pushing me on my road to Rome. But I’m challenging Sola Scriptura, so it’s a fair shake so far…

    Thanks

    -Paul-

    Reply

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