www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Parish Life & Evangelization What to say to Church of Christ folks and anti-Catholic professor

So how do you think it best to respond to a CoC member's preconceptions of the Catholic/Orthodox/ Church in a manner that would allow them to 'hear' what is being said? What are the CoC preconceptions concerning Catholics?

There is a lot of programming that goes on in hard-line Churches of Christ. I don�t think a CoC member will even begin to understand you until he or she has had enough life experience, or listened to the �inner voice�/�gut�/�spirit� enough to realize that maybe there is a better spiritual path. I think if you�re not insulted by the most basic and rudely put questions, if you answer honestly and with kindness, and live a good and sincere Christian life, you will make the best impression. Your words and actions will be remembered when that person is ready to listen.

About preconceptions that Churches of Christ have about Catholicism, I can only answer this as a person whose majority of religious training has been in conservative Churches of Christ. I hope this isn�t too offensive, but this is really the kind of thing that is taught, talked about, etc, in my experience:

We don�t understand why you think the Pope is infallible, if he�s a human. CoC people point to faults of Popes in the past and say, �See?!�

We don�t understand why you seem to arbitrarily pick saints, when we�re all saints.

We have a REALLY hard time dealing with anything mystical, like miraculous healings or the Catholic/Orthodox view of Communion, etc. There�s some passage in Acts of the Apostles where the apostles could do miracles, and the people on which they laid their hands could do miracles, but those people couldn�t give anyone the power of performing miracles (Verse please; I�m showing my ignorance here). The Churches of Christ use that passage to strictly teach that, once the apostles died, that was it for the miracles. However, if you pray and have a lot of faith, God might heal you if it�s in His plan. (I don�t really know how to reconcile that.) We read the Bible literally, yet we�re a bit selective about where we apply the literal scrutiny. (See Communion reference above).

We think you have some weird books of the Bible that obviously are only myth and legend, although most of us have never actually read those books and have no idea what they might include. We also don�t know what foundation you have for exotic ideas like Purgatory, Limbo, etc etc.

We think you baptize babies and sprinkle them (two big no-nos). Therefore you are missing the essential order of the steps to salvation. What happens to these babies, if they don�t �come to Christ� in their lifetimes and hear, believe, confess, repent, and be baptized by immersion? We�re afraid to think about it.



Lucy,
you have done an excellent job in putting forth the views of a CoC person that all the dissertations, etc. would fail to do.I have known CoC people most of my life, and we have a lot of them here in Chattanooga, and your post captures the spirit of many vis a vis Catholicism. having attended CoC worship with friends, I heartily enjoy a capella singing (once a choir memebr and a musician, always a chior member and a musician) and while I see a gap between CoC musicians and their opposition to haveing instrumental music in worship, still I attest to the skill of CoC musicians I have known in marching band and concert band. I hope you will enjoy your new home here, we are hapy and blessed to have you.
Much Love,
Jonn

A classmate asked about my cross and what Byzantine Catholicism was.I explained a little about Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Byzantine Catholicism. Then she asked if you have to confess to a priest if you commit a sin, and I told her that we don't confess to the priest but to Christ. The priest is simply a witness.She then told me that Catholicism didn't exist first (not that I told her that) and that in the early Church there were no bishops or priests just folks meeting at home reading the bible. Everything else came later and is therefore extraneous.

I didn't know how to respond because, first, I thought the inadvertent attack extremely rude, and second,I never set out to prove Church of Christ was wrong, but just to answer her questions. But it made me realize that this will undoubtedly happen again and I need to know how to respond.

We are in a class with an anti-religion,anti-Christian, anti-Catholic professor who insists on giving his opinions on things he knows nothing about. He keeps saying that religions are all myths. Christianity is an effective one, but a myth nonetheless. He's made remarks about the early church that were factually inaccurate and has frequently commented that Christianity is all about the resurrection. He compared a character from our book (oh, I forgot to say that this is a lit class not theology)to a priest raising the monstrance and I held my breath waiting for something blasphemous to crawl out of his mouth, because he's made some irreverent remarks about Catholicism in particular. Fortunately, he didn't go any further.
I think this professor is going through a religious struggle and is probably a lapsed Catholic so I try to have compassion on him. I don't want to blow my grade either so the first few days I would politely correct him but I stopped after a while. Still, I feel like there is a line and if he crosses it I'm not sure what to do. Walk out, demand an apology, what? I might add I am in the South and he's a northerner. I'd be in the wrong if I embarrass him or make the class uncomfortable.

He also likes to read very explicit sexual descriptions aloud and at those moments I always think the veiled muslims girls have the right idea.Sounds crazy, but the remarks make me feel naked and assaulted.

I haven't figured out how best to respond to all this and welcome any ideas you might have.
Thank you.

Indigo

[quote=indigo]A classmate asked about my cross and what Byzantine Catholicism was.I explained a little about Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Byzantine Catholicism. Then she asked if you have to confess to a priest if you commit a sin, and I told her that we don't confess to the priest but to Christ. The priest is simply a witness.She then told me that Catholicism didn't exist first (not that I told her that) and that in the early Church there were no bishops or priests just folks meeting at home reading the bible. Everything else came later and is therefore extraneous.

I do wish that Byzantine and Roman Catholic churches practised evangelism with at least half the ferocity that CoCs do. I, for one, would like to be reached out to or invited to find out more.

I encourage you to come to know Jesus in the profoundly intimate way that He established. Not through the Bible, because He is the Living Word, but through the Eucharist, because he is the Bread of Heaven.