Why I'm Not Catholic
My Reasons for Not Joining the Catholic Church
Yet, I'm not an actual member of the Catholic Church. I have no intentions of becoming a member of the Catholic Church anytime soon. This puzzles many people close to me, especially my mother. It makes sense that I would get baptized into the Catholic Church, after all. If I'm going to Mass, giving my money to the Church and following the basic principles of the Church, I should just become a member and get it over with.
I have my reasons for not becoming a member of any specific Church, let alone the Catholic Church. My thoughts on religion in general will not be the subject of this piece ( I will address them at the end). However, I will offer my reasons for not becoming a member of the Catholic Church.
I have a big problem with RCIA. The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults is the process through which people my age are slowly taught the basics of the Catholic faith, eventually leading to the adults being baptized during the Easter Vigil. This process included introduction to the Bible as well as what is known as basic "faith formation." In all, RCIA takes several months to complete and is mandatory in the United States for any non-Catholic adult who wishes to join the Catholic Church.
There are several components of RCIA which I find troubling. Nowhere in my Bible does it suggest that followers of Christ need to have several months of "faith formation" in order to become a member of the Church. I don't recall John the Baptist requiring individuals to wait three months before getting baptized. When the Holy Spirit came to the Apostles at Pentecost, the book of Acts states that Peter addressed a crowd regarding baptism. After telling the crowd that they need to be baptized in the named of Jesus, the passage goes on to state that "those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day." There was, in fact, no waiting period. Having faith in Christ and a thirst for more knowledge was enough to get baptized.
Of course, RCIA isn't my only problem with the Catholic Church. I cannot help but be against the Church's steadfast teachings against gay marriage and abortion. I have already made my feelings known on this subject before. Nobody that I have ever met in my life is pro-abortion and every time I hear a "God fearing" individual use that phrase I get the urge to throw that individual to the lions. If abortion were to be made illegal tomorrow, it wouldn't stop people from having one. Smoking pot is illegal. How many of you reading this have gotten high in your lifetime? Abortions becoming illegal would create even more deaths than before due to botched procedures by unqualified "physicians." How any church, especially the Catholic Church, doesn't realize this simple truth is beyond my comprehension.
The filioque is another matter that I and the Catholic Church do not agree on. Like the Eastern Orthodox Church, I believe that the Holy Spirit "proceeds from the Father" and not "the Father and the Son" as the Roman Catholic Church professes. "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me," says the Gospel of John. My feeling on this subject is indeed a small matter in the great scheme of things but is still worth noting for this particular piece.
Rest assured, dear reader, that I do not simply have some sort of vendetta against the Catholic Church. Organized religion as a whole bothers me. Religion is a crutch used by men in order to bargain their way into heaven. People attend church once a week, receive their communion and thus feel as though salvation is their right. Know that I am speaking the truth when I write that nobody has ever reached heaven through religion. Religion may lead men to God but it is through God (Christ Jesus) alone that men are saved.
Remember that religion, not Jesus, is the reason why believers in Christ are so segregated. Do you believe that it was the Christ's intention to have his "disciples of many nations" follow different doctrines? Do any of you believe that Jesus wanted those who know him to be the Christ not be allowed to take part in the Eucharist simply because they aren't a member of the correct Church?
I will join the Catholic Church as soon as it no longer exists. I will join at that moment when Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Baptists, Pentecostal Christians, Lutherans, Presbyterians and etcetera are One.
Published by Zac Wassink - Featured Contributor in Sports
A gimmick sports writer with a love for the Giants, Mets, Browns, Indians, Bulls, & Penguins. I also have a degree from Penn State. Let's Go State! View profile
- The American Empire: An Unholy Alliance Between Church and State Alistair Kee wrote that Constantine the Great conquered the Christian church "without a threat or a blow." How did he do this? By embracing it. We can see the same thing happening in America.
- Basic Steps in Becoming Catholic How you come into the Catholic Church depends entirely on where you are in relation to it at the present. Below are some basic steps you should take into consideration as you explore the Church.
- How Are We Baptized in the Holy Spirit? There is much controversy over the baptism of the Holy Spirit because of the evidence of speaking in tongues. This is one of the hot button issues that has divided the church as well as healing, prosperity and wome...
- Becoming Catholic: My Journey of Faith Most Catholics join the faith via infant baptism. But for adults wishing to join the Catholic faith there is a considerably longer and more demanding process.
-
How to Become a Roman Catholic Convert
It's the largest Christian religion in the world. But converting to Catholicism is hardly an easy process. Read on to find out how to determine if you're interested and what y...
- Roman Catholic Church in the United States - Reform or Die?
- The Bubonic Plague's Influence Over the Catholic Church and the Renaissance in Flo...
- St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Folsom, California
- The Donation of Constantine: Forgery Used to Control Secular Rulers
- What is RCIA in the Catholic Church?
- Renting Married Priests and the Reverend Moon Courtesy of the Catholic Church
- Old St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church in New York City
- Under fire, Obama adjusts his birth control policy (AP)
- Obama shift seeks to defuse birth-control fight (Reuters)
- Catholic group backs Obama birth control policy (AP)
- Catholic furor over birth control rule turns Democrats on one another (The Christian Science Monitor)
- Creator of Revolution Muslim website, inspiration to US jihadis, pleads guilty (The Christian Science Monitor)
43 Comments
Post a CommentI have been attending Catholic Masses for years, but there is no comparison to a non-denominational or Pentecostal church where there is life and no man made rituals. About 40-50 percent of my deoniminational church are former Catholics. Enrollment has dropped over the years in Catholic churches all over but yet the non-denominational and Pentecostal churches are filled to capacity. It really makes you think!
I just happened to see these article while searching something about Notre Dame but I see that people are are still commenting on it. I have a different take on RCIA. I am a cradle catholic. I have had the benefit of catholic education fro K to college, but I will be the first to say I still am not clear on a lot of the church's teachings. How many of the cradle catholics have left the church because of their lack of understanding of what the magisterium really teaches. If only catholics trully understand what we have,the living body of Christ, how can we even think of going anywhere. Would you rather have a symbol or a living God? You need an informed conscience to make decisions. If you say one needs only the desire then why choose catholic christianity and not something else. Your against organized religion and you quote biblical passages yet you don't mention that Christ founded an organized religion (biblical). You have so many inconsistencies in your arguments but be true to you
I was previously a Roman Catholic and was married to a non-practicing Roman Catholic for 15 yrs. We divorced because of his drug and alcohol abuse, verbal abuse and neglect. I later met and married an Episcopalian. I miss being part of the Roman Catholic church especially during family celebrations of marriage, 1st Holy Communion, Confirmation, and funerals. What bothers me the most is that even though I may profess the Nicene Creed, I am not eligible to be a Cathlic because of my marital status.
On page 2, you said:
Abortions becoming illegal would create even more deaths than before due to botched procedures by unqualified "physicians."
You're right, of course; but the death rate would only increase for the pregnant women. In every abortion, someone dies: the baby. So are you saying that the Catholic Church, and, presumably, other people who are against abortion, should acquiesce in the deaths of hundreds of millions of babies in order to save the lives of a few pregnant women who will die from back-alley abortions? Those of us who are against abortion are simply extending the right to protection of life that you want to preserve for pregnant women--a right they exert at the expense of their unborn children. How you don't realize this simple truth is beyond my comprehension.
Katie Murphy
This is becoming obvious to me that this is just some hate article hoping to get support from other homosexuals. Your sin is what it is and not because I say so. You know and I know. That's why you do what you do.
Frankly bible aside, your sexual issue, it's gross, you might as well be with a dog, it's about the same to me. What you have isn't a choice, it's a mental sickness. Seriously, get help. Stop crying on the Internet, hoping to justify what you do, and get the help you really need.
NV0URbana
I value your comment.
As soon as you brought up gay marriage you lost me. The bible is "very" clear in this matter. You seem to be "very" unclear. I did not read the rest of your article. If only for the reason: a half truth is a whole lie.
As for the RCIA, I have no understanding of this as I am not a Catholic (at the moment), but due to what seems like a direct false attack on the church in support of gay marriage (that sent me off running in the opposite direction of anything that you had to say further) I will not likely look into the matter anytime soon.
Your are Peter and upon this rock I shall build by Church. Jesus came to build a church, not a book, not a personal an individual faith but a church which all can receive salvation and most importantly, all can receive the true body of Christ in the most precious and mysterious gift of the Eucharist if they are in the proper state-which sometimes I am not so I don't receive. I don't believe for a second that giving my money to the Catholic Church and attending Sunday Mass 'earn's' my way into heaven. This is merely the stepping stone. Mass means missio or dismisal. To which I must live my Catholic faith each and every minute of every day, thanking God for all that I have and giving to others. To make his Kingdom here on earth and avoid sin as best I can. I can't earn it. Your notions of Catholic teaching are incorrect. Read the Catechism. Does not say what you are saying...
to finish where my previous post was cut off....
To quote a great man who said this in a slightly different context: Free at last, free at last. Thank God almighty I am free at last.
Of a church that has totally lost it's way.
Save me from the church that gave the world the hatred of the Jews, Jesus own people. which reached its Zenith when a mad Catholic took over Germany about 1932.
Save me from a church that gave the world the 1000 years of the dark ages. Zero social or economic progress. But tens of millions of Muslims murdered in the Name of God - really to steal the wealth of that advanced for its time civilization. They say Societies have along memory. And Muslim society, their culture, religion, and language poisoned by the crusades, reminded us vividly of that truth on 9/11
And now that hating Jews etc is out of fashion after WWII. our gay friends, also part of God's creation, are the new victims of the hatred of the church. Which in an utter oxymoronic statement, they sometimes call "Christian Love".
I've trashed the church. It took several years to understand their brainwashing, and how they get their "beliefs" embedded in the mind.
To quote a great man in a slightly different co