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Credo Catholic
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| First Name: | Marsha | | Gender: | Female | | Faith History: | Baptist, Catholic |
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Posted: Sat May 26th, 2007 03:57 pm |
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I was raised Southern Baptist in the middle of the Bible Belt, near Bob Jones University, a stronghold of fundamentalism. In the '50s it was common to see young preachers standing on street corners yelling at passersby to repent or risk hellfire and damnation. My grandfather was a Baptist preacher and he had a strong influence on my upbringing. We were in church every Sunday morning and evening. My father never attended church but my mother was devout in her Christianity. An only child, I just always accepted and took for granted the love of Jesus, without question. In those days, our public grade school allowed teachers to read from the Bible and tell Bible stories. I remember teachers reading from Psalms and telling us wonderful stories of good morals and values. It was a good solid start to my journey of faith. I was baptized at 13.
But then(!) in high school, I succumbed to peer pressure and made a conscious effort to rebel. I wanted to be part of the cool crowd, experimenting with tobacco and alcohol, boyfriends, etc. I pushed Jesus to the back of my mind to ease my conscience. This lasted well into college days, but even though I thought I was happy going to dances, parties and all, it wasn't joy. Life really didn't have much meaning the next morning. I met a girl at school who was living her Christian faith. She involved Jesus in everything she did. It influenced me greatly and I began to think of Jesus in a more personal way, not just what was habit as in my childhood.
A couple of years later I married my husband who was also Baptist, but not practicing. We didn't attend church for the first couple of years but then our daughter was born and I began to attend and take her. My husband didn't go very often and still doesn't. I taught children's Sunday School a few years and then my son was born. At age 3 he developed Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis and was very sick and in pain, in and out of hospitals. I became angry with God for treating my son this way. I couldn't see what the point was in doing this to a child. My child. Church members prayed for him and us, they were kind, but in my heart I had turned away from God. I had no concept of redemptive suffering. As my son grew older he became better and I yearned for Jesus again. But church had become a disappointment to me. The same old Sunday School routine, pastors coming and going, increasing casualness of services and attitudes. I quit going and began to watch sermons on TV. I could get as much out of hearing it that way as sitting in a pew. I felt something missing from the worship at church, but I didn't know what it was.
I had always had a curiosity about Mary. I thought of her nursing the baby Jesus, teaching Him to walk, helping Him when He fell and scraped His knee. I thought of how she watched her son suffer as I had watched my son suffer.
One summer I was on vacation from school where I worked and was starting an art project. I was looking through an art book for a subject and found a picture of Mary and the Christ Child by Raphael. I had the TV on and was flipping channels at the same time. I heard beautiful music on an EWTN station, and I listened for awhile. I think it must have been a Benediction. I tuned in again the next few days. Once I saw a little old nun talking. She was rambling on and I thought, well, they'll let anybody talk on this program! Now I'm wiser and know that anything Mother Angelica says will have a good point to it by and by!
I became very interested in the Catholic Church. I began to read about it because I knew that there were many misconceptions about it and I had to go to the source to know the truth. I checked the Bible whenever I heard someone refer to it: speaking about Peter being handed the keys of the kingdom, Jesus' words to John about "Behold your Mother", "This is my Body" etc. My only true obstacle was "once saved always saved." It is still hard for me to think of losing my relationship with Jesus. But I accept the church's teaching with the faith of a child who doesn't understand. When I accepted the true presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, there was no going back. I couldn't not convert.
I realized there is no such thing as a couch Catholic! You have to actually go to the church to receive the sacraments! I called the most traditional church I could find nearby. I dialed the number three times before I let it ring long enough for someone to answer, I was that scared. I'm sure the receptionist was irritated. But I found out when mass was and when RCIA met. This was all before I ever walked into a Catholic church. When I did walk in the next Sunday, I was home. Some people say the RCC takes away your freedom but I found the opposite. I was thrilled to be able to kneel down to worship my Lord. I refreshed my baptism in Holy Water. I smelled the incense and remembered how God had instructed it to be burned in the Old Testament in the Temple because it pleased Him. I loved that the focus of the sanctuary was the tabernacle, right in the middle. This really was the house of the Lord.
I joined the Catholic Church at Easter vigil, 2006. My family can't figure it out, but don't want to listen to explanations. The word "catholic" is hard for some people to get past. I think they have guilt because they don't attend church very much. But they support my decision and attended my confirmation, and I'm grateful for that.
I hesitated to write my story because it's so simple. I don't know a lot of deep philosophy or theology. The fine points of apologetics amaze me. But God's gift to the world is for everyone, even us simple-minded people!
When I was a little girl I remember lying down on the pew with my head in my mother's lap (I must have been very little!) and looking up studying the ceiling and windows, listening to fragments of the sermon I could understand. The preacher talked about the Blood of the Lamb. He mentioned this lamb several times. I wondered, where was this lamb? It always stuck in my mind. More than 50 years later, I have found the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world, in the Holy Eucharist. Alleluia!
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CajunRick
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Posted: Sat May 26th, 2007 05:21 pm |
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That's a wonderful story, Marsha. Thanks for sharing it with us.
____________________
Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand. - Augustine
Rick Luquette
Luquette Lane
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Liza
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| Joined: | Thu Dec 28th, 2006 |
| Location: | Naples, Florida USA |
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| First Name: | Liza | | Gender: | Female | | Faith History: | Roman Catholic |
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Posted: Sat May 26th, 2007 11:58 pm |
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| Marsha..Thank you so much for sharing your testimony. I can relate so much to everything you said. I too came into the Catholic Church during the Easter Vigil in '06. I find there is so much richness in the Catholic faith and the reality of Christ lives in the mass and the holy Eucharist. God bless you as you continue on in your faith. It is truly wonderful!
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Credo Catholic
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| Joined: | Sat May 5th, 2007 |
| Location: | Greenville, South Carolina USA |
| Posts: | 1268 |
| First Name: | Marsha | | Gender: | Female | | Faith History: | Baptist, Catholic |
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Posted: Sun May 27th, 2007 12:42 am |
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| Liza, this is the first time I've been able to say to someone else "Welcome Home!" It is a remarkable journey with the ultimate reward at the end!
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Steven Barrett
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| Joined: | Tue Nov 14th, 2006 |
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| First Name: | Steven | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Catholic, Episcopal communicant, Baptist, Catholic |
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Posted: Tue May 29th, 2007 02:35 pm |
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Marsha,
Your story's a lot more than "simple." It's gutsy! Especially coming from a Bible Belt Southern Baptist in the shadow of that (well, I can't say it because our moderators will have heartburn for days to come) institute of lower education Bob Jones U.
Welcome home sister!
S.
____________________
For anyone suffering from a mental illness or has a loved one with a mental illness, my book "Lead kindly Light: A Devotional For The Mentally Ill" might be of some help: http://www.lulu.com/ (Use search box at the top of page.)
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Polycarp
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| Joined: | Thu Jun 7th, 2007 |
| Location: | Tennessee USA |
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| First Name: | Andy | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Methodist, Southern Baptist (pastor), Catholic |
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Posted: Fri Jun 8th, 2007 03:36 pm |
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Awesome testimony! I'm so glad you shared with all of us.
Your story will give encouragement to men and women who are still searching.
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome.
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SBC2RCC
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| Joined: | Mon Oct 9th, 2006 |
| Location: | York, South Carolina USA |
| Posts: | 124 |
| First Name: | Monte | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | was Southern Baptist Minister, now Roman Catholic |
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Posted: Sat Jun 9th, 2007 02:12 pm |
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Marsha, welcome!
It's great to hear your sharing, or at least read it. I also came into the Catholic Church after grwoing up Southern Baptist. All my family is Baptist, and so they do not understand why I would leave a position as a pastor of Baptist churches, and go to a church that is so different in their minds.
In Christ,
Monte Waddill,
Clover, SC
____________________
In Christ,
Monte W
(Formerly on CHN Forum as "Pilgrim Paul"
Minima Maxima Sunt
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Credo Catholic
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Posted: Sat Jun 9th, 2007 02:33 pm |
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Dear Andy and Monte,
Thank you for your response to my story. I think you have great courage to leave your positions in the Southern Baptist Church and follow your call to the church Christ founded. It is my dearest wish that all Baptists would take the time just to learn what the Catholic Church says about itself. It's right there in the Catechism. My husband doesn't even disagree with anything in the Nicene Creed. I think it's as much cultural as it is spiritual. I don't yet understand how it is the Lord drew me to catholicism. It's like He just reached down and picked me up from where I was and put me down where He wanted me to be. Three years ago I wouldn't have thought it could happen! But I'm so thankful now it did.
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Steven Barrett
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Posted: Mon Jun 11th, 2007 01:43 am |
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Forgive me for being a bit of a wise guy here, but I've always found it strange that the Baptists, be they Southern or any other variety, managed to get away with desacralizing the very sacrament they've named their denomination after.
Just another Protestant contradiction I've never managed to get an answer to outside of the standard "Well, the sacrament isn't as important as one's admission that he's a sinner and turned his entire life around to Jesus and accepted Him as his personal Lord and Savior.
Just my two bits.
____________________
For anyone suffering from a mental illness or has a loved one with a mental illness, my book "Lead kindly Light: A Devotional For The Mentally Ill" might be of some help: http://www.lulu.com/ (Use search box at the top of page.)
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Credo Catholic
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Posted: Mon Jun 11th, 2007 11:45 am |
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I'm not sure baptism is "desacralized" in the Southern Baptist church. It is a believer's baptism for sure, but it does have the same form and matter as the Catholic baptism, matter being the water and form being the person is baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. It is administered by an "ordained" minister as the baptists recognize ordination. My baptism was recognized by the Catholic church when I was confirmed. I had to call my former church, which I had not attended since high school days (we moved across town at that time and moved our membership) and ask them to look through their records and find verification. Then they very kindly sent a letter to our parish verifying the date. Our pastor was very firm about that with everyone being confirmed, that proof had to be furnished or the person would have to receive "conditional" baptism before confirmation. Not sure if I answered your question completely. As I always understood it, my baptism washed away my sins and was my "outward sign" of the grace of salvation.
An additional thought: When I was attending RCIA and we were learning about the sacraments, our leader said most protestant churches had retained two sacraments, marriage and baptism. The Lord's Supper, or Communion, was not included, I guess because the Catholic Church would recognize a former Baptist's baptism and marriage, but not Communion.
Last edited on Mon Jun 11th, 2007 03:55 pm by Credo Catholic
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susiedear
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| Location: | Twin Cities, Minnesota USA |
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| First Name: | Elizabeth | | Gender: | Female | | Faith History: | Pentecostal / Evangelical / Catholic! |
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Posted: Mon Jun 11th, 2007 12:30 pm |
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Dear Marsha, thank you for writing your story. I will look forward to reading more of your contributions in this forum -- this is such a great place to receive encouragement and wisdom. Welcome!
How old are your children? Do they attend church anywhere? Do they show any curiosity toward Catholicism? I hope that the day will come when your children and husband will want to join you in the most holy Catholic Church.
Elizabeth
____________________
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life. St. Augustine
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Credo Catholic
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Posted: Mon Jun 11th, 2007 12:39 pm |
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SBC2RCC wrote: All my family is Baptist, and so they do not understand why I would leave a position as a pastor of Baptist churches, and go to a church that is so different in their minds.
I'm guessing you had several generations of your family in the same church, or aunts and uncles and cousins there. The church I left was huge and had families who had been there for decades. It can be a family thing, a cultural thing, even a "group mentality." The pastor of the church I belonged to is now the President of the SBC, Frank Page. He is a great person, his family is wonderful, my son was a friend of his daughters and they went on mission trips together. But the church was headed in a direction I didn't want to go, it's almost like a country club. It even has it's own large, fully equipped fitness center with a coffee cafe, with membership fee to boot. I had been uncomfortable for some time with the "performance" aspect of the services. I had even been a small part of it helping in the handbell choir for awhile. Until I began attending mass, I didn't understand what liturgical worship was. Going to the former church was walking in, greeting everyone I knew, finding a seat and sitting back expecting a worshipful performance, expecting it (or the Holy Spirit) to move me, depending on the sermon or the choir or the ghastly taped music that accompanied some brave soul who got up to sing. I don't really want to bash the Baptist church because a) it's a part of me that can't and shouldn't be forgotten, b) most Baptists are charitable if misinformed about Catholicism, and c) they do love the Lord and are serving Him as they have been taught. There are some who are hostile to Catholicism, but those people are often hostile to other things they don't understand also. I'm so glad you have been able to come to the Catholic church. I pray you will find a vocation here that will enable you to use your knowledge and experience to help others along that same journey. God bless!
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Credo Catholic
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Posted: Mon Jun 11th, 2007 12:56 pm |
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| Thank you Elizabeth! My daughter is 34, married with 3 small children. She and her husband live in N.C. and do not regularly attend church, much to my grief. It is a regular intention of my rosary! My son is 26, going on 14. He had a lot of health issues as a small child which caused us to baby him a lot and now he can't seem to grow up. He would attend church with me some if I still went to the Baptist church, but he has no interest in attending mass. He went one time and says the incense bothered his contacts! I know that's just an excuse. My husband doesn't attend either. He's one of those who say they can walk out by the lake on a beautiful morning and worship God that way. I have no idea what that means! I have heard of people who delay joing the RCC until their family is ready to join with them, and I believe that's great if they can have hope that it will happen. I knew I had to do what was right for me, and they have accepted it. It's not what they would have chosen, but then I didn't exactly choose it either! I was drawn to the church, unmistakably. At first I did try to pressure them a little to join me in attending mass, but I realized I was doing more harm than good, so now I am evangelizing by example, hopefully. They are becoming more respectful of my need to attend mass on Sunday morning instead of going someplace else; they arrange things around it. So it's in their minds! Last edited on Mon Jun 11th, 2007 03:47 pm by Credo Catholic
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Polycarp
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Posted: Mon Jun 11th, 2007 02:32 pm |
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Steven Barrett wrote: ...I've always found it strange that the Baptists, be they Southern or any other variety, managed to get away with desacralizing the very sacrament they've named their denomination after.
Keep in mind the following: Baptists were named so by others, not by themselves. Second, Baptists were named so because of their practices regarding baptism, namely that it was by immersion only and that it was an act following one's profession of faith in Christ (today regarded as "believers' baptism"). It is similar to the historically similar Anabaptists who were named by others because of their practice of rebaptizing those from other sects, including sometimes other Anabaptist sects. The Baptist disregard of the sacramental nature of baptism was not a factor in their labeling. The name just stuck after a while I suppose and they adopted it, kind of like we have done as Christians, having been called such at Antioch as recorded in the Book of Acts.
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Steven Barrett
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Posted: Mon Jun 11th, 2007 06:51 pm |
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Thanks for the information about Baptist baptisms. I was basing my view upon conversations with people at our family church. (What really upsets me more is the lack of understanding about Catholicism coming from lapsed Catholics. But, then again, the Church was hijacked by Kumbaya Katholics so I shouldn't have been surprised. A good Baptist friend blames the Kumbaya krowd for dumbing down music thus allowing a lot of the more mundane "praise and worship" folksy songs (oh heavens no, not hymns, how stuffy). He may have a point and certainly a former head of the ETS in Central Texas has made that point clear when he describes what lead him to seek spiritual sustenance within evangelical Protestantism. Without any desire to sound triumphalistic, we should all be grateful to God for leading Francis Beckwith back home. And hopefully those pesky Kumbaya Katholics will learn what it cost the Church in terms of so much talent and wisdom during the past decades Beckwith spent as an evangelical Protestant because the liturgical and musical tinkerers botched so much of what was truly beautiful and unique about Catholicism, particularly the Mass.
Thanks for the corrections and putting up with my relatively lengthy two- bits of "wisdom." 
[NOTE: Edited to remove extra spacing]
Last edited on Mon Jun 11th, 2007 08:56 pm by
____________________
For anyone suffering from a mental illness or has a loved one with a mental illness, my book "Lead kindly Light: A Devotional For The Mentally Ill" might be of some help: http://www.lulu.com/ (Use search box at the top of page.)
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Credo Catholic
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Posted: Mon Jun 11th, 2007 07:12 pm |
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Steven Barrett wrote: What really upsets me more is the lack of understanding about Catholicism coming from lapsed Catholics.
I heard an interesting thought about this watching Fr. Groeschel yesterday. He thinks many cradle Catholics who received their sacraments as children and even went through Catholic schooling, learned faith which applied to them as children. But as they grew older and went through changes in life, their faith didn't grow with them. As adults it may not be enough to rely on what you learned as a child. They need to reread the Catechism, listen to Catholic radio, read something that will enable their spiritual lives to grow and catch up with their adult needs. And to be honest, there is an awful lot to the Catholic church to learn! I needed a dictionary at first.
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Steven Barrett
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Posted: Tue Jun 12th, 2007 10:37 am |
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Marsha,
Excellent point about cradle Catholics not having grown with their faith. If more of us would just stick with what we had to begin with when we were younger, it would still place us well ahead of the pack in terms of scriptural and theological matters.
I'll bet dollars to donuts that Catholic converts have a much better grasp of their new faith than a lot (if not more, albeit somewhat jaded) of "cradle Catholics." The quotation marks were wrapped around this term used to identify people who were born into already existing Catholic homes.
Even if I hadn't "outgrown" my initial lessons, I'm still grateful for what I did receive. Besides which, if a child learns early on about the miracles and grasps the connection between Man and God by comming to a commonsense logic holding that since no man could calm story waters by himself and or raise the dead without God's help, and that happened to be God's only Son, the rest was a walk in the park. It was as people like to say nowadays, a "no brainer" when it came time to name the founder of Christianity/Catholicism. Jesus Christ.
We should gain a better handle on our scriptural literacy obligation as adults and be willing to stretch our comfort zones like rubbr bands; but in the meantime, let's keep praying for the millions of nuns, laymen and women and, of course, dedicated Catholic parents, who are giving up much of their free time to help bring God into the hearts and minds of small children --
our future.
____________________
For anyone suffering from a mental illness or has a loved one with a mental illness, my book "Lead kindly Light: A Devotional For The Mentally Ill" might be of some help: http://www.lulu.com/ (Use search box at the top of page.)
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Credo Catholic
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Posted: Tue Jun 12th, 2007 10:43 am |
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Amen Brother Stephen!
I would like to add that Southern Baptists don't always know their "stuff" either. I worked with two women who attended the same baptist church and had for years, all their lives. They were "religious" about going, and criticized others who didn't attend every time the door was open. In fact, they were very critical in general! But they had attended Sunday School all those years, and all the services, heard the sermons and were well past their 40th birthday. One day one of our teachers took a religious holiday for Passover. She was the only Jewish teacher at our school. The ladies in the office criticized her and one of them said "Why don't they get their own holidays instead of trying to use one of ours" meaning Passover was a Christian observance. I bit my tongue for a minute and then as gently as I could I asked "wasn't passover first taught in the Old Testament?" They looked at me like I had horns growing out of my head! But they never got the connection. They have no idea of their church history or the connection between the Jewish faith and the Catholic faith and what they know as Christianity. It makes me wonder what's going through the minds of so many people when they sit in Sunday School and don't hear anything.
Last edited on Tue Jun 12th, 2007 12:04 pm by Credo Catholic
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SBC2RCC
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Posted: Tue Jun 12th, 2007 06:58 pm |
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Thanks for noting this about family. I have a number of Baptist ministers in my family, and deacons, sunday school teachers, denominational leaders even.
Along the lines of what you mention, there have been studies done which see a person's identification with a particular denomination as being akin to an ethnic identification. I think Mercer University published such on Baptists.
____________________
In Christ,
Monte W
(Formerly on CHN Forum as "Pilgrim Paul"
Minima Maxima Sunt
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susiedear
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Posted: Thu Jun 14th, 2007 07:29 am |
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Credo Catholic wrote: It makes me wonder what's going through the minds of so many people when they sit in Sunday School and don't hear anything.
Your statement rings true for many Pentecostals too. When I was in the AG, it was impossible to keep track of the people who came through the revolving door, hoping to find the right "feel." If they liked what they saw and heard, they stayed; if not, they were on to the next place on their list.
My folks are members of a large AG church that likes to chew up and spit out their pastors. There's a select group of board members who wield great influence, and if a pastor challenges them, they get out their laser guns and practice their precision aiming. It's happened countless times. The last time my mom was talking to me about the problems of her church, I commented, "Don't you suppose that's why Jesus didn't establish a church that contains a voting block, but he did establish a Church with a visible, authoritative head? The members of your church have power that Jesus never intended the rank and file to have. It's almost as though your pastor answers to you rather than the other way around." She mumbled a tacit assent, and then she quickly changed subject.
Sometimes it's hard for me to not shout, "Use your mind! Think!"
Elizabeth
____________________
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life. St. Augustine
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pamflute
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Posted: Sun Jun 17th, 2007 07:14 am |
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Dear Marsha:
I read your story with interest. I grew up in an independent Baptist preacher's home and so I am very familiar with Baptist ways. It seems to me that I read in the Greenville News yesterday (I was up there visiting) that your former pastor was in Taylors, SC - a southern Baptist church. Independent Baptists don't even like Southern Baptists - they think they are too liberal. When my dad become pastor of his former church (he is now retired), he told the church he would not come unless they got out of the convention! Amazing, in my mind!
Anyway, I was just up in Greenville this past week at a master class called "Flute as Inspiration and Praise". The musical aspects of this class were fantastic, but the spiritual was clearly aimed at Protestant Christianity. The master teacher gave his testimony on Thursday and said "I was raised Catholic, became an atheist and later found Jesus in Manhattan Bible Church". I am looking forward to the day that someone says, "I found Jesus in a Catholic Church!" That would be something. Anyway, I wanted to know if you had gone to the art gallery on Bob Jones University campus. As a former student, I had seen the gallery many, many years ago. I decided to visit it again with new "Catholic" eyes. What a revelation. I loved it! It must be extremely awkward for Bob Jones to host such a wonderful gallery to the glories of the Catholic Church! Please let me know your opinion of it. I also got to walk briefly over to St. Mary's during my lunch one day. What a beautiful church. You are lucky to go there.
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Credo Catholic
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| Location: | Greenville, South Carolina USA |
| Posts: | 1268 |
| First Name: | Marsha | | Gender: | Female | | Faith History: | Baptist, Catholic |
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Posted: Sun Jun 17th, 2007 03:31 pm |
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Dear Pam,
Yes I have been several times through the galleries at Bob Jones, but it has been a few years since last time. They are incredibly beautiful, and I should go again now that I will see them in a better perspective. I remember the last time I went we had a guide, who talked about how to recognize Mary in classical art, by the colors she is wearing, usually blue gown or dress and white veil, or some variation of that. But I don't think there was any mention of Mary as the Mother of God, or of her role in the early church! I'm so glad you were able to see our church, St. Mary's. To me it is very near heaven! You said you were able to walk there at lunch, were you by chance having you classes at our Peace Center for the Performing Arts? We are blessed to have a community rich in art and culture.
I know there are many fundamentalists and independent baptists who look with disfavor, shall we say, on Southern Baptists! My husband's niece and her husband are strict fundamentalists who think the Baptists are way too liberal. I was going to give their daughter the book "Madeleine" one Christmas and they said no because it has a "nun" in it. It causes friction during big family events and they always try to get in a jab or two at me, but they do it in weird fundamentalist talk so everyone else thinks they are the weird ones, not me! Yet they are constantly moving from church to church, never pleased for very long anywhere. When I was first joining the RCC they asked me where it says in the Bible we should go to a priest for confession. I referred to Mt. 18:18 "whatever you bind and loose on earth, so it is in heaven" and Jn. 20:23 "whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained." Then I tried to explain the authority to do this given through the Apostolic succession. I also tried to explain Marian devotion. This seemed to bewilder them, the fact that I had answers to their questions (read accusations). I would like to tell them more but I can't bring it up, I need to let them ask me.
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beachmoss
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