I Do Not Understand Why JWs Leave & Become Catholics! (page 2)

nicolaou

That's cool Andre, but honestly I just don't get how a JW can awaken his thinking skills enough to get out of a cult and then progress no further.

I've left the cult of god for good.

Because the Catholics have it the most right! At least they did to me, for the short time I still believed in religion after quitting jw's and god. I wanted to go back to them (briefly) and be confirmed.

Having not grown up jw whatsoever, I was protestant my entire life. I attended Catholic school my elementary years and went to Mass every week from age 5 to 15, as I had often been attending with family friends.

FlyingHighNow

Mini, let the WT prejudice against the Roman Catholic Church influence you no further.

The Roman Catholic Church is not as controlling as the WTBTS. I was raised Anglican Catholic or Episcopalian. I have returned to my church for the beauty and the deeply spiritual connection it gives me. The Church is very progressive and does not consider the Bible without flaw or to be untampered with. They hold science to be very important as well as reason and tradition when reading scripture.

And the Roman Church? My therapist is a Sinsinawa Dominican Nun. She is highly educated and is a doctor of psychology. She tells me the Dominicans are very "progressive". And they are. She gives me Buddhist prayers and meditations and she also tells me that if I attend a mass at Marywood, I can take communion there, which is normally something you're not supposed to do. That is: take communion at the Catholic Church when you aren't Catholic.

I have a harder time understanding how JW's can go into very fundamentalist churches that border on cult like religions. But then it may be they need that kind of control in their lives.

FlyingHighNow

Hey, Minimus, the beautiful thing about leaving the org is that we don't have to have "the truth". We don't have to have all the answers either. And the Catholic Church will tell you there are many mysteries we don't understand. And they aren't going to ban you or shun you if you don't believe everything they teach in the conventional way.

drew sagan

As far as Catholics go, I do have to say that the writings of Thomas Merton, who became a Trappist monk, have been very important to me. I've been fascinated by the idea of monks, regardless of the religion. Sort of strange for a horndog like me!

I feel exactly the same way.

The Watchtower and Catholic are two very different animals. You can point out doctrinal similarities in authority structure and problems with leadership but I think at the end of the day you are dealing with two very different things.

I like to say that JWs are protestants on steroids. Deep down JWs hold a number of protestant ideas and so the transformation over to that belief system appears to be more natural. Many who leave the JWs move into protestantism because that form of theology suits them and their personal experience. I found myself leaning very protestant when I left the JWs and I know many here have felt that way as well. Over time though protestantism has its many flaws and some are not content with it (like me). Ex-JWs turning Catholic really isn't all that surprising to me and I can personally relate to their experience.

Wordly Andre

Also, My grandma has always been Catholic, She says she was born a Catholic and will die a Catholic and in between she is going to be a Catholic, dispite most of her children left the church to join some cult and push magazines door to door, she has always been very nice and accepting. Growing up in the JW environment, while most of my family either judged me or shunned me, my grandma has always been there for me, she told me one time, I don't know why our Witness family judges everyone, as a Catholic we are taught that only god can judge and we are to love everyone. That is something I never saw with my family thats in the "Truth". I can understand why some here find it hard to think of anyone leaving the JW's and going into the Catholic faith, and as for me it took about 10 years to get there, before I didn't want anything to do with church, god, or religion when ever someone started talking about it I either walked away or changed the subject. I am very happy now, and I never try to push my views on anyone else, I just know what I feel inside.

undercover

Personally...I don't see how anyone who would take an hour to research the history of the Catholic church could think seriously about joining them with the view to being part of the One True Church.

If you wanna join just to get a free sip of wine and a bite of cracker, well, sure knock yourself out. But if it's about the tradition and the grandeur and the architecture, you don't have to be Catholic to enjoy it. Anyone can pay their money and tour the Vatican and all the other Holy sites.

Touring the Vatican actually caused a Catholic friend of mine to question the motives of the church. He saw all the history, the hundreds of years of marble, granite and gold churches. He saw the millions of dollars in artifacts and art. He then wondered why the church couldn't have used all that power and money to actually help the poor and needy over the centuries instead of amassing one of the largest money coffers in the world.

As far as a former JW joining any other religion...about the only circumstance that wouldn't puzzle me was if a former JW joined a local, neighborhood church that isn't part of a larger organization or church body. If there is a God, I'm sure he would visit that kind of church before he went to see the Vatican, the Southern Baptist convention or any 'mega-church' organization. If Jesus was his son, that's the kind of people he would be drawn to...the simple people who worship for the sake of worship and not for the sake of money, power or fame.

I like what Johnny Cash said about churches...he said he felt closer to any supreme being by being outside in nature and seeing the handiwork of his creator. There was a spiritualism in being alone with nature to him. He didn't understand why people felt the need to go inside a closed up, man-made building to get close to God. Something to think about.

lonelysheep

as a Catholic we are taught that only god can judge and we are to love everyone.

True.

That was also a teaching that was not just taught but lived by many, from my experiences.

sacolton

I'm having a real difficult time with deciding any denomination to join. I think Raymond Franz said it best when he illustrates how the apostles didn't create separate branches of Christianity to cause followers to say, "I'm a Luke" or "I'm a Matthew" by going with their teachings. I view this the same as with every Christian church because it still follows "men" and glorifies that particular organized religion and separates Christians as brothers. We mold ourselves into labels again by being a "Catholic", "Baptist", "Methodist", etc ...

I wish things weren't so screwed up.

FlyingHighNow

If you wanna join just to get a free sip of wine and a bite of cracker, well, sure knock yourself out. But if it's about the tradition and the grandeur and the architecture, you don't have to be Catholic to enjoy it. Anyone can pay their money and tour the Vatican and all the other Holy sites.

So go to an Episcopal Church. Their Anglican Catholic services are higher and more beautiful than Catholic masses. You can take communion if you're baptized in any Christian faith. You don't have to join. You get same rituals, but they haven't been watered down by Vatican II to be plain and boring. And really, even if you aren't Christian and you aren't baptized, they aren't going to quesiton you if you take communion. And it's also very beautful to see small children and babies take part in communion.

I Do Not Understand Why JWs Leave & Become Catholics!

Share this