THanks to all those who provided interesting links.
Catholicism--Curious About It
by White Dove 64 Replies latest jw friends
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BurnTheShips
It never hurts to learn about others. We are all more alike than we realize.
BTS
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Midget-Sasquatch
I went through a catholic school education (my mom was catholic for quite some time) and also was made to do the JW routine with my Dad. I honestly can't get myself to fully believe either the Roman or the Orthodox faiths. If anything, I lean more towards what both camps would consider heresy.
But what I like about Catholicism is that its more intellectually honest on several topics like human origins, and the transmission of the OT and NT. I had some great teachers who were nuns who actually got us to think critically about stuff found in the bible. Mind you as young teens alot of us weren't really appreciating the full intent of their approach. We were more like well if its not fact then why are you believeing this or that. They were trying to pass on how to nurture spirituality and faith and still keep true to reason. They weren't completely objective mind you, (understandable since its about their beliefs), but vastly better than the WTBS' writers/"teachers".
If you have a more mystical bent, don't just read up on the Roman tradition but definitely look into the eastern traditions.
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JustHuman14
I'm now an Orthodox. The name actually is Holy Catholic Orthodox Apostolic Church. I was really amazed by the spiritual wealth of the Orthodox Church, but most of all the Apostolic Succesion for almost 2000 years. I found out the real meaning of Christianity and in the end of day Jesus will save us ALL.
This link has interesting articles in English about Orthodox Church
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Mary
There's a couple of posters that I'm aware of that were Witnesses but converted to Catholicism. One is Jeffrey Schwehm. Here's his website: http://www.catholicxjw.com/index.html
The other one is Tom Cabeen. His bio can be found here: http://www.catholicxjw.com/files/TC_Bio.pdf
I'm sure either one of them would be very helpful giving you any information you need about the Catholic religion.
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White Dove
Thanks all you guys! I'm liking a lot of what I read about it, so far. It's the Pope thing that gets me, though. I still haven't read enough to put it together yet. I'm finding that the more I read about it the more fascinating it is. I'm going to check out the Eastern Orthodox tradition, as well because I denfinately connect with mysticism. The sense of community and doing for others just warms me. My coven doesn't do as much as I want to do, so I'm looking to add more ceremony, ritual, and community service to my spirituality.
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White Dove
Making the truth my own has taken on a whole new meaning once I was out of the org.
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JWdaughter
I am very attracted to the Orthodox church but haven't committed. I like the 'no pope' aspect of it. And priests marrying if they choose. I like the people and most of all I like the attitude-it is a little JW'ish though! They don't believe in Hell the way most Christians do and they believe salvation is a process of working towards God and perfection of faith and devotion(not actual 'perfection'-rather than an instant when you declare yourself saved. Kind of freaked me out when I realized that, but it also resolved a big issue I have with evangelical christianity. And the 'burning' hell/hades thing is more that after death we will all be before God-those who loved him will be joyous and warmed by it, and those who reject him will be 'burned' by the knowledge for eternity that they rejected the good, God.
The attitude that I like is this: They believe their faith is the right faith and it is populated by people who have embraced it and people who are going through the motions. They have no sense of being superior because they are orthodox. Their following and living their faith is personal. Some do, some don't. They aren't in any glorious mind muck about how as a group of people they are any better than any other. I like that part.
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JWdaughter
If you want ceremony and ritual, the orthodox may have the lock;) Seriously, it is exactly how I PICTURED the Catholic church to be (but my picture was from old movies and books that were pre-vatican2) in a good way.
I go to St. Andrews Antiochian Orthodox, it is a convert church and a lot of the antiochan congregations are these days-or at least have a lot of converts in them. There was a huge movement out of the Campus for Christ and Jesus people types that ended up orthodox eventually in their quest to find the original church. Kind of an interesting story.
Learning WHY they have the vestments and other trappings is interesting.
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cabasilas
I'm a convert and a revert. I entered the Catholic Church in 1992 and then spent a year and a half in Eastern Orthodoxy before returning to the Catholic Church in 2000. I am also a member of the Byzantine Catholic Church. Not many people know about Eastern Catholics (those who are in union with Rome) because we are much smaller than our Roman Catholic brothers. A good overview is at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Catholic_Churches
A more advanced explanation of Eastern Catholics can be found here:
http://orlandobyzantine.com/parish-news/2-parish-news/102-eastern-catholic-video
Essentially, Eastern Catholics share the same faith as Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodoxy but differ with Eastern Orthodoxy over the role of the Bishop of Rome. We accept his ministry for the Church. Eastern Catholics have some different theological emphases than the Roman Church and we also have married priests (which often surprises Roman Catholics).
A good intro to Catholicism from the ex-JW point of view can be found in these lectures and writings of John Coffey (an Australian Catholic lay evangelist):
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22John%20Francis%20Coffey%22
A smaller intro can be found in "A Catholic Critique of Jehovah's Witnesses":
http://www.archive.org/details/ACatholicCritiqueOfJehovahsWitnesses