Daniel, I have found relative Christianity in Protestant and Catholic Churches. Example of Catholic: the best sermon I have ever heard was given by a Catholic Priest in Pueblo. He flat laid out the relationship. Just as he was getting warmed up a little boy who was about two, or possible a little less, in the front row was wiggling and obviously very unhappy. His mother was a bride’s maid on the stage. She signaled dad and he let go of the little boy and he ran up to mom and grabbed her leg and hung on for dear life. Well, that priest saw an excellent opportunity and used the boy on stage to talk about marriage and family. He spoke for about 45 or 50 minutes on the marriage covenant before God. During his talk he spent considerable time on no sex before marriage and no sex outside of marriage. I looked at three couples that I knew who were living together. Not just sexually involved but openly living together and they were taking the sacraments. I thot, holy mackerel people, do you not understand what you are doing when you take the sacraments when you’re openly living in sin? Anyhow. They eventually married and seem to have solid, healthy marriages. One of the wives is taking classes to teach catechism so I have to hope and expect that she got that pre-marriage living together straighten out before her priest and her God.
I have found many Protestants who seemed to believe that if they said the right things and said the right prayers, then they were Christians. However, it seemed that their life did not change and they just did a religious activity to placate their consequence and live just as though nothing happened. Example here at home: a man whose “conversion” is that he grew up in a Methodist Church were his parents were leaders. Yet, the stories from the women he was living with are that he was seriously committed to porn in his marriage and continued the commitment to porn while living with a woman. He told me that he had bought that bed and even though she was attempting to move out and he wanted to do the “right” thing, but because he bought that bed, he was sleeping in that bed with her and not about to sleep anywhere else. After that woman moved out, he did things that clearly were exactly the opposite of 1 Cor. 13:4-7, as just one example and teaching from any Catholic or fundamental Protestant Church. But he is seeing to it that he is part of the church community.
Daniel, I have found relative Christianity in Protestant and Catholic Churches. Example of Catholic: the best sermon I have ever heard was given by a Catholic Priest in Pueblo. He flat laid out the relationship. Just as he was getting warmed up a little boy who was about two, or possible a little less, in the front row was wiggling and obviously very unhappy. His mother was a bride’s maid on the stage. She signaled dad and he let go of the little boy and he ran up to mom and grabbed her leg and hung on for dear life. Well, that priest saw an excellent opportunity and used the boy on stage to talk about marriage and family. He spoke for about 45 or 50 minutes on the marriage covenant before God. During his talk he spent considerable time on no sex before marriage and no sex outside of marriage. I looked at three couples that I knew who were living together. Not just sexually involved but openly living together and they were taking the sacraments. I thot, holy mackerel people, do you not understand what you are doing when you take the sacraments when you’re openly living in sin? Anyhow. They eventually married and seem to have solid, healthy marriages. One of the wives is taking classes to teach catechism so I have to hope and expect that she got that pre-marriage living together straighten out before her priest and her God.
I have found many Protestants who seemed to believe that if they said the right things and said the right prayers, then they were Christians. However, it seemed that their life did not change and they just did a religious activity to placate their consequence and live just as though nothing happened. Example here at home: a man whose “conversion” is that he grew up in a Methodist Church were his parents were leaders. Yet, the stories from the women he was living with are that he was seriously committed to porn in his marriage and continued the commitment to porn while living with a woman. He told me that he had bought that bed and even though she was attempting to move out and he wanted to do the “right” thing, but because he bought that bed, he was sleeping in that bed with her and not about to sleep anywhere else. After that woman moved out, he did things that clearly were exactly the opposite of 1 Cor. 13:4-7, as just one example and teaching from any Catholic or fundamental Protestant Church. But he is seeing to it that he is part of the church community.
There are more stories. Such a deal, Randy