Elvis,
While it is true that some Protestants to 'swim the Tibor' - as all the data shows (and as your own experience I'm SURE confirms), the pales in comparison to EXODUS happening in the RCC - in Europe, in the USA and Canada, and in much of Latin America. You know this....
I don't rejoice in it (I find it very sad) and it's generally true in Protestantism too, although generally not on the same scale. It's not a pure RC Denominational thing, CHRISTIANITY is in trouble (at least in it's institutional forms). i
About half of my Lutheran congregation are former Catholics (including the pastor). This is FAR from unique in Protestant congregations. My Catholic parish, which is about 40 years old now, is fairly stable in attendance but this is because the huge exodus of Catholics of Italian, German, Polish, etc. ancestory has been replaced by a flood of Latinos and Latinas - so much so that the entire ethnic characterization of the parish has changed; but if it were not for a flood of immigrants from Mexico (mostly poor, some illegal), the parish would be very small (if in existence at all); this is quite common of Catholicism around here. And of course, it has benefited from what was once a higher than normal birthrate (helping to mitigate the exodus from Catholicism, especially as compared to Protestant groups), but this has changed. Catholics have fully embraced contraception and birth control, and now (even among the Latin immigrants) no longer have a higher birth rate.
Facts are facts, my fundamentalist Catholic friend. They are sad, I agree, but they are facts nonetheless. And anyway your TRY to spin it, it is what it is: Catholicism is experiencing a huge exodus. SOME of those are wondering in Protestantism (far more the other way around), but most of those Catholics are just walking away from the church period, perhaps from Christianity. In DROVES. In the USA, it's mitigated a bit by 2,000,000 Catholics EACH YEAR moving here, and in some third world nations by a still higher than normal birth rate (which is changing FAST).
And if exodus from the True Church were an indication that it is NOT the True Church - Jesus wouldn't have had the mass exodus that he hdidin John 6:66.
Who EVER said ANYTHING about ANYONE leaving "the true church?" This thread is about the enormous exodus happening from The Catholic Church. Stay on topic, brother!
The fact is, my angry friend - that you left the Catholic Church out of pure ignorance and now you fight against her because of your pride.
1. I "left" your denomination because a couple of its dogmas are biblically very problematic, a plethora of its dogmas are baseless and divisive, and because I don't agree with its epistemology: that self is exempt from the issue of truth, accountability/responsibility, and the commandment regarding bearing false witness if itself alone so declares that it itself alone is.
2. IMO, self alone declaring that when self speaks GOD is speaking, that self is the Body of Christ and the Vicar of God, that self appointing self as the sole authority, sole interpreter, sole arbiter; self designating self as the sole one exempt from the issue of truth - these are all indications of pride.
That's why MOST people leave God's Church.
I'm sure there are many reasons why SO many are leaving your denomination - some valid, some not. But that doesn't change the issue of this thread, does it?
About half of the members of my Lutheran parish are former Catholics. Including the pastor. The most common reasons I've heard from them is that they reject the egoism, individualism and denominationalism of The Catholic Church, they regard several dogmas of it as baseless and irrelevant (and perhaps some as just wrong), and they sought humility, community and accountability. That's why I did. I think that's most common. But some swam the Tiber in our direction because they were looking for something more biblical or for some common ground for a mixed marriage (one of my fellow committee members for example is Presbyterian and he married a cradle Catholic - together, they embraced Lutheranism, more firmly than either had their former associations). My parish doesn't have any "angry" former Catholics as you phrase it (or at least they don't voice it), when your denomination comes up, it's usually in a very positive light. I speak often of my gratitude for my Catholic years.
Yeah, some flee your denomination for Protestant homes. The reasons are varied, I'm sure. Many flee your denomination for nothingism - not willing to embrace ANY church, their "leaving" so profound. It happens in other denominations, too. I find it sad.
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