Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Trust me, Hon, we're all feeling this frustration.
You are a Christian just as much as Catholics are Christians. One person can't be "more" Christian than another, thank God! (and I'll keep my sly remarks to myself, because I know you are very sincere in your faith)
Let me tell you something personal, rather than give the book, line, and page definition. When I was a kid, I grew up as what you might describe as a nominal Protestant. My family did not attend any church regularly, but I do recall my mother taking me to a Methodist church for a short while. My grandparents were of the Foursquare Gospel. When visiting them, the cousins would all go to Vacation Bible School, and we would occasionally be taken to a church service or a revival meeting. For a while, my sister and I did go to an Assembly of God. I knew the story of Jesus, and I had no trouble believing it, but the emotionalism of a Pentecost church is rather difficult for a child to grasp. There sure seemed to be a lot of RULES, too! No drinking, no smoking, no dancing, no movies... Can you imagine how it felt as a child to live in a home where both parents smoked and drank socially, and movies and dancing were not considered to be evils? Sometimes I would cry at night, worrying about the fate of my parents' souls. That's a TERRIBLE responsibility for a young child! I was seeing quite a bit of hypocrisy, too, though as a kid, I didn't know what it was called. These people who were proclaiming to be Christians, loving everyone the way Jesus loved, were also saying one thing on Sunday and doing another thing on Monday. And how could they say, with any knowledge, if you don't go to our church, but attend the church down to street, you're going to Hell?
When I became a teen, I decided I was an agnostic. I believed in God, but the whole "religion" thing was more confusion than comfort. I did believe, though, that "Something" was there. I wasn't going to kill myself trying to chase it, however. I took a Bible as literature class in high school (and loved it, BTW), but it was rather irritating to hear some kids in the class spouting the same things I had heard as a little kid.
I lived in Southern California, which has a very large Hispanic population. Catholicism is everywhere. I had very close friends who were Catholic. To me, they seemed more at peace with God, with the whole religion business. The whole family would go to Church on Sundays, and the different little Disciplines they would follow throughout the Liturgical year seemed comforting. It was like participating in their faith, even at home. Any questions I had about the Church were easily answered, yet there was none of the "witnessing pressure" that you often find in some Fundamentalist churches.
Later on, in college, I took another class of the Bible as Literature. And I read everything I could get my hands on. And later still, I married a Catholic. He isn't a particularly observant one, but the whole arrangement seemed "right" to me. We had a nondenominational wedding, and church and religion just never seemed to fit in to our married life.
It took a crisis, as it so often does. I won't go into it now, but I felt like I was shipwrecked in a raging storm. I told my husband, "Take me to Church." We went to a Sunday Mass at a nearby Catholic Church, and although I really had no idea what all the ritual was about, I had an indescribable feeling that I had come home. We talked to the pastor after the service. He was just beginning a Catholic Inquiry class that week, and it was like I had washed up onto a dry shore, and the sun came out. I wanted to know everything! And everywhere I looked, whatever I read, it all fit together. I have been acquiring pieces of this big puzzle of Life ever since, and they STILL all fit together.
My point, and I really think I did have one when I started all this gushing, LOL, is that even as a child, I could sense the very finger-pointing and name-calling, and judgmental attitude from Protestant churches. Not all, of course, but the ones I came into contact with. And I never, EVER found the same thing with the Catholic Church. I NEVER heard the words, "If you go to that church instead of THIS church, you're going to Hell."
Over twenty years after I became a Catholic, I STILL haven't heard those words from the Catholic Church. The Church's position is that we ALL, ALL Christians, are members of the Body of Christ. The Catholic Church has continued all the Sacred Traditions, all seven Sacraments that were instituted by Jesus. No Protestant church has all seven. And the Catholic Church considers that so unfortunate, sad, really, that all of God's children, are not receiving the full benefit of the Church. But that by no way means that God loves the Protestants any less.
I don't know if my rambling helps. I hope it does.
Peace be with you,
~VOW
Am I really not a Christian according to Catholicism? Please tell me none of you believe this.
Hope
