1. Has anyone experienced this?
I was raised Catholic so I do not have the experience of converting from a different faith
But reading the Bible on my own has helped me grow in my faith and I see the Catholicity of the Church in the epistles, I see the teachings on works and faith being connected in Paul giving lists of types of sinners who will not receive everlasting life, we see the Sacraments in Acts (the laying on of hands and) and confession and last rites in in James, we see the nature of the Church also in acts having a council to resolve a major dispute, the epistles and acts shows the unity but also the autonomy of the local churches, the church is united but the normal way is to have local churches take care of local issues
2. Why are you Catholic? And how well do you understand and have read what the Catholic Church means by its doctrines?
Because I think it is the true faith
Historically we see that there was a continuous community that is the Church, this really narrows it down to Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Roman Catholic
With the Scripural and historic support for the Papacy
As well as the West having a stronger history of evangelization thus fulfilling the Great Commandment, I believe the Catholic Church is the Church talked about in the Bible
3. Why do you reject Baptists, or more broadly Protestantism? And how well do you understand and have read what Baptists mean by their doctrines?
1. Many of the beliefs of Protestantism do not get traced back to earlier then 5 or 6 hundred years ago, with many more less then 2 hundred years old
2. The moral quality of the founders, Henry VIII being a cheating violent king, Zwingli tried to starve out Catholic cities in Switzerland. While Luther is not as bad as those two but he was a man of anger and had some other moral problems, now of course we can see figures in Catholic history (and current events) who are absolute scum, but they are not FOUNDATIONAL figures, maybe this just sounds like I am splitting hairs but it makes a big difference to me
3. We can see from Henry VIII, Calvin, and Luther that Protestantism was never united, since then it has split into even more divisions, this lack of unity is one of the reasons secularism has gained such a hold in the modern West (not the only reason ofcourse)
4. Why do you think Christians leave the Catholic faith and become Protestants?
Lots of reasons
The bad example of other Catholics cause people to doubt the faith
People get caught up in modern ways of thinking and want a more “modern” church
The strict moral rules drive some away
Good examples of Protestant Christians attract people to those faith communities
Probably a few dozen more lol
5. What are the strengths and weaknesses of practice within the Catholic Church?
It is a holistic faith, the lived faith of Mass and the Sacraments, the intellectual consistency, the deep spirituality, the true concern for brining justice and mercy to the communities we are in.
Weaknesses, past 30 years we have had done a horrible job of teaching the faith to young people so we have lots of Catholics who do not understand the Faith
Because it is such a holistic faith people, it can be oversimplified to rigid legalism or foolish superstition, both of which lack the spirit of truth found in true Catholicism
6. What do you believe are the strengths and weaknesses of practice within the Baptist church?
Great love of Scripture
I could just copy and paste that a dozen times and I would not over emphasize this point, I am amazed by the great love and knowledge of Scripture I have seen among some Baptists
Focus on Christ and the Gospel message
Also inspirational
Weakness
Lack of unity, if all Protestants, or even just all Baptists were united and actually working together the USA would be a Christian nation
Some theological inconsistencies,and lack of theological development, this leads to social justice not being fully thought out (I hate this term because liberals have misused it)
