Catholics/Baptist vs. Catholic

Advertisement

Expert: - 11/30/2007


Question
I am a Baptist/Christian, while my in-laws and my husbands family are
Catholic. I was recently asked why am I a Baptist, and why don't I
convert into the Catholic religion. I however, do not believe in what they
teach or practice. Then they asked me to explain why I feel the way I
do towards the idea of Catholicism. After awhile I began to question
what I know about their religion, and their teachings. These are some
questions I need help answering.
Why does the Catholic religion praise the Virgin Mary?
Why do they pray to her?
Why does a Priest/Father, have to be the one you confess to, and then
he has to be the one saying you are forgiven? And how does the
Priest/Father know if you will be forgiven? I thought only God, Himself, could
be the one doing the forgiving?


I'm sorry for the loaded-ness of the questions, but I didn't know where
else to turn.
Thanks.
Allie-May

Answer
IMHO conversion is something between you and God and if you're happy with your Baptist faith then people shouldn't bug you about it! Catholics are supposed to believe in *freedom* of religion.

As for the questions, most if not all of the answers can be found through these links:

http://www.catholic.com/

http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc.htm

http://www.ewtn.com/vlibrary/search.asp

I hope this helps.

Catholics

All Answers

Answers by Expert:

Ask Experts

Volunteer

Michael Clark, Ph.D.

Expertise

I'm a progressive Catholic--not a liberal, conservative nor a single-minded critic of Catholicism. I simply believe that adults in the 21C should use the mind God gave them and not just repeat ancient and medieval modes of thinking.

I can probably help with questions that intelligently and respectfully question those aspects of Catholicism that are not infallible. But if you're looking for someone to vigorously defend or perhaps refute Catholicism as a whole, that's not me. So please ask another expert.

Experience

I run an educational website earthpages.org and know what the web has to offer. I might suggest hyperlinks and/or book titles as I have a Ph.D. in Religious Studies and a considerable personal library.

Publications
Print Media:
My table from "Religions and Cults" at earthpages.org is reproduced with permission in L. Lindsey, S. Beach and B. Ravelli, Core Concepts in Sociology, 2nd ed., p. 157

World Wide Web:
My online article "Letter to God" coauthored with Buddhist monk, E. Raymond Rock, appears on several different spirituality-based websites, including http://tinyurl.com/db7a5o

I've interviewed, as a Christian, a self-proclaimed mystic: http://tinyurl.com/cawykr

My articles appeared at the former New View magazine nuvunow.ca and are published at earthpages.org.

Education/Credentials
Ph.D. in Religious Studies
M.A. in Comparative Religion
B.A. Hon. in Psychology/Sociology
For more info, please see my CV and letters of recommendation and my blog at michaelwclark.com.

©2012 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.