Why do many leave The Catholic Church? Many just want to use artificial birth control. Others are in relationships of which The Church disapproves and don’t want to be bothered with getting annulments.
They are too proud to admit they are wrong for disobeying Church teachings. They blame The Only Church Jesus Founded. “I left The Catholic Church because it is too strict and too Judgmental!”, they proudly proclaim. “I need to be me!” Self-worshipers choose among 45,000 groups that have been invented by another ambitious Protestant man with a Marketing Plan.
Lapsed Catholics often join “Warm, welcoming, friendly Worship Communities” After a lot of warm, friendly welcoming, lapsed Catholics hear sermons. Many focus on how important it is to “have a personal relationship with Jesus.” Others expound on some passage in Scripture in great, soon-to-be-forgotten, detail.
Lapsed Catholics have a hard time taking The Marketing Plan Denominations seriously, though they may like the professionally friendly and welcoming clergy. Lapsed Catholics know enough to realize that nowhere in The Bible does it say “we should have a personal relationship with Jesus’. And, they dimly remember, “Wait a minute! This denomination quotes from The Bible but never mentions that The Bible was complied by The Catholic Church almost 2,000 years ago. That’s not telling ‘the whole truth’!”
Similar discoveries make it clear that there’s a lack of intellectual and historical credibility. And, the Lapsed Catholic cannot help but compare the trendy Pastor Bob with Catholic priests and the vows of Celibacy and Obedience the vast majority of them honor.
“Is this really a Church?”, they find themselves asking. “Or, is it a social club for like-minded friends and neighbors willing to pray for praise and the promise of salvation?”
Many lapsed Catholics disappear. Many brief detours into Protestantism are replaced by the sublime announcement, “Really, I feel as close to God on my motorcycle/golf course/football game as I do in Church.”
