I attended a Catholic school for the first 13 years of my life (K-12th grade). During that time I must have taken more Catholic religion classes (Catholic theology for kids) and attended mass more than some Catholics have in their lifetime. Since all of my friends were Catholic, I too wanted to be Catholic. Religion (faith) was quite confusing for me back then. When my first grade teacher (a nun named Sister Ann) asked me, “So what religion are you?” I had no idea. I knew I wasn’t Catholic since my mother told me that I should not take communion. The only other religion I knew of was Judaism. So I told her, “I’m a Jew.” She looked at me with that look that parents have when their kids say something hilarious but don’t want to hurt the feelings of the child by bursting out laughing, and said, “Sammy (that’s the name I went by as a child), I’m pretty certain you are NOT a Jew.” So I went home and asked my mom what religion I was and she said, “Sammy, you are a Presbyterian.” Now, that was a word I could never pronounce, nor understand, or so I thought.
All my life I craved to be a Catholic because I wanted to be an altar boy just like my friends around me. But thank God that by His grace, I was not a Catholic. The reason I am thankful is the purpose of this series on, “Why I Am Not an Altar Boy.” By no means am I a biblical scholar that can wade through the intricacies of the centuries old debates between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. But I will do my best to explain some of the key distinctions between Roman Catholics and Protestants and explain in each article as to why the Catholic view falls short of a right understanding of God’s Word. So first up will be an overview of Justification from a Catholic perspective.
Sam, this is a great story/intro. Though I did not go to parochial school, I did grow up with envy of friends who were altar boys, attending catechism (that seemed so special), and the privilege of wearing a St Christopher’s medal. The one time I went to a Catholic mass as a kid I was amazed at the seeming prosperity. In the Protestant section of my town pastors came and went with great frequency, but the local RC church was marked by great stability – the monsignor seemed like he was there forever! I look forward to this series.
Posted by TimK | May 29, 2006, 2:19 pmThanks Tim, and as always, I look forward to your input.
Posted by admin | May 29, 2006, 9:55 pmoh, i did not know that, sam. i went to a catholic middle school, myself. interesting… i had a very similar experience where a nun asked me what “religion” i was. i felt the same type of desire to be catholic, to fit in. those definitely were confusing times.
i think i also thought i was white.
Posted by hyunky | May 30, 2006, 7:37 pmSo Sam and hyunky, were you RC growing up or did you just attend parochial school? If you were not RC, what church did your families attend?
Guys who wore St Christopher’s medals and crossed themselves before they shot freethrows were the coolest …
Posted by TimK | May 31, 2006, 6:32 amI wasn’t RC Tim. I just went to the school. My family went to a Presbyterian church growing up. Most of the kids I knew wore St. Anthony chains.
Posted by admin | May 31, 2006, 8:15 amhaha, timk – the image of guys wearing st christopher medals (i didn’t even know that those were) and crossing themselves before a sports move.
my family also went to a prebyterian (korean) church, though none of us were real believers. thinking back to those times, there was such bad teaching – i remember a nun telling us that she doesn’t believe there really is a hell in the afterlife and that she though earth was hell.
Posted by hyunky | May 31, 2006, 9:03 am