marge

This extra level of reporting responsibility is giving me Dan Andrews vibes, can I ask what state you're in? Edit to add, upon reading the entire thread (which I probably should have done in the first place!) it appears you're in the NT somewhere, I lived in Darwin city for a few years, I loved it. See you in the NT

I have a son and this was a super hard decision to make. I got it done at the hospital when he was 5 days old because if I left the hospital without it being done the medical guidelines were to not do it until he was 6 months old. I do think there was religious aspect to my decision making, call it hedging your bets I guess lol

I didn't mean to be dismissive at all, its just different ways of doing things.

lol fun times right! I'm not a former catholic, I did step away for a while and had a crisis of faith, looked at a lot of other belief systems but I went back to Catholicism in the end. I like to find the similarities in religious beliefs. I think every denomination is just doing their best and fully believe in what they are doing. I should update my profile so it says that

I agree, st vincent de paul do both those things as well. I think I might be confused by what you mean by charity. In my faith charity is when a person loves God above all things for his own sake and loves others for God's sake. Its not about giving necessarily (although giving obviously comes from it) but about love.

I'm in Australia, we dont have food stamps here, but everyone who isnt working is eligible for unemployment benefits, its not enough to live off and people often run out of food and struggle to survive, my church has soup kitchens where anyone who needs a hot meal can go, services are struggling to keep up with the demand at the moment with the current financial crisis. St Vincent De Paul will go over finances with people for bill payments, but never for food, I guess they think people that down their luck having to beg for food don't need further trauma. A lot of them are mothers who can't feed their children due to drug habits, its so sad But at least those children will get to eat something. If they were asked a million questions as to why they are there asking for food they wouldn't come back.

I guess every church has a different view on how they practice charity, each to their own

Interesting! 24 hours with no water is so hard core. Technically our fasts are you can have two snacks that put together would not make a complete meal. No meat, and its only mandatory on Ash Wednesday and Fridays during lent. But many people do Wednesday and Friday every week and go without all food, but still drink water (I do water on Fridays, not that great at Wednesdays yet!). We do it out of reverence for Jesus and offer up our 'suffering' it causes to God to come closer to him and work on the virtue of fasting. I guess our version of the bishops storehouse is St Vincent De Paul, anyone can go and get food or clothes, or they will deliver it to you if you can't get there, pay utility bills, fuel cards, help with teaching budgeting, housing applications that sort of thing. I didn't know the Bishops storehouse was for everyone, that's awesome, I got the impression it was just for struggling LDS and you had to sit an interview with the bishop first?

I don't know the LDS law of fasting or blessings associated with it. But I did grow up with fasting as a big part of my religion. I still fast every Friday and sometimes Wednesday as well. We don't have any money offerings associated with it though.

Such an interesting question! I also think about why the Jews don't recognise Jesus as their Messiah, I mean they were there, its their prophesies that foretell the coming of the messiah, yet they 100% believe it's not Jesus.

I don't know what Catholics are going with “go ahead and get all your sins out now”, just because you go to confession and are forgiven, you still have to pay for it. Kinda like if Jonny's ball breaks the next door neighbours window, says sorry, apology is accepted - but the window is still broken and needs to be paid for to be fixed. That's a very basic description of purgatory. A state where you are purified so you can enter heaven. Every time a Catholic sins, they're racking up time in purgatory (like spiritual detention lol). You need to do penance here on earth and if its not enough (its never enough lol), purgatory. I'd say the “go ahead and get all your sins out now” is more a protestant thing, they got rid of purgatory (and the scriptures that support it) so their theology is 'once saved always saved' no matter what you do, Catholics on the other hand pay eternally for their sins, you don't get away with anything lol. Are you talking about Fat Tuesday lol? The original Mardi Gras before it was an LGBTQ+ event. Shrove Tuesday (also known as Fat Tuesday, which means Mardi Gras) is the day before Ash Wednesday, which is the start of the Lenten Season, a time of fasting and penance to grow closer to Christ in preparation for Easter. There's a lot of rules in Lent as to what you can and can't eat/do/etc so on Shove Tuesday you eat all the good things in the house because you can't eat them in Lent and people couldn't afford to waste food (well shouldn't eat them, and should follow lent rules). Back in the day the whole town used to get involved because it was almost impossible to eat all the food on your own, so it turned into a group event, a big feast, to make sure the food wasn't thrown out. Now we have freezers and supermarkets lol so it's basically turned into 'Pancake Tuesday'. Most catholics have pancakes and a really rich cake and fattening food, because we can't eat it again until Easter Sunday. Some cultures still really party on Shrove Tuesday. But this day is certainly not an excuse to sin at all, and those who are using it to do that are acting against Catholic teaching. I think the LDS church is better at keeping their members together and making sure they are following the rules, where as Catholics either follow them or they don't, its a personal choice. I also think the LDS church is better at making sure members know all the rules, some Catholics don't even know their own faith let alone live it. But they are making choices that will cause them to lose their salvation. I know plenty of catholics who use contraception for example, massive mortal sin, straight to hell deal, but they do it and still go to church. But that's not my business and not my place to judge them. I'd never say anything to them about it (and some of them are really close friends of mine) No one openly talks about those who chose to leave or stay and not follow the rules, to be honest most of us wouldn't even know. Of course a loss of a member is sad, but all we can do is live our faith to be a good example and pray for them. Their salvation is their business. The Church does run a lot of apologetics and information sessions, retreats etc to deepen faith, bring back those who have fallen away BUT they have to want to go, it has to be their choice, we don't actively chase them up so to speak. There are Catholic ministries that do go door to door but they are very few. There does need to be more. Both approaches have positives and negatives, but witnessing both cultures in action, I do think the LDS culture can be all consuming and overwhelming and it really does feel very 'public', I guess Catholicism puts more emphasis on the person choosing to do the right thing on their own, 'here's the deal, follow it or don't its up to you, you have free will, use it wisely' there is no one checking up on them and you wouldn't know looking in the pews as to who's doing the wrong thing. It's a very private faith.

You must be referring to easter and Christmas catholics lol. Seriously though Catholicism can definitely rival the LDS church with the amount of rules you have to follow (when I was looking at the LDS church I found it to have less rules than Catholicism) I think the big difference, and this is just my perspective having attended both denominations, is the LDS faith seems very public where as the Catholic faith is very private. In the LDS church your salvation status is very much 'on view' to the rest of the members. If you don't take the sacrament or you can't speak in church you're obviously in some sort of trouble. A temple wedding and if you can even attend as a guest is another example or your salvation being 'on show'. Even the temple recommend itself I guess is too. In the Catholic Church as long as you get to confession on Saturday you are good to have the Eucharist at Sunday Mass. And even if you don't go to communion, no one says or thinks anything about it. It's not 'clicky' like the LDS church, you're there to worship God not make friends, not to say that there aren't activities and study groups, there is, if you want to be involved. There's also no 'callings' - I mean people volunteer for things but its not expected. I think the callings also create a 'status' type thing in the LDS church. I don't know how bishops find the time, its a huge sacrifice, to work full-time, be a husband and father and a bishop too. Hats off to them, its amazing. A Catholic priest has a University degree in theology and nothing else to do except look after his parish. I think protestants do believe in works they just don't want to admit it lol they like to think its 'I'm changed by grace and that's why I do good works' its just a different motivation for doing the same thing.

Ok now I have to study for the next year 😂. Seriously though, thank you for such a detailed response, you've given me a lot to look up and research. I think you are a very interesting and obviously very intelligent person.

Thank you for such a kind christlike response, I really appreciate it. I don't get into Pentecostal beliefs, not really my thing at all. It was a strong feeling, an uncomfortable feeling, along with a knowing and almost like someone was talking to me in my head, while I was praying, it left a very strong impression. I had it happen several times, I tried to ignore it because I was so in love with the LDS church and way of life. Maybe I'll get a different answer one day, maybe it was the adversary trying to stop me, I don't know. Again, thank you for being so kind

Serious question for those reading who are LDS. If it wasn't the Holy Ghost then who was it? Do you think it was an evil spirit or a demon? Why would they be so clear? Serious question, not trying to be argumentative or anything.