Not Again 😀

I’ve made many decisions that helped me to learn and grow. Most are related to my Christian faith, but in latter years, I have taken a greater interest in my physical and mental health. We rarely touched on such issues in school, but perhaps such education is improving nowadays.

But the biggest decision was something that I keep mentioning in my posts. I worry that regular readers will say “Not again” 😀. But I always anticipate new readers.

So, I was brought up a Roman Catholic, but when I reached my teens, I started investigating other denominations and religions. My biggest problem with Catholicism wasn’t the doctrine, though I didn’t approve of dogma that wasn’t based on the New Testament, such as the teaching about Mary being assumed into heaven and so on. But a bigger problem was that when I read the New Testament, the early Christians seemed to be people who came to personal faith in Jesus. In 1970s Ireland, everyone was classified as a Christian because everyone got baptised as an infant. And I got the impression that most people just went along with it out of social pressure.

When you’d speak to people, you rarely had the impression that they really believed it. You might get some older women who were into going to Lourdes, and venerating Mary. And you’d get people who would do social good in the parish. But I wanted to be among people who focused more on Scripture and had the sort of enthusiasm for Christ that we had for other things, such as music and football.

When I started meeting evangelical Christians, they seemed much more aligned to the New Testament Christians. And they told me that I needed to repent and come to personal faith in Jesus. I sometimes asked them if I needed to leave the Roman Catholic church. They’d often reply that it wasn’t about churches, but about personal faith. Yet, I should choose a church that focuses on Scripture and that was theologically orthodox. And evangelical churches fell into that category.

So, I’d get punk haircuts and in my own mild manner try to look punky. That’s what I did to feel like a man. Much better than joining the IRA or Hammas 😀.

Yet, when I read the New Testament, my namesake, the Apostle Paul could hardly be described as a softie. Yet there was much social pressure from friends to be “hip and cool”. And it was an odd thing to leave the Roman Catholic Church back then. Things are different nowadays. There’s much negativity towards the church. But back in the 1970s, most people at least went to Mass, even if it was something that they had to endure.

I created a post last year giving the Chronology of my conversion for anyone who is interested. That was all nearly 46 years ago now. And it has helped me to learn and grow in so many ways. I did learn and grow when I was a Roman Catholic too. There was much that I was happy to leave behind, but I particularly like aspects of it that directed me to Jesus and to Scripture.

No church is perfect. Even evangelical churches develop teachings or traditions that mightn’t align with Scripture. I’ve changed my mind about issues at various point in my life, and debated with my evangelical friends as well as my Catholic friends. But generally speaking, because they focus on Scripture, attending an evangelical church is like having 90% whiskey and 10% coke. And other churches might have much more coke and much less whiskey 😀. But an alcoholic might be glad that there’s any whiskey.

So, if someone teleported me back to myself as I was when I was 15, I would be a Roman Catholic, but I would try to enjoy the “whiskey” more. What I mean is that I would try to enjoy Scripture-based hymns and liturgy more and just ignore the other stuff. And maybe I’d get involved in the Catholic Charismatic movement. But, maybe I would have still left it and joined an evangelical church after a few years in any case.

Anyway, I compared churches to alcohol, but here’s a verse that speaks of something much better than alcohol:

Ephesians 5:18
¹Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,

I generally like to end with a couple of hymns or Christian songs. It would be nice to hear The Stranglers playing a Christian song. Two of them have passed away now. This one is a tribute to keyboardist, Dave Greenfield. They wish that somehow they could see him again. I have no record of any of them ever getting converted. But it’s always my hope that people will commit their lives to Christ, even if it’s in the final moments of their lives.

Bob Dylan wasn’t a punk rocker, but I regarded him as cool guy back in 1980. And his conversion helped me to see that I could commit my life to Christ without being a “softie”.

And you could hardly regard Johnny Cash as a softie 😀