r/Protestantism • u/IllustriousElk8436 • 12d ago
How did you deal with your family members after converting to protestant ?
Hi all im converting from catholic to protestant. Those who have similar experiences. How was christmas or family relationships and gatherings after that ? My whole family is catholic and my aunt , uncle are my godparents. Their children are literally my parents godchildren . Its gonna be messy when i get baptized .
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u/creidmheach 11d ago
A hundreds years ago you would have likely been disowned, but nowadays most people on either side won't care much either way. I can't speak for you family of course so your situation might be different, but nowadays most Catholics are hardly even following their own church's laws anyway (otherwise you'd be seeing no divorced Catholics, and most families would still be having around 5-10 kids). I also come from a Catholic background and it's largely been a non-issue (though I'm not the first Protestant in the family as such).
That said, if you were already baptized as an infant - as most Catholics would be - there's no re-baptizing to be done (see my comment elsewhere in the thread). The Protestant reformers themselves like Luther and Calvin would also have been baptized as infants in the Roman Catholic church, and they did not get re-baptized after the Reformation.
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u/Affectionate_Web91 12d ago
Unless you are a non-baptized Catholic you will not be baptized again.
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u/Subdued-Cat 11d ago
Anyone can be "re-baptized" if they want. Especially if they are recommiting their life to God or feel like they didn't really understand what baptism represented the first time.
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u/creidmheach 11d ago
There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:4-6)
There's only one baptism. Re-baptizing would just be dunking in water. As the Nicene Creed says:
We affirm one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
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u/Subdued-Cat 11d ago
I guess I interpret "one baptism" differently. I don't take it to mean one single instance of baptism per individual. I take it to mean only baptism of one kind (spiritual baptism into the family of God) is capable of saving you. Even water baptism doesn't do anything. It's just a public declaration of your faith. You can declare your faith as many times as you want. But the spiritual baptism that takes place at the moment of conversion is once and for all time if it is a genuine conversion.
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u/Affectionate_Web91 11d ago
Many Christians, including Protestants, view baptism differently than your description. It is the first sacrament.
"The liturgy of baptism for Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Lutherans, Anglicans, and Methodists makes clear reference to baptism as not only a symbolic burial and resurrection but an actual supernatural transformation, one that draws parallels to the experience of Noah and the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea divided by Moses. Thus, baptism is literally and symbolically not only cleansing but also dying and rising again with Christ."
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u/harpoon2k 12d ago
Too bad, hope you go home to Catholicism someday once you find the truth
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u/WinterSun22O9 9d ago
I hope you leave Catholicism someday when you find the Truth, too.
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u/harpoon2k 9d ago
As they say "weak Catholics become Protestants, strong Protestants end up Catholic".
God does allow some to convert for them to be stronger Catholics someday when they return home.
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u/mateusleitesp Calvinist Baptist 12d ago
GTFO troll
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u/harpoon2k 12d ago
So this is where you convert to? Where cursing is acceptable..? Really, by the fruits you shall now know them.
For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips, let them be trapped in their pride. For the cursing and lies which they utter, - Psalms 59:12
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u/Deep-Rich6107 11d ago
Cursing isn’t acceptable.
You appear though to be intentionally antagonizing with your comment.
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u/AntichristHunter 12d ago
My dad pretty much disowned me when I left Catholicism over 20 years ago. He called me a heretic, threw away one of my Bibles, and made my life miserable. To this day I can't really visit home during religious holidays.
He mellowed out as he got older, and he'll talk to me now, but I can't really say that I handled it in some way that salvaged anything. A huge part of it is that my dad has deep personality flaws.
Matthew 10:34-39
34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. 37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Matthew 19:29-30
29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
2 Timothy 3:10-17
10 You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, 11 my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. 12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
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