Although Mr. C and I have been together for the past ten years despite our differences in religion- him being a Catholic and me, a Protestant- we're now in a dilemma as to what church to settle down. You would think that both Catholic and Protestant falls under Christianity and we really shouldn't have that much issue but there is a slight difference- in the teachings, in the way worship is carried out, small matters that makes us feel awkward in the other's church. Ask any Catholic who has been to a Protestant church and vice versa, they'll tell you the difference that each acutely feels.
I tried his Catholic church when we first got back and I was not used to the musky smell of the pinky church building and how the service was like. Yes, the interior was in pink. He tried a few Protestant church around and felt uncomfortable during the worship as charismatics tend to get really into the worship and start being super intense with the lifting of hands and voices plus the speaking in tongue.
So, we decided for a month, we will try out this church called Citipointe Church nearby at Wecker Road on Sunday morning and then head over to his Catholic Church in the evenings. So far, for the past three weeks, we've managed to go to Citipointe and not his church due to some unforeseen circumstances.
He enjoys the message and that's good. Every time we step into the vast and huge auditorium for the Sunday night 6.30pm service, we feel as if we're in a concert- dim room, flashy, colourful lights and loud music. Mostly, we're surrounded by non-Asians and mainly consists of young people.
However, our one month is almost up and it's time to try another church. I am trying to get him to go for the Chinese service at 10.30a, instead but it really depends on his work timing.
It's tough finding a church because I don't really know exactly what am I looking for besides a church that Mr. C and I, both will feel comfortable in. It's not to say that we are both super religious or anything but I believe when we marry and start our life together, we should start on the right footing with God.
Perhaps it's a little too much to expect that once I step into church, I'd feel that it's the right one. So, I guess, I'll just have to keep trying till we find one and of course, trust God to guide us to the one he means for us to go to.
Till then...
8 comments:
Why not each stick to your own church? It's hard for me to relate to such matters, since I always admire churches or temples from the outside for the architectural value they have, but I don't worship anyone, I'm an atheist :)
Well, when we marry, it's not let's do ur own thing and i do mine. we want to do things together.
and when we have kids, where will they go? we don't want them further confused etc.
well, i m not the best example of a Christian cos i, myself am searching. =)
so curious, how or when did you become an atheist?
Well, my mum, when she was young, was forced to go to church, every kid was. That was in th 1960s. So when she became a teenager, she stopped going and following her parents. She doesn't believe in what the church or bible say. And when she had us kids, she brought us up with no religion. She didn't force us to be atheists, religion never mattered in our family. We never went to church, we didn't celebrate Christian holidays :) Most of religion is passed on from parents, kids continue it, some willingly, some less so. I know it's hard, especially if the family is very religious, sometimes if you have doubts, you already offend them. So many continue going to church, but don't really believe. In my case, I will raise my kids free of religion. If they choose to believe one day, I won't say don't do it, but as a concerned parent I will tell them what I think of it :) Even religions are very different, like Muslim practices are stricter than Chinese Buddhism for example. I say to each their own, but I just don't believe in these things, especially because there are so many contradictions in the holy books and also in the behavior of religious people.
I totally agree with ur last line.
My parents came from buddhist background and had a hard life and hard time with their parents when they became Christians.
I had a hard time with mine for not being faithful. It was my parent's faith more than mine.
But for now, I m trying to make it my own. Of course, I would love for my kids to believe the same and I will bring them up the best that I can and to be able to think for themselves but ultimately, it'll be a choice for themselves to make.
But for now, I would love to be able to go to cHURCH together with my bf/fiance/hubby to be than us going to two different churches.
The good thing is, he is willing to try things out with me. =)
I was a catholic before and have been really religious then, but i totally have no idea what's the ritual was about... now my life have changed!
Protestant rawks! XD
Whatever it is... believe and practice to be Christ-like is more important~ :)
speaking in tongues - or glossolalia - is a fascinating phenomenon and i've looked at whatever little studies which have gone into investigating it. SPECT scans of brains of 5 women speaking in tongues show decreased activity in the frontal lobes (the centre for control, basically), increased activity in the pleasure centres, while the language centres are relatively quiet. this corroborates with accounts of the experience of speaking in tongue when the speakers report loss of voluntary control (that it's not them who's speaking through them), they feel the joy of the holy spirit in them. now, the gibberish which ensues is usually thought of as the language of angels - something unknown to the speaker, hence the muteness of the language centres.
it gets interesting once you go into the linguistic studies of glossolalia. it was found that the "language" they speak consists of strings of syllables, made up of sounds taken from all those that the speaker knows (so you'll never get syllables that the speak doesn't already know), put together more or less randomly but emerging nevertheless as word-like and sentence-like units because of realistic, language-like rhythm and melody. felicitas goodman, linguist and anthropologist, found that the speech of glossolalists reflects the patterns of speech of the speaker's native language.
the most interesting thing, of course, is that most linguistic studies investigating speaking in tongues is done across practitioners of different sects and religions - including those who aren't even christians. it was found that linguistically, there's no difference between what's practiced by christians and non-christian tongue-speakers from indonesia, borneo, japan and africa.
i'm curious if you had spoken in tongues, and i would love to hear your description of the experience.
henry lee: u become a protestant? curious, why change from catholic to protestant? what changed?
not easy to practice to be like Christlike at all that's for sure =)
kok sen wai: wahhhh super long stuff u typed there that just went over me.. =p
nope.. never spoke in tongues before.. so can't describe the experience for u =)
I'm not a really holy person, i don't purposely do research on my religion... it's just a believe right? I follow because I believe, that's the very 1st step to be Christ-like.
Anyway, maybe it's my own past experience. To be frank, we all know most of the Catholic members are not rich if to compare to Basel/Anglican/Baptist members... Somehow, I felt that rich members in Catholic is a little proud. That's my own experience. Besides all that, I really feel the joy & love from my current church members, also I understand the bible even more from them. Going to Catholic church is just like a weekly routine to me. No offend ya.
My mum is still a Catholic though, but the rest of us still treat and love her the same way she loves us :)
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