[Anonymous]

Hello everybody. I think I'm probably an usual poster for this forum, and think I might have come on a bit strong and rocked the boat a little too hard. I thought it would be nice to introduce myself. 

For the purpose of this forum, I'm Irenaeus. I'm a devout Catholic. I was raised nominally Catholic, had a deep experience in my faith at the age of ten. And much to my parents chagrin for a while, I've been a bit of a Catholic zealot ever since. I really love and belive in Jesus Christ and His Catholic Church. 

I had my first experience with the WMS when I was a freshman at George Mason University. I used to enjoy talking about religion/bible/faith with anyone willing to talk. There were plenty of occasions for this in the "free speech square." One day I ran into a group of guys chatting it up about Passover. I actually didn't make the connection at the time that they were the "mother god people" as we called them back in the day. I struck up a conversation with them about the Passover and its relation to the Eucharist. They seemed really excited by how excited I was, and they invited me to go get dinner. For some reason I thought we were going to Pizza Hut. I really am not sure where I got that impression, because we ended up at their "church" building for a chicken dinner. 

The men had dinner in one room and the women in another. The whole room got quiet as the pastor started asking me about questions about what color a bee can see. I was really confused at what he was getting at. Anyway, we changed our seating arrangments when he invited me to a "study" which was all about EVIL Constatine changing the sabbath, which as a historian, I found pretty funny. After a while I realized I was debating the pastor, delicately at this point, in front of the whole congregation, women and children included. I was really weirded out, and apologized for possibly interrupting their service? They said it was no problem, I said I was uncomfortable with the whole situation, and then they jumped into a full service, praying to Ahn…. 

When it was over a guy asked me "Isn't great to know the REAL TRUTH!" I said, it is indeed wonderful, but this isn't it. They just lied all over the place about Constantine and the sabbath. They pulled me, aside into another room where I ended up debating the pastor over an open book of the Bible, (although they wouldn't let me touch it) in front of one of the original missionaries I had met. I argued strongly that the Church was given authority to change the sabbath by Christ when he gave the apostles and Peter the power of binding and loosing. The pastor ended up shouting and screaming at me. Trying to find common ground with him at one point I said that, "God loves everybody…" And he responded by shouting, "HOW YOU KNOW GOD LOVES EVERYONE?!?!" I was obviously floored, but I kept arguing. Eventually I was man handled by the pastor, and literally thrown out of the building. I insisted that the missionary I rode with give me a ride back to campus. The Pastor said, "Never heard of a bus?" I informed him it was late, and the CUE bus had stopped running. They wouldn't let the orinial missionary ride with me, I think I had gotten to him and they were scared. They let a senior member drive me home.

I pray for those people all the time, escpecially the young missionary who seemed moved by the whole thing. 

So that was my first experience with the WMS. 

I pray God's light and blessing upon you all. 

-Irenaeus