Religion question...

[AXO Alum]

Okay - so this will be long, but please read because I am looking for some answers to some questions - thanks!

First of all, I was raised Protestant (Wesleyan denomination) -- I was baptized as a baby as was "normal" for all babies in the faith. My DH (dear hubby) on the other hand was raised Catholic - and his parents define the word DEVOUT (Websters definition - Devout - see picture of Mr. AXO Alum's parents).

Well, DH was never so "pure" regardless of what mamma thought - he would go to Mass with them when he was home, but that was about it. When it came time for us to get serious about marriage (and we did live together before which didn't score any points for me with mamma) DH and I had the talk about religion. I didn't care what we believed, as long as it involved the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and we could raise our children in our faith (although allowing them to choose for themselves when they become able to do so) -- but I did have MAJOR issues with the Catholic faith (same for DH) - so we started "shopping" for churches. Now that sounds so cold, but we did - we wanted to know what we were getting into, and was it something that we could raise our kids up believing.

Well we tried the Southern Baptist route - sheesh! Apologies to any SB's out there who DON'T belong to a cult, but this one extremely large church we attended (10,000 plus members) was just ridiculous. The pastor had no qualms in saying "women you will bow down to your man and serve him" -- which I (not being a feminist by any stretch) couldn't stomach -- marriage (to us) is a PARTNERSHIP not a form of slavery. And the kicker that got us to leave this place was (they have these huge screens on either side so people can see - think about PTL and the Jim Baker days) that one day during the service he showed a "film" that showed the most disgusting things -- it was a bunch of clips from gay rallies that were, not to offend anyone, shocking -- but what I mean by that is that he deliberately PICKED the worst clips out there -- there were no quiet, hand-holding couples -- there were people naked and performing lewd acts, people chained to a fence and making mockeries of sexual acts, etc. It was HORRIBLE -- I thought if I had kids in here, I would expect an apology from this man. But then he goes on to say "THESE ARE THE LOWEST OF THE LOW -- AND THE ONLY PEOPLE LOWER THAN THESE PEOPLE ARE THOSE HAVING SEX OUTSIDE OF MARRIAGE" -- well let me tell you - we left. Not because our toes were stepped on, but because I don't believe that church is a place to CONDEMN. You should lift up people and show them that God loves them and can forgive them and lead them.

Anyway -- so we finally found the United Methodist Church who sent us the neatest info with their motto "Open Heart, Open Minds, Open Doors" which is SO us! We love our church and feel that, like the Hard Rock Cafe slogan, its "love all serve all" which is what we feel we should do as Christians. Plus, they consider one baptism as "enough" -- which was great, since we both felt it was inappropriate to be re-baptised, and disrespectful to our parents.

Okay - so back to the Catholic thing -- mamma is ready to throw herself off a cliff with the shame that her precious (only) child has been living in sin, and is now going to join a Protestant church. She still hasn't recovered! Now granted, we do go to Mass with them when we visit. We have no problems going and being respectful. She does not usually go to church with us though.

We have been pretty okay with it until Eli came along, and dad-in-law and I had a heated discussion. He wanted to know if Eli would be baptised or just "dedicated" -- I said "baptised" -- he said "good because if he isn't, and he dies before he is, he won't go to heaven" -- well that just burned my grits and toast -- I was LIVID about that statement. So I point blank said to him "Any religion that believes an innocent child will not go to heaven, is a religion that I don't want any part of" -- and he says "well, its not that he won't go to heaven, but he won't be in the sight of God -- its like [yes he said this] going to a ball game and instead of having floor seats, you would have the really high, nosebleed seats where you can't see very well" -- I was like WTH?! Literally!

So questions here...and not meant to sound snotty, but I like others have always had a very "closed-door" impression of the Catholic church when it comes to my questions --

1) Is that true? Do Catholics believe that a child will not "be in the sight of God" if they aren't baptised?

2) Do Catholics still believe that the Pope, even as a man, is infallible?

3) Why can't a non-Catholic take communion? It is my belief/opinion that Jesus welcomes anyone to His table -- why do Catholics think that only other Catholics can receive?

4) Explain confession -- I agreed with whomever said "why not cut out the middle man" although they went on to say the priest explained it, I wanna know what the explanation is.

5) Why is Mary worshipped? DH says she isn't "worshipped" but I think differently based on the sayings that they use, and have seen people give "gifts" to the Virgin Mary statues in church. I thought this would fall under the "no other gods before me" category.

I have a ton more - I really do want to get a better understanding of this faith so that if a problem arises between my MIL again (which I am sure it will) that I will have an informed opinion.

ChitownXO, I may need to PM you since you have already given me some great info on here! Thanks!