The former Catholics had a bitterness that they were robbed or short-changed in some way because they were never taught the Bible.
I always wonder about that sort of thing - because why not just go out and learn the thing? It’s not hard, especially in the 21st century. All kinds of help out there. I also never heard my cradle Catholic dad say that, so I don’t know if there’s a difference in the era (he graduated from Catholic high school in 1949 and went to Catholic school his whole life) or if I missed something.
You’ve never met Fundamentalist Independent Baptists then.
This is completely true.
Enter my grandmother’s church.
I sincerely believe that the reason my siblings and I (all of whom went with her at some point) were treated differently at her particular church was because they knew our dad was Catholic. I’m not kidding, either. Just snide remarks and blatant statements made by the preacher, of all people, as if we had something you could catch. It didn’t change when I became a Methodist, either - I’m sure he thought of me as only a few steps removed from the Catholic Church. I think it irritated him when, after my grandfather died, I used to take my grandmother to church every other Sunday so she could go, because I’ve never seen a man go out of his way to be as exclusionary of my presence as he did. So weird to me.
When my dad retired from the Navy and we moved to eastern NC, kids who knew he was Catholic used to use that as the last possible insult. “Well, at least my dad’s not
Catholic.” Mostly from Baptist kids. I never could wrap my head around it. I would just roll my eyes at them. Really - that’s all you’ve got?
My mom became a favorite teacher for them, though, so that bought me some peace. She said kids used to ask her, “Is your husband Catholic?” and when she’d say yes, they’d get a puzzled look on their face and say, “So what’s that like?”
