Catholicism is Christian

  • Thread starter Thread starter Church_Militant
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
I have been reading with interest the comments from other Catholics in particular about those Baptists and Pentecostals etc. who claim that Catholics are not Christian. I have also had an experience where the person involved was going to both an Anglican Church as well as an Assemblies of God church called Hillsong. This woman was once a Catholic, and it happened on a regular basis that in her comments about being “healed but it has not manifested yet” (guess she also watches Benny Hinn)were a slight every time she emphasized that she is a “Christian”. I will not go into details about my interaction with the person involved, but I found myself feeling offended over some of the comments. It is almost elitist when some say that they are Christian.

MaggieOH
 
Hi,

I have had issues with this statement in the past. All through my education we always referred to ourselves as ‘Roman Catholic’ and only used the term “Christian” when referring to Protestants.

So to this day, whenever I hear the term “Christian”, I always immediately think Protestant.

For example, a Jewish friend of mine was ranting one day how the current President wants to convert all the American Jews to Christianity and that he hated those right winged Christians and conservative Christians. So naturally I said that the current President also want to convert all Roman Catholics to Christianity and that right wing Christians hated the Pope and think he is the anti-Christ. I told him how the Ursaline Convent was burned down in Boston in the 1840s by the Protestants and the No-Nothing Party was formed against Irish Catholic Popery. Needless to say, my Jewish friend was confused and began a lively debate.

I grew up in Boston distinguishing the difference between Roman Catholic and Christian/Protestant.
 
Church Militant:
Y’know…I wonder when we are gonna be able to actually stand up and start calling these people on this sort of stuff? I’m not saying be nasty, but folks we take a tremendous amount of kimchi and tend to say very little. One of the most effective things I’ve been able to say to such folks is, “Why can’t you simply preach your message without knockin’ someone else’s religion? Why can’t your pastor just get up there and preach what you people believe without an attack on the Catholic Church or someone else?” It usually takes them aback and I hope they begin to see the unChristlike way their Gospel is being presented. I’m not the least bit afraid of offending them when I step up and say “Hey, wait a minute. Do you have any idea just what you’re talking about?” (as you’ve probably seen me do here on the forums… :banghead: ). I despise dishonesty and when someone tells me they know what we believe and then spouts off wrong ideas, it tells me that he’s not read what we really say. We get it here on this forum about every single day. I believe that we have to stand up, IN ALL CHARITY, and call 'em on the lies, misperceptions, misinformation and just plain baloney (with my sincere apologies to the luncheon meat 😃 ) until they finally admit that they hate us without cause or they begin to really read the truth and respond to it. Everything else is just a sham.

Pax vobiscum
Click to expand...
Well I did get my opportunity when I was sitting next to a woman who was busy reading her Bible on the train, whilst I sat there knitting. She used my knitting as an opportunity to try and talk to me 😃 or at least try to convince me of her point of view. I must have said something about attending Mass and she surmised that I was a Catholic. She tried the attack on the method and timing of my baptism 😃 but I countered her arguments, especially when she used the wrong word, and had no clear idea that the priests in Judaism were sprinkled in order to be purified etc. etc. (I did not give her that one 😃 ). My argument remained on talking about the grace received, because she was more interested in the method, and by doing that she was trying to imply that my Baptism was somehow invalid. I guess she was not too happy when she left the train because she failed to gain a convert and I bet she was surprised that a Catholic could counter her arguments by using the Scripture 👍

MaggieOH
 
Church Militant:
You GO MaggieOH !!!

What a fine Irish Catholic name that is! 😃 http://pages.prodigy.net/bestsmileys1/emoticons3/BlueStPaddydance.gif
Click to expand...
You can thank my husband for the Irish sounding name. My name is Margaret but I prefer Maggie, and my maiden name is Scots. However, I have a very mixed up Catholic/Protestant family tree :).
Kinda like that song that the Irish Rovers brought out a few years ago - my father he is Orange and my mother she is Green 😃
 
Regarding the term ‘Christian’ I just remembered my experiences in the Navy and just again recently at a Christian school up north of Boston - Gordon College.

There are people referring to themselves as CHRISTIAN who claim no denomination, they are neither Protestant nor Roman Catholic. They claim to be a third entity - CHRISTIAN!

Gordon College is a Christian college, not Protestant or Catholic!

And I met Christians in the Navy who also claimed to be neither Protestant nor Catholic. They believed in Jesus and study the bible.

So I think it might be a USA phenomenom that there are people who claim the title CHRISTIAN but do not accede to be Protestant or Catholic.

Any one else observe the same phenomenom?
 
I would like to throw out a theory regarding the issue of why so many protestants like to refer to Catholics as not being christian.

Simply put, if they were to admit that Catholics were christians then there entire belief system might collapse. Things are nice and simple in ones mind if one believes that Catholics are not Christians. It justifies their being protestant and it safely moves any questions about the legitimacy of Catholic Church to ones subconcious. In other words it allows one to be "fat, dumb and happy" versus actually having to think about it.

Martin Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Knox et al, had to refer to the Pope as the antichrist how could they justify their rebellion against church authority. The attitude that is prevelant among the SBs and Evangelicals is a left over from this.
 
Kevin Walker:
.

There are people referring to themselves as CHRISTIAN who claim no denomination, they are neither Protestant nor Roman Catholic. They claim to be a third entity - CHRISTIAN!

So I think it might be a USA phenomenom that there are people who claim the title CHRISTIAN but do not accede to be Protestant or Catholic.

Any one else observe the same phenomenom?
Click to expand...
Yep this is becoming very common. I don’t know about other parts of the world, but the bizarre thing is that if you ask them what they believe you’ll find that they almost always list all the basic Protestant doctrines, with the usual inconsistencies and variations. Yet they’ll quickly tell you that they are Bible-only Christians and that they rely on the Holy Spirit for their interpretations. Which begs the question, "Why is your teaching not consistent with all the other “Christian” churches. The biggest problem is that this allows them to say they agree on “core” doctrines, and let the rest slide. It’s confusing, and we know from the NT who the author of all confusion is. I will say that I have had some success in reasoning with non-denom individuals and a few have even come over to the faith after discussion of the Biblical basis for things like The Eucharist, apostolic successsion, confession, and the authority of the church to interpret the Bible. As always, the discussion should begin with the understanding that we are not trying to convert them, but only to clarify what Catholics really do believe and practice. The Holy Spirit seemed to do all the rest. 👍
 
40.png
Cubsfan:
I would like to throw out a theory regarding the issue of why so many protestants like to refer to Catholics as not being christian.

Simply put, if they were to admit that Catholics were christians then there entire belief system might collapse. Things are nice and simple in ones mind if one believes that Catholics are not Christians. It justifies their being protestant and it safely moves any questions about the legitimacy of Catholic Church to ones subconcious. In other words it allows one to be "fat, dumb and happy" versus actually having to think about it.

Martin Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Knox et al, had to refer to the Pope as the antichrist how could they justify their rebellion against church authority. The attitude that is prevelant among the SBs and Evangelicals is a left over from this.
Click to expand...
I think you sum this up pretty well Cubsfan. In the end they are inconsistent since they say they interpret the Bible for themselves, yet they rely on their pastors, preachers, and evangelists as a sort of de-facto magisterium.
 
Hi Church Militant, (I like the ‘militant’ part! 😉 ),

I have also noticed that when the self-styled ‘Christian’ espouses his religious views, it adheres to basic Protestant doctrines. I found the Christian and the Protestant to share common ground in their dislike of the Roman Catholic Church.

I like the ‘militant’ part of your handle because that is the role I find myself taking here in Boston particularly with the firestorm of criticism of the Roman Catholic Church with the sexual abuse scandal. It seems its open season on Catholics here in Boston with no limit to the amount of invective hurled at us. Even worse now that the Massachusetts Surpreme Judicial Court saw fit to veto our elected representatives and allow homosexual marriage in Massachusetts, the Bay State (now Taxachusetts the Gay State). It is the Catholic Priests who are leading all the protests against Homosexual marriage on the Boston Common, and taking all kinds of vile verbal abuse at the hands of - Protestants, who accept female ministers and have a high tolerance of homosexuality.

I’ve digressed (and ranted) enough. Thanx!
Church Militant:
Yep this is becoming very common. I don’t know about other parts of the world, but the bizarre thing is that if you ask them what they believe you’ll find that they almost always list all the basic Protestant doctrines, with the usual inconsistencies and variations. Yet they’ll quickly tell you that they are Bible-only Christians and that they rely on the Holy Spirit for their interpretations. Which begs the question, "Why is your teaching not consistent with all the other “Christian” churches. The biggest problem is that this allows them to say they agree on “core” doctrines, and let the rest slide. It’s confusing, and we know from the NT who the author of all confusion is. I will say that I have had some success in reasoning with non-denom individuals and a few have even come over to the faith after discussion of the Biblical basis for things like The Eucharist, apostolic successsion, confession, and the authority of the church to interpret the Bible. As always, the discussion should begin with the understanding that we are not trying to convert them, but only to clarify what Catholics really do believe and practice. The Holy Spirit seemed to do all the rest. 👍
Click to expand...
 
I can’t figure out how we could be anything else but Christians.
 
I am under the Impression that CM is tired of hearing protestants saying things like " OH…im not catholic, I’m christian!", even though they are innocently[no catholic has ever set them straight] ignorant, it still gets frustrating
Click to expand...
These are fundies. Do you have any idea how frustrating it is for a regular Protestant to be grouped in with the fundies?😃

I know, I know, I’m an ex-Protestant. Still, it makes me squeamish.

Of course, Catholics are Christians.
 
40.png
AdsoOfFunkstown:
These are fundies. Do you have any idea how frustrating it is for a regular Protestant to be grouped in with the fundies?😃

I know, I know, I’m an ex-Protestant. Still, it makes me squeamish.

Of course, Catholics are Christians.
Click to expand...
Thanks AoF!
It’s funny that us converts and “reverts” can see this but some of the folks we used to study with can’t. :rolleyes:
 
of course Catholicism is Christian! we eat Jesus every Sunday. how Christian can you get?🙂
 
I had a gentleman in my office on Thursday and when he was leaving turned around and asked, “Are you a Christian or Catholic?” :banghead:

ARGH! Of course my response was “Catholics * are * Christian”. Beginning to feel like a broken record. 😃
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top