Catholics Were you raised with a bias toward Protestants?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lilyofthevalley
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
I was raised to think that being catholic was just a normal thing. I thought EVERYONE (everyone who spoke french that is) was catholic until I was 7 yrs old. When I first met my little friend after I moved into a new neighbourhood, she said “I’m Protestant, what are you?” . I doubt she really knew what a protestant was, as much as I knew what a catholic was. We were just US. We played “school” and she was always the teacher… I’d have to recite the the Hail to the Queen (or something like that)… then class would start.

I went to a french catholic school, and before this, the little girls that lived beneath our appartment, as well as the little girls who lived across the street went to the same school (innocence).

As I grew up, we never discussed different religions because where I lived, being anything other than Catholic was “different”. Sure, lots of neighbours were Protestant, but mostly non-practicing, so the issues never really came up.
 
…nope, we were taught by parents as well as clergy that there were truths in their faiths… and we in no way had a lock on heaven… but it was our duty to be a proper witness if the opportunity presented itself…

and considering where and when i was raised, i am very proud of both my parents and church…

…my grandmother being baptist converting to catholocism prior to her marriage probably had a lot to do with it… my grandfather would not stand for religious bigotry in his house hold… and that carried to all his children and grandchildren… yep, i’m proud of him…

Peace
 
I was not allowed to be friends with them and was taught that it was a sin to go into their churches. This was from my parents. I never heard the priests mention them except during Good Friday service when we pray for all the different groups of people. They never talked about Protestants in the Catholic school either.

I think my parents were afraid that if I had Protestant friends they would try to evangelize me and confuse me on issues of faith. Once I got into high school, I did have one protestant friend and my mother even let me go to square dances at her church.

cheddar
 
I was a Catholic before my father was. I was over a year old when he was received into the Church. He’d been raised Presbyterian, but not just any old kind of Presbyterian, a Free Presbyterian – the group that gave us Ian Paisley.

So we knew about Protestants, but I was brought up to show the respect that the people deserved, even those of my father’s relatives who referred to my mother as a “Papist bitch.”

And starting with my father, I’ve had very many people in my life who have joined the Church from Protestant denominations (most recently, my wife of 37 years) and set an example that not infrequently gives me pause about my own practise of the Faith. So I hope I have no bias, because there’s no basis for it.

Blessings,

Gerry
 
I was taught that Catholics who left the church would be damned, but protestants could still go to heaven.
 
I voted the last one because I honestly didn’t know what protestant was until I was about ten. And even after that I never thought much about it. I was just alway taught that we should only worry about our own salvation and not to worry about who is save and who is not saved, because we could all fall just as easly as the next guy.
 
We actually never discussed much about the Protestant churches because we didnt know what they believed other than they were all different. However, we did kinda make fun of the pentecostals when we would pass by their churches and they were all clapping and shouting out “hallelujah”. One priest in our parish who grew up as baptist at times would refer to the baptist churches as the “churches of the devil”. Actually I never took him seriously, and never believed it, and would at times joke about his statement. The public elementary school that I attended would take a bus of children from a Baptist orphanage to our school, but there was never any teasing, nor arguments between them and us. We actually were all good friends with one another.
 
I was surrounded by protestants growing up; there aren’t many of us Catholics here! I never heard anything negative about them; I always knew we, as Catholics, were different, but it wasn’t an issue.
 
I was raised as a Lutheran, so in general, I wouldn’t say I was raised with a bias against (most) Protestants…

However, my family were what you might call High Lutherans. That is, we were very liturgical and my mother taught my brothers and I to have a deep respect for the Eucharist (which is in part some of why I became Catholic, but that’s another story…). We actually had more of a bias against the fundamentalist and non-liturgical protestants than we did against Catholics…

I remember a conversation I had with my mom in which she said that if she couldn’t be Lutheran she would rather become a Catholic than a Baptist…
 
I am a “cradle Catholic” who grew up in a military family… and we were never taught to disrespect anyone…for any reason, nor were there any “biases” taught with regards to people who went to a different church than us. I can’t even remember the subject being brought up.

As a young boy I lived in Asia and Europe in the 50’s, and my playmates and schoolmates were made up of probably every race known…and never were there problems. There was no such thing as “segration”…based on race, creed or religion.
 
honestly, I really never knew we were that much different until about two years ago…man, I thought everyone was just like me, went to Confession, recieved the Eucharist, prayed to the saints, etc. It was quite the shock when I met my friends and found out they didn’t have any of the that…that’s about when I started learning about how different we were, the first time I asked to go to their youth group and my parents said no…and no…and no…I didn’t understand why then, but I guess I do now…anyway, that’s really the only bias I ever got from my parents, that they didn’t want me attending church or youth group with my friends…I’m allowed to more now, because I’m older and more educated in my faith, but I can tell that it still puts my parents on edge and I occassionally get the talks about being careful about what they may want to impress on me, but I trust my friends would never do that:)
 
I remeber growing up that I thought that these people (protestants) were confused. I am not sure why, but I felt that they were living contrary to the Gospel since they went to “fake” churches instead of The Church.
 
Growing up, on the few occassions that we mentioned someone being non-Catholic, my mom would give this “look” of distain - and if we ever dated anyone who wasn’t Catholic, my mother would frown. But there was never any verbal condenmation of non-Catholics in my house.

Sometimes the words unspoken can speak volumes!
 
Where i grew up, in a small south texas town, we were always told to be careful about the southern baptists. 'Cause in my town SB meant KKK. Thankfully it’s not that bad anymore, the new pastor just talks about bringing catholics to jesus:D All in all he’s a nice guy though.
 
Nope! That’s why I was caught so off guard by the anti’s.

As a matter of fact, even in Catholic School we were taught that God loves everyone the same and that we should all strive to be one big happy family.

Sounds syrupy, but that’s a great thing to teach kids. It still affects me today.
 
Uneducated would be a better term. There was a great deal of misinformation, but even then I could read through the prejudice and lack of truth in most anti-Catholic propaganda.
 
I, like MonicaC, didn’t even have a clue there was such a thing as a Protestant till I was about ten. I went to a Catholic school. I thought the only differences were that some Catholics went to public schools.

When my mother told me that my great grandmother would not allow my grandfather to marry my grandmother because he was a Catholic, it was unfathomable to me. They had to elope. I have seen pictures of my Catholic mother in the arms of her Lutheran grandmother.

My mother tells me how it was in the old days when all the Catholics thought all the Protestants were going to hell and all the Protestants thought all the Catholics were going to hell.

I have heard rumor that Church had automatic excommunication on those who married a Protestant in the old days. Does anyone know if that was ever the way it was?
 
I grew up to think all religions had a version of the Truth. I remember my mom’s lutheran friend who siad something like, “We believe pretty much the same thing, but we don’t believe you can earn your way into heaven.” I know now that she was talking about a misconception about works and faith, but I was too young to know about that. I just siad, Yeah :confused: because I was taught the same thing. My father was a nonpracticing Lutheran and funny thing was that he was the one who was discriminatory about religion and my mom was always just about living the Gospel.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top