Do Protestants really hate Catholics?

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You are going to have different Protestants who think different things about Catholics. On the one extreme you’re going to have people like James White, on the other you’re going to have people that are very ecumenical like CS Lewis was. It really depends on the person.
 
No, we don’t hate Catholicism or Catholics. If we did, we wouldn’t include in our liturgy the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

What we don’t like is the idea of secularism and secular power taking over the Church. I mean, you have a Pope, and the Pope’s have clearly abused the power and majesty of the Church before. And you view him as a representative of God, which some popes clearly aren’t.

And then there’s the whole saint thing. I understand that you’re not revering saints as God, but it really looks like you are in some cases, and the Catholic Church holds this same position against icons. The Catholic Church is iconoclastic against Eastern Orthodoxy, but you still carry tokens of saints and put Christ on a rather mournful cross. Are you sure you’re not worshiping icons? It seems like you are from a Protestant and Presbyterian perspective.

Not that we’re the Holy Mother Church or that we’re right. We’re just the reformers who say “Hey! What are you doing with the Church?” And then we nail a bunch of theses to the door.

That’s all we are. We aren’t really enemies, the most sincere enemies Catholics ever had was other Catholics trying to usurp the Vatican. Or maybe Muslims. Or Communists. Or fascists. We’re just rebellious Catholics with no desire to destroy Catholicism, and no desire to be led by it until it reforms.

Speaking for myself, the most annoying thing about Catholicism is that I’m not allowed to share Communion. I get it, I’m excommunicate, but it still seems like a jerk move. We don’t forbid Catholics from Communion despite our reservations, so why us?

Again, I kind of get it. Catholicism is a very old religious tradition, it has lasted 2000 years and Protestantism has only been around for a few centuries. It is obviously doing something right, and that thing is keeping religious tradition. But come on! We’re not your main enemies!

Maybe we let in a few secularists because we were too gentle. So did you. How is it bad if we re-unify? All Protestants want reunion with the Catholic church. We live for it, but the Catholic Church won’t accept us. We are excommunicate and it doesn’t feel like we should be.

That is our only separation.
 
It’s hard to follow all that is written here.
Nothing I haven’t heard in some variation, with less confusion before.

Why is Christ depicted crucified? What is the meaning of His Sacrifice, what did He overcome for our Salvation? This comes back to my discussion with a member of the Assembly of God who did not know that Catholics believe in the Resurrection. As discples we are called to “pick up our cross and follow after Him.” St. Paul talks about the foolishness of the cross.
Is it natural to be repulsed by the crucifix? Absolutely. Is it possible to move beyond that repulsion to embrace Christ who gave up His life for my salvation? Yes, by the power and grace of the Holy Spirit.

I am fortunate in being able to travel throughout life, to live where Christianity is not the predominant religion. That means confronting the truth that begins the Vatican II document on Ecumenism. The divisions within the Body of Christ cause great scandal to the rest of the world, to non-believers.

Fr. Mike Schmitz, of Ascension Presents does an excellent job of answering the question regarding the reception of Communion. It is a painful subject that begins with belief in the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. It is also a statement of unity. If I, as a Catholic, receive in the Prebyterian Church, I am saying that I am in union with the Prebyterian church. Many of us continue to pray for the return of our separated brothers and sisters to the one, holy, and Apostolic Church. And the last point that Fr. Schmitz makes is that when I receive the Eucharist, I am making a statement of faith. As Christ laid down His life for me, so too am I willing to lay down my life for Him. Are you willing to do that?

If you really believe there is no difference between Catholics and other Christians, are you ready to come home?
 
Presbyterian said:
The Catholic Church is iconoclastic against Eastern Orthodoxy,
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Iconography is just as much a tradition in Catholicism, as it is in Orthodoxy. I have icons written by Catholics, and icons written by Orthodox, the local Melkite church even has workshops on icon writing, and Melkites are Catholic. The last ecumenical council that Catholics and Orthodox have in common, is the seventh ecumenical council , so that’s a very bizarre thing to say.
 
As one who grew up ALC that later combined with the LCA to form the ELCA, I agree with you-- now at least. Back in the 50’s ad 60’s, it was quite anti-Catholic at our local church, so imagine my parents chagrin when I married a Sicilian Catholic women at a Catholic church 53 years ago. But it didn’t take long for them to love her as well, though.
 
It depends a lot on the person, the denomination, and the church. I live in an area that’s very heavily fundamentalist protestant. Kids in the fifth grade will straight up tell their Catholic classmates that they’re going to Hell because they’re Catholic. Down here, it’s primarily Southern Baptist and non-denominational (southern baptists, lowercase) churches that actively preach against the Catholic church. Outside of the Bible Belt, it seems like there’s less hostility towards Catholics.
 
They are. Unfortunately, they’ll generally stick with that belief since a lot of them are taught the same things in Sunday School all through highschool and into adulthood.
 
Adding @(name removed by moderator) too.

I’ve seen this type of thing go both ways. It’s honestly really sad.

I’m non-denominational and never…ever heard anything anti-Catholic in church. My wife loved the chruch I grew up in.
 
That is exactly right. My personal feeling is that here on CAF there is much more derogatory reference from Catholics to Protestants than the other way around.
 
Well, there are more Catholics here, since it is CatholicAnswers, so… 😉

Pretty sure if you went to a non-Catholic site, you would see a higher percentage of derogatory comments towards Catholics there.

**And I am not advocating that is is right in either place, just saying that that is what you will find due to the numbers.
 
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That is a good point, however, I have noticed in the last several months it has become more noticeable. …several seem to be from new posters.
 
I do agree, but I don’t want to get into a he-said-she-said of the thread.

My point is that it’s sad what some people will put in the heads of their kids about other Christians.
Wannano said:
That is a good point, however, I have noticed in the last several months it has become more noticeable. …several seem to be from new posters.
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I’ve noticed that as well.
 
I am a recent Catholic convert who came from a Liberal theological leaning Protestant Church and a lot of the people who attended my old church called themselves “recovering Catholics”. I personally love both religions because my late Grandmother was a Protestant (same denomination my previous church was) and she married my Grandfather who was a Catholic. My parents are both Catholic and were baptized as such. I know when I announced my departure from my previous church (I served as a Deacon in that Church) I was met with some people who once respected me with hostility so much that we no longer talk anymore (She was my former Choir Director and she called the Catholic Church vial). However, as a previous poster stated: “Some Protestants hate Catholics and vise versa”. It is all about how people preserve the other.
 
I’m really late coming to this thread, and this was probably dealt with much earlier, but I just want to emphasize how the Internet can make a minuscule group of haters appear like a movement. There is one forum in particular that I will not name, except to say that it is run by a guy with the initials M.S. I thought it was horrible, the things they were saying about Catholicism. Then I realized after reading the forum for a while that there were less than a dozen of the really active haters. They have a multi-forum setup with about 25 different categories of discussions. But most of them are empty, or with just a couple threads. The only very active forum - and the only reason for the whole website existing - is to discuss/bash Roman Catholicism. They don’t even call themselves Protestants because they refuse to acknowledge their faith tradition was ever in any way associated with what is now called the Catholic Church. They say their faith tradition has existed in parallel with the Catholic Church from the beginning. But again, this is only a dozen or so people, despite the fact that they have put together a “Slick” website.

However, in my personal life, I have known many many protestants. And I can honestly say that 100% of them have been respectful of my Catholic faith, as I have been of theirs, and we have found many opportunities in faith sharing groups, such as Marriage Encounter, to share what our faiths have in common.
 
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Some despise us with every fibre of their being, others don’t. Same as with any group of people. You have those who hate others, and those who don’t.
 
Good ol’ Matt Slick, pretty “Slick” character that one. Fortunately, 99% of the stuff he puts out there is really easily debunked and refuted so he don’t bug me no more.
 
There are MANY different kinds of Protestants out there. I’ve met Protestants who hate Catholics; I’ve met Protestants who don’t hate Catholics; I’ve met Protestants who hate other Protestants; I’ve met Protestants who don’t hate anyone. Now based on my experience, the Conservative Holiness Church Protestants hate pretty much ANYBODY who isn’t one of them; while on the other hand, Anglicans rarely hate other denominations. As a matter of fact, my best buddy in graduate school is a C of E Anglican who almost never goes to church, while some of his relatives are recusant Catholics.
 
I, like you am Lutheran and hope within my lifetime we can be in full-communion with Rome.
 
DeaconBil said:
The “Protest” in “Protestant” directly refers to the Catholic Church.
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No, it actually comes from the older meaning of “protest” meaning “to declare forthrightly and formally”. It described what they were for rather than what they were against.

However philosophically and practically speaking your main point is true. Protestants HAVE to believe that the Catholic Church somehow became evil some time before the 16th century in order to justify why their forefathers took the radical step of creating a new church, contrary to our Saviour’s express commands and prayers. And they have to believe that the Catholic Church remains evil to justify why they don’t rejoin it, and even continue starting an ever increasing number of new “churches”.
 
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Why does one have to believe the Catholic Church is evil to disagree with it?
 
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