How "bad" do you think it is to be a Protestant, especially an Anglican or Baptist?

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Look into any of the founders of those churches and you’ll find the true one. All the churches that are not Catholic were founded for a particular reason (Everyone knows the story of king Henry but the others have reasons too), and each of the protestant founders have disturbing stories as well. For instance Martin Luther had weird visions of satan which his maids often talked about having to scrub excrement off the walls after these visions. I wish you luck in your journey and may God bless you
 
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Betcha nickle everyone doesn’t know the whole story of Hank. Though heaven knows I’ve posted a metric ton of stuff on the long and complicated tale, over 15+ years.
 
From the description, the mural seems to be a critique of political ideology, rather than a critique of the Orthodox Church.
Do you have any evidence to share that shows Mr. Putin is in the mural due to his Orthodox religion, rather than due to his being the head of state?
 
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It’s not “bad” to be a Protestant but just “sad.” You miss out on the fullness of the faith.
 
po18guy said:
As to anger, hatred, etc etc etc, the official reformers teaching was that the pope is the antichrist.
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I have to admit that that is not something I have ever understood. When Cranmer was burned at the stake on Broad Street, more or less the last thing he said was that he rejected the pope as antichrist.
po18guy said:
The communities they founded still officially teach it today.
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I know that Ian Paisley was quite fond of reminding us that Pope John Paul II was the antichrist, but not a lot of people ever took him seriously outside of his own denomination. I am sure that the numerous archbishops of Canterbury who have met numerous popes did not regard those popes as the antichrist.
po18guy said:
It appears that you bring a substantial bias against the Catholic Church here.
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I honestly don’t. The only possible biases that I bring are (1) that both the Catholic Church and the Anglican Church in England and Wales have recently been roundly condemned by a public inquiry into child sexual abuse, which I have to admit I find problematic, and (2) my closest friend who is a Christian is a Baptist, so I have been exposed to Baptist Christianity somewhat through her. But, apart from those things, I think I have tried to approach all Christian denominations with an open mind. Again, I have to admit a bias insofar as I have not looked seriously into joining either of the Churches of the East of any of the Oriental Orthodox Churches because they do not have a strong presence in the UK outside of diaspora communities.
po18guy said:
I do not expect that you will ever be Catholic.
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I am genuinely not entirely against the idea. Thank you for your recommendations.
 
Duke12VonFalkenburg said:
Protestantism rests on the doctrine of Sola Scriptura. If you have done any searches on Catholic Answers you would quickly see how it simply cannot work. Start with that.
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Yes, that is indeed something that I have come across several times on here. It is an interesting point, and as I have no denominational loyalty at this stage, I am very much open to reading more about the arguments on both sides. Where I struggle is that the Catholic Church does regard Scripture as being part of divine revelation, and also, if I understand correctly, teaches that there is nothing new that is revealed that is not already revealed in Scripture. However, the Catholic Church also teaches things which, according to my understanding, are not to be found in Scripture and may even be contrary to what is in Scripture. For example, I do not find in Scripture any mention of purgatory or indulgences. Obviously there are only a couple of days left before CAF disappears, so it is unlikely that we are going to debate these points in the remaining time.
Dlee said:
Why would Christianity need to change suddenly around 1500?
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It all depends on how you interpret what happened during the Reformation. Personally, I tend to see most of the reforms as attempting to take Christianity back to the church of the era of the apostles. It seems to me, based on my understanding of it, that by the 15th century, the Catholic Church, which was basically Christianity in the West, had acquired a lot of innovations that were not found in the early church, e.g. purgatory, indulgences, relics, confession to a priest, reserving and adoring the Blessed Sacrament, the supreme authority of the pope, and clerical celibacy. Therefore, beginning in the 15th century, reformers began to try to strip away some of these innovations, seeking to return to a more authentic kind of Christianity, e.g. the Hussites/utraquists insisting on reception of Holy Communion under both kinds. This reached its conclusion in the 16th century the Protestant Reformation and, especially in England, with the dissenters in the 17th century.
 
I watch episodes of “Journey Home” quite often. On this program people from various other faith backgrounds share how they found their way into the Catholic Church. One thing I have noticed is that none of them ever disparage their previous faith community. Many give thanks to those who raised them in their prior faith, of whatever denomination, because it was through them that they were first introduced to Jesus, the bible, a relationship with God. They found something good, and kept going.
 
Hi. I am sorry to here of the troubles you are having and I am also sorry to hear that you have been met with hostility on your journey. I notice that you include Purgatory as an innovation. This is not quite true. Even though the term didn’t show up until about the 1300’s, there are many mentions of the concept of purgatory in scripture and by the early church fathers. Here is a link to an article which discusses the subject:


I pray this is useful for you. I will pray for you no matter whether you enter the Catholic Church or not. You will always be a sister in Christ even if we are separated by our differences.

Good luck on your journey. You are always welcome to join the Catholic Church.
 
jeannetherese said:
In terms of what the Church teaches concerning other Christian Churches, it might be best to stick to Church documents.
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Yes, you are quite right that many posters on here seem to take the view that they are required to be more Catholic than the Catholic Church. I am sure that Pope Francis would not talk in the way that some people on CAF do!
PickyPicky said:
Yes, moderate, reasonable, quiet Anglicanism is seen as particularly treacherous
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There was a chap posting on CAF briefly who was, if I understood correctly, an Anglican priest who had previously been a Catholic priest (and I believe for good measure was married to a former female religious). I was quite enjoying his contributions until he disappeared. I got the impression that there were several regular contributors who basically met many of his comments with, “You’re an Anglican so your opinion doesn’t count”.
Peeps said:
Which Baptists?

There are hundreds of types of Baptists–which one is your choice?
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PickyPicky said:
We don’t have quite a cornucopia of different Baptists in GB where @EmilyAlexandra is. I would guess she’s talking about the Baptist Union of Great Britain, which is very mainstream.
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Exactly. BUGB, which is part of the European Baptist Federation and the Baptist World Alliance, is essentially the closest thing that there is to an organised version of the original Baptists. About 20 years ago, I went to a friend’s baptism at New Road Baptist Church in Oxford. I am used to Baptist churches being rather grim Victorian buildings or bland post-war buildings, so I was rather surprised to discover that New Road is an impressive neoclassical edifice dating from 1798. Furthermore, a Baptist congregation had been meeting on the same site for almost 100 years before the present church was built.

My friend was a student at Regent’s Park College, a BUGB seminary which is also a permanent private hall of the university. I have to say that without exception, the Baptists I met whenever I visited her there were the most reasonable, tolerant, open-minded people one could hope to meet. The Baptists most Americans seem to be familiar with have very little in common with the original English Baptists.
 
EmilyAlexandra said:
Yes, you are quite right that many posters on here seem to take the view that they are required to be more Catholic than the Catholic Church. I am sure that Pope Francis would not talk in the way that some people on CAF do!
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I’m not sure how it might be possible for anyone to be more Catholic than the Catholic Church, or what that might look like or how others might judge it to be so.
Pope Francis will have his own way of speaking, as will any individual.
May God bless him as he works to guide us closer to Our Lord. Amen.
 
praytell said:
I pray this is useful for you. I will pray for you no matter whether you enter the Catholic Church or not. You will always be a sister in Christ even if we are separated by our differences.

Good luck on your journey. You are always welcome to join the Catholic Church.
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It is. Thank you. And I see that your profile picture is St Maksymilian Kolbe. He is one of my greatest Christian heroes!

@TomH1 Thank you. I can assure you that I am trying my very best to approach the Catholic Church with an entirely open mind. I come from a basically non-religious background, so I am not really biased one way or the other.
GKMotley said:
Anglicanism is a generic title for a wide range of Anglican flavors.
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Yes, I suppose when I say Anglican, I mean the Church of England, since that is the main form of Anglicanism where I live. I know that there are various other Anglican churches here, like the Free Church of England, the Church of England (Continuing), and various missions that seem to be mostly a collaboration between conservative Anglicans in the United States and Africa. I take the 39 Articles to be indicative of the core beliefs of the original Anglican reformers, even if not strictly binding upon Church of England laypeople as a statement of faith.
 
In this you are correct. The Articles are statecraft as religion, part of the Elizabethan compromise that determined how Elizabeth I was to govern her fractious realm and church. Some Anglicans certainly affirm them, some selectively, some ignore them, some cut them out of the Book of Common Prayer and burn them. Their relevance to Anglicans today depends on the attitude of the Anglicans in question.
 
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EmilyAlexandra said:
My friend was a student at Regent’s Park College, a BUGB seminary which is also a permanent private hall of the university. I have to say that without exception, the Baptists I met whenever I visited her there were the most reasonable, tolerant, open-minded people one could hope to meet. The Baptists most Americans seem to be familiar with have very little in common with the original English Baptists.
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I definitely recommend ignoring American opinions on Baptists! The large and loud Baptists in the US are predominantly Southern Baptists and actually are a bad representation of Baptists in general. The northern branch…which one would rarely hear about…are much more likely to be similar to the UK as would the Black Baptist churches here, also.

The Southern branch formed in response to the northern branches support of abolition. They began as segregationists and remain that way though not as much with blacks now but for LGBTQ and liberals. They are a branch that likes lines in the sand they won’t cross and are very vocal about it.

This is usually who CAFers are responding to or about…the Southern Baptists and their offshoots. So ignore our comments on them. Personally, I think both the General Baptists and the Methodists are faiths worth looking into whatever you decide. They both have interesting histories. Good luck in your search for a home.
 
Michael Cerularius is the man that started the Greek Orthodox church that we know today. I haven’t done a lot of research on him my statement was geared more to the protestant sects. I definitely do not agree with Greek Orthodox but I believe their founder is hopefully a better person than the protestant founders.
 
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