I'm tired of generalizations!

[everyoneshero]

I supose my wording wasn’t quite right here, I apologize. Recently I have heard my friends who are all catholic refer to protestants as one group and it is usually in a distasteful manner. I am curious if this this a common view.

 

[Prodigal_Son1]

I supose my wording wasn’t quite right here, I apologize. Recently I have heard my friends who are all catholic refer to protestants as one group and it is usually in a distasteful manner. I am curious if this this a common view.

It’s not a common view, that I know of. As I explained, I know of the differences between several denominations of Protestants.

 

[Church_Militant]

Understood.

Do we Catholics agree with the teachings of the Protestants in the last 500 years? No we do not. They are in grave error on many doctrines.

As I pointed out, it’s best to deal with specific doctrines that you want to discover the Catholic teachings on.

 

[JonNC]

=Church Militant;4493164]
I generally (no pun intended) wait for the n-C/ Protestant to specify which particular branch or whatever they come from, but most of you folks are non-specific in your profiles, so that isn’t our fault.

I agree with this. I actually find it a bit frustrating when I check a profile and see “n/a”, or something of the sort… It often makes discussion difficult not knowing where someone is coming from.
Frankly, have the courage to state your faith community.

Moreover, we have often heard that there is some kind of unity of doctrine among you, which further complicates things because we soon discover that that unity is a fiction.

As a Lutheran, I feel closer unity with Catholicism than American “evangelicalism”. So, yes, to say all protestants have some form of unity beyond all being Christian (same as we share with Catholics and Orthodox), is a fiction.

If you want specific discussions then it would be best if you opened a thread and made your case or asked your question from a single and specific position, otherwise, generalizations are all anyone should be expected to offer.

The specificity of the responses is usually related to the specificity of the question.

In general (sorry), here at CAF, I find that the longer term Catholic posters have a better understanding of the fact that not all protestants come from the same tradition. Newer members tend to see protestants as a monolith until they’re here a while. Two good examples of this are 1) all protestants believe the Eucharist is symbolic, and 2) all protestants believe once saved always saved.

Jon

Jon

 

[Church_Militant]

I agree with this. I actually find it a bit frustrating when I check a profile and see “n/a”, or something of the sort… It often makes discussion difficult not knowing where someone is coming from.
Frankly, have the courage to state your faith community.

As a Lutheran, I feel closer unity with Catholicism than American “evangelicalism”. So, yes, to say all protestants have some form of unity beyond all being Christian (same as we share with Catholics and Orthodox), is a fiction.

The specificity of the responses is usually related to the specificity of the question.

In general (sorry), here at CAF, I find that the longer term Catholic posters have a better understanding of the fact that not all protestants come from the same tradition. Newer members tend to see protestants as a monolith until they’re here a while. Two good examples of this are 1) all protestants believe the Eucharist is symbolic, and 2) all protestants believe once saved always saved.

Jon

Jon

Well said Jon. Thank you sir!

 

[JonNC]

Well said Jon. Thank you sir!

BTW, I love your Advent wreath decoration.

Jon

 

[Writer]

I was actually just curious as to how a Catholic person feels about this subject because it is something I think about often. Also, I think it is nice that its not “No protestants allowed”, whats wrong with being challenged once and awhile?

In our family’s spiritual jouney (after attending a Free Methodist university in the late 1980s and being raised in churches of the Wesleyan tradition), my wife and I visited more Protestant churches over the years than one can easily count–spending the most time in Episcopal and Lutheran churches (Lutheran Bretheren, Evangelical Lutheran, and the Missouri Synod). I agree that Catholics ofen feel generalized by many Protestants, but that doesn’t necessarily excuse our ignorance about the other side in debates such as this.

I agree that some basic knowledge of Protestant beliefs from denomination to denomination is key if we are to have effective communications. When we crossed the Tiber in 2005, for example, one of my pet peeves was the term “fundamentalist.” Unless one understands the difference between the Wesleyan and Calvinist traditions, it’s easy to make some embarrasing errors with regards to terms such as this. The term is poorly descriptive at best and, at worst, it simply promotes old stereotypes and a lack of general unity. One can’t, for example, say that all those who believe in the heresy of “once saved, always saved” are necessarily fundamentalist, as this ignores denominations such as the Presbyterians. Heretical predestenariansm can’t necessarily be used as a litmus test of “fundamentalism,” and many Catholics don’t understand these kinds of distinctions.

 

[Church_Militant]

BTW, I love your Advent wreath decoration.

Jon

Incoming PM with link.

 

[Rex_Tremendae]

You are absolutely disgusting, especially with your little Luther comment. “But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and it is those things that make a person unclean.” Matthew 15:18. Grow up. Prot. and Cath. alike who act like yourself need to be banned.

Why do you need rules to tell you to be polite and not so rude and venomous? Common sense tells anyone to treat others with charity. Don’t they teach you that in church? I’m so glad you are the exception to the rule here.

At least someone got it!!

 

[Prodigal_Son1]

At least someone got it!!

Maybe you’d be willing to share with a fellow Catholic where the Church teaches us to be rude and offensive in evangelization or in interactions with others in general?

 

[reteeks21]

Maybe you’d be willing to share with a fellow Catholic where the Church teaches us to be rude and offensive in evangelization or in interactions with others in general?

He can’t, and protestants can’t do it either. It’s a shame some folks have to treat others that way.

 

[Soutane]

At least someone got it!!

If you in fact are a Catholic,you need to develop a charitable heart.You have insulted and defamed our protestant brothers and sisters.I suggest a spiritual advisor would be in order asap.You thoroughly deserved your banning.

 

[Church_Militant]

If you in fact are a Catholic,you need to develop a charitable heart.You have insulted and defamed our protestant brothers and sisters.I suggest a spiritual adviser would be in order asap.You thoroughly deserved your banning.

Note that the Mods seem to have fixed his problem for him.

My gripe is that people like that are no better than the worst anti-Catholics. They run off at the mouth and do no good at all because they are so mean spirited that no one listens to them.

Wouldn’t it be bad to get to judgement and have to account for all the souls who went to hell (or almost did), not because they were unreceptive to the Gospel, but because we were such lousy witnesses for it?

I mean, I’ll debate the devil himself, but I’d rather win souls than win arguments. :irish1:

 

[reteeks21]

If you in fact are a Catholic,you need to develop a charitable heart.You have insulted and defamed our protestant brothers and sisters.I suggest a spiritual advisor would be in order asap.You thoroughly deserved your banning.

I thought rex was kind of fun. He made a good cousin for all the loud-mouth protestants on here. We all need diversity, right?

 

[JonNC]

Note that the Mods seem to have fixed his problem for him.

My gripe is that people like that are no better than the worst anti-Catholics. They run off at the mouth and do no good at all because they are so mean spirited that no one listens to them.

Wouldn’t it be bad to get to judgement and have to account for all the souls who went to hell (or almost did), not because they were unreceptive to the Gospel, but because we were such lousy witnesses for it?

I mean, I’ll debate the devil himself, but I’d rather win souls than win arguments. :irish1:

 

[Church_Militant]

Now where were we?

 

[With_Questions]

I am so tired of people saying things about protestant people and assuming they all believe the same things.

Hmm…I was thinking of starting a thread on this as there has been something on my mind that I find really irritating.

It is the word Protestantism.

Now I can understand the word Protestant as a bucket classification for those branches of Christianity that are not Catholic or Orthodox. Now in the 21st century there are those of us who prefer peaceful coexistence and being left alone to “protesting”, but the word is what it is I suppose.

But Protestantism?

People, there is no ecclesiastical organization as Protestant. There is no statement of faith that you must subscribe to in order to be Protestant.

Therefore the term Protestantism is meaningless.

Worse yet is the tendency to take some of the more extreme beliefs some Protestants hold, classify these beliefs under the label Protestantism and then hold all Protestants to this belief.

I encountered this recently in a thread on justification where supposedly the belief that God the father actively poured out His wrath on God the son on the cross was a belief of Protestantism.

I will let you in on a secret. There is no such statement of faith containing no such article that you have to sign off to be Protestant.

Until somebody comes up with a certifiable statement of faith that Protestants must subscribe to in order to receive the title of Protestant, then the word Protestantism is meaningless.

Pardon me for this rant, but I had to get this one off my chest.

 

[Hm2Rm]

I thought I would put my 1st ever entry on this thread because it talks about generalization and that all Protestants believe the same thing. Actually that is what I considered in my long history to be the problem. I went from from raised Methodist, thru multiple non-denomination churches before a series of in-your-face issues and a serious study of scripture led me to the Catholic Church. At a young age I asked why "why are there so many different christian churches with there own beliefs (4-different Christian Churches on my street that I rode my bike past.) My issue was that God could not possible have meant for so many different interpretations. I don’t believe that God speaks His truth by confusion. Their can only be one truth. So to have the Title say that “I’m tired of generalizations and that the Protastants all believe the same thing” is incorrect. It is because there is no constant interpretation of “any” part of the Bible from Genesis to Revelations. I believe that God lead me home because of that nagging question so many years ago.

 

[JonNC]

I thought I would put my 1st ever entry on this thread because it talks about generalization and that all Protestants believe the same thing. Actually that is what I considered in my long history to be the problem. I went from from raised Methodist, thru multiple non-denomination churches before a series of in-your-face issues and a serious study of scripture led me to the Catholic Church. At a young age I asked why "why are there so many different christian churches with there own beliefs (4-different Christian Churches on my street that I rode my bike past.) My issue was that God could not possible have meant for so many different interpretations. I don’t believe that God speaks His truth by confusion. Their can only be one truth. So to have the Title say that “I’m tired of generalizations and that the Protastants all believe the same thing” is incorrect. It is because there is no constant interpretation of “any” part of the Bible from Genesis to Revelations. I believe that God lead me home because of that nagging question so many years ago.

Hm2Rm,
Thanks for your insight and testimony, and welcome to CAF.
Jon

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

I can’t speak for everyone else, but my beef with protestantism is NOT that they all believe the same thing—far from it. I’d have more respect for them if they did. My problem with protestantism is the fact that they seem to believe a huge myriad of contradicting things and yet it doesn’t seem to bother them?

I can’t count the times I’ve worked with people who were Methodist and then they and their spouse went to a Baptist church and then a Nazarene church, etc.? How can a person go from one to another when they have so little in common? These denominations have opposing ideologies and are incompatible?

I talk to people who are Baptist but married to a Lutheran and go to church at the baptist church? How can the Lutheran spouse, who believes in ‘many’ Catholic ideas (real presence, liturgy, communion of saints, creeds, etc.) go to a baptist church where there are none of those things, in fact, quite the contrary?

Protestantism is NOT all the same, but rather a jungle. Outside of Catholicism that jungle is pretty thick and we tend to get whisked away with the overly-simplistic “personal relationship with Christ” and the “saved” theology and all sorts of other whacky stuff.

I’ve ventured out of Catholicism, recently in fact, and it was only to Anglicanism, and I felt very lost and very fearful for my salvation very quickly. And Anglicanism is a heck of a lot closer to Catholicism than the Pentecostals, etc.!

Protestantism lacks authority, lacks history, lacks logic. It is a man-made humanistic response to modernity and based on the desire to simplify Christ into simple faith alone.