Here is what I don’t understand. A Lutheran or Anglican would have much more in common with a Catholic than they would with a Baptist or some Non denominational. Yet the latter would fall under the Protestant umbrella and therefore would be more considered a brother in faith than a Catholic would.
Not saying all, but I have come across this.
Interesting and I’m not entirely sure that I would agree with that particular assessment, at least in my own case. I don’t think one should look at being another’s sibling in Christ in terms of degrees. We are or we’re not. I like to think, for example, that you, Mary, GFC, Steido, Hatikvah, both Michaels and I ( just for an example) are equally brothers and sisters in Christ, with certain agreements and disagreements on points of doctrine. The Protestant umbrella is really rather artificial, more so when you reckon a Protestant is simply somebody who belongs to a church body that does not pledge historical or doctrinal allegiance to the Pope and the Vatican or to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
We get into the Lutheran concept of the invisible, undivided Christian Church, which includes believers all across the Christian spectrum, at this point. If we Lutherans look askance at the Catholic Church, so do we also at the Reformed and Presbyterian Church, Historically, we’ve ***all ***ganged up on the poor Anabaptists, who we see as even further out from correct doctrine. They do, in any event, hold to the Christian faith, they have Baptism, Communion and the Holy Scriptures, even as they have their own confessions that they look at Scripture and tradition with, to wit, the Schleitheim Confession
anabaptists.org/history/the-schleitheim-confession.html.
Of course, there are going to be doctrinal disagreements, which is why some of us are Lutheran, others are Catholic, still others are Methodists and so on
lutherquest.org/walther/articles/nameLuth.htm, but in all truth, we are Christians and as unfortunate as these divisions are, they exist. The more important unity is what we find as Christians who confess Christ and who seek to live in obedience to Him.
