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IgnatianPhilo
Guest
Did your church appear after the reformation? In my mind that makes you protestant.
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Wannano
Guest
It saddens me to see someone with the nickname Follow Christ delight in Schadenfreude.Schadenfreude.
Proverbs 24:17-18a “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles; or the Lord will see it and be displeased.”
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GKC
Guest
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commenter
Guest
Yeah, the figure “20,000” or “30,000 Protestant denominations and counting” does get “explained” around here but I can think of 99 other words, “thrown”, “hurled”, “manipulated” “misused”, “ridiculed”, mocked, “set up straw man as easy target to show Protestant foolishness”, and so on, before I would come to the word “explain”.
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commenter
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Peter_J
Guest
I don’t want to nitpick (or do I?
) but I would say “catholic” there rather than the proper name “Catholic”. For example, I’d say that Anglicans are “catholic and protestant” … although admittedly some (including Fr. Hart in the blog article I referenced earlier) prefer to say they are “Catholic and Protestant”.
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Peter_J
Guest
Back when I was a Protestant, if someone used the 30,000 denominations argument, I would just concede that they had disproven protestantism. Then I’d wait for them to notice that they inadvertently disproved Christianity, since it has more than 30,000 denominations in it.
Then I remember that I was never Protestant and that it was all a dream (but you get the idea).
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GKC
Guest
I have a simple mind.
Use of the term “branch” implies that Protestant was once a single “trunk” from which branches sprouted. The analogy isn’t historically accurate, but I understand why it
Is used.
Jon
C
commenter
Guest
If a word can be used to mean almost anything, it ends up meaning almost nothing. A formerly useful word, “Protestant”, is now fading from being useful to people for that reason. There are others who would like to use the word “Catholic” to include any Christian, or anyone who thinks about spirituality or morality in some way. I can think of other words that have been mostly rendered useless.
In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis took time to point out the problem of careless use of words (for example, “Christian” or “gentleman”). Ambiguity in language leads to ambiguity in thinking. You don’t have to be a language snob to mourn the near loss of the word “Protestant”, or potential loss of the word “Catholic”.
Christianity, or common sense, or traditional values, are not being defeated today by logical arguments from the bad guys. Instead the bad guys have created an “Alice in Wonderland” world where people bend words to fit wherever and whatever they want.
In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis took time to point out the problem of careless use of words (for example, “Christian” or “gentleman”). Ambiguity in language leads to ambiguity in thinking. You don’t have to be a language snob to mourn the near loss of the word “Protestant”, or potential loss of the word “Catholic”.
Christianity, or common sense, or traditional values, are not being defeated today by logical arguments from the bad guys. Instead the bad guys have created an “Alice in Wonderland” world where people bend words to fit wherever and whatever they want.
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Vico
Guest
Protestant originated in the Lutheran opposition to Diet of Speyer (1526 A.D.).
The branch theory was originally from the Anglicans listing Catholic, Easten Orthodox, Anglican, as branches, but then later modified by the Methodists to Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant.
Actually the protest was at the Second Diet of Speyer in 1529 which sought to reinstate the Edict of Worms.
Jon
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TK421
Guest
If the word “protestant” was obsolete because most people following protestant branches of Christianity aren’t formal defectors, it would have been obsolete by the 17th century.
As far as the US goes, there are more “formal” defectors (i.e. raised Catholic) than there ever has been before in American history.
Although as the Church redirects its presentation, the word “protestant” has and may become less commonly used. The word “heretic”, in the technical sense of the word, has never expired and it will never expire, but it isn’t used in vernacular language because of the negative emotional associations with the word.
“Protestant” may have more relevance in some Christian denominations than others. In Anglican or Lutheran groups, which are “closer” to the Catholic church if not in doctrine than in orthopraxy, “protesting” can still have relevance. In my native denomination, which was unaffiliated Christian, the Catholic Church is an enigma that is rarely talked about, and so the word “protestant” will have little meaning to the average person. The history in my native church went as far back to about the year 1900.
As far as the US goes, there are more “formal” defectors (i.e. raised Catholic) than there ever has been before in American history.
Although as the Church redirects its presentation, the word “protestant” has and may become less commonly used. The word “heretic”, in the technical sense of the word, has never expired and it will never expire, but it isn’t used in vernacular language because of the negative emotional associations with the word.
“Protestant” may have more relevance in some Christian denominations than others. In Anglican or Lutheran groups, which are “closer” to the Catholic church if not in doctrine than in orthopraxy, “protesting” can still have relevance. In my native denomination, which was unaffiliated Christian, the Catholic Church is an enigma that is rarely talked about, and so the word “protestant” will have little meaning to the average person. The history in my native church went as far back to about the year 1900.
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