Outside looking in--how Protestants see Catholicism

[Della]

Some here, like our good Egg, may not know that I am a “convert” to Catholicism who came from both a liturgical background in the Episcopal church I grew up in and an Evangelical/Pentecostal one in the Assemblies of God my mother and we kids left the ECUSA for when I was in high school. I have a B. A. in Bible and religious education from an AoG Bible college. I was received into the Catholic Church Easter Vigil of 1989, so I have been deeply immersed in both the evangelical side and the liturgical sides of Christianity. As my non-demon Pentecostal friend Carolyn says, I have a foot in each pond.

I very much appreciate all I experienced in the ECUSA and all I learned from both that denom and the AoG. I was attempting to show how very differently some Protestants and Catholics view one another’s beliefs and our modes of worship, etc. What I have learned is that even Evangelicals have rituals and traditions, but they don’t think of them as that. In fact, when you lay them out for them they are very much surprised that they exist, for they just live their faith in them like a fish lives in the ocean with no more thought about it than said fish.

What mostly divides us is culture and the meaning of words. Many Protestants are shocked to learn that what they thought Catholics believe is not that at all. That we are very much closer to them in understanding than they think we are. For example, we Catholics have a personal relationship with Christ, but we don’t call it that. We refer to it as the “interior life.” A precise term for our personal prayer life and relationship with God most Protestants have never heard of. Catholics think of themselves as a part of a corporate body of believers while many Protestants think of themselves as individuals who all happen to agree about what they believe and practice as Christians. I could go on and on.

This is what I was trying to convey in my original post–that these differences are why we talk past one another and get so frustrated trying to explain what we believe and why, what we practice and how that is legitimate Christianity. We need a common language to help us cross the divide of 500 years of cultural and doctrinal separation.

 

[maryalene]

Not much to add, but I wanted to say that I thought your OP was great Della. Very thought-provoking.

 

[Della]

maryalene:

Not much to add, but I wanted to say that I thought your OP was great Della. Very thought-provoking.

Thank you, and to all who participated.

I see that I did explain something of my background in my OP, after all. Oh well, just another senior moment here folks. Please pardon my repetition.

(You see, Egg, this is what happens when old age catches up with you. I guess I just have to ride out getting old. )

 

[mark_a]

Hello-

“Can’t you see how simple it all could be if only you gave up the extras you don’t really need?”

But please remember that these things aren’t “extras” to many fundamentalists. These are issues that have their roots in the reformation. Does your average Joe Protestant know this? No. This is what he has absorbed from his teaching authority, who did everything outwardly possible differentiate himself from the corrupt men of the Church.

 

[Mystophilus]

Della:

Just so, I think a good many Protestants are like people looking in through windows of a very large house and seeing the various rooms decorated in ways they never would do and filled with people dressed in bright colors whom they would never otherwise meet.

They look in and judge what the people are talking about and what they think the people must believe from their impressions of their own lives lived in very plain houses with colorless walls and drab clothing. It appears ostentatious and mysterious to them so they decide it can’t be the way most are meant to live. Never once considering that they too might live in such opulence and glory.

I work near the Catholic cathedral in my city, and I often go in at lunchtime, to sit and think and pray. I am fascinated by the sculptures and the candles and the confessionals and the niches with portraits and stories of saints. At the front, there is an alcove with a statue of Mary, and a backdrop with “BVM” worked into it. People place candles on a tray as they pray. Others kneel as they pass the great cross at the front of the church, and as they step into or out of the pews. People cross themselves with holy water from the font inside the door. The whole place rings with the peace of genuine worship.

I disagree with these people’s beliefs: I think that they are probably wrong in some of the things that they think. I also think that I am certainly wrong in some of the things that I think.

I don’t really know where I’m going with this imagery

Not to writing school, unless you plan to teach. :clapping:

our Protestant brethren feel like telling us, “Can’t you see how simple it all could be if only you gave up the extras you don’t really need?” And we feel like saying to them, “But can’t you see that you can have it all? All the glory, all the holiness and all the richness–that these things aren’t extras but are essentials for a truly deep and holy union with God?”

At this point I am forced to ask whether these things are essential for a truly deep and holy union with God. Can you really say that you know what another person needs to achieve that?

I am not saying that they are not essential for you, but I do not think that they are essential for everyone.

I feel most undivided from God when I am on the beach, far from any church of any kind, far from humans and anything made by them. That, however, is just me, and my faith is certainly not fit for general consumption.

Does anyone understand what I mean or am I being too obscure?

Yes.