Protestant... Oh How I HATE That Term...

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Singinbeauty

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All right… I know what kind of can I am opening with this but I am gonna do it anyways… 😛

I HATE the term Protestant. There I said it. I am Non-Denominational (and we have had so many convo’s about that term… this is not the place for it!) but because I am not catholic I am considered protestant. Gee, that’s fair.

Anything and everything that is NOT catholic is considered protestant… right? So, mormans or JW’s or some obscure cult that doesn’t believe that Christ is the Lord of All and the Savior of our Souls are considered protestant? From what I understand ‘protestant’ is a person or group that protests the Catholic Church, right? I don’t protest the RCC… Why am I still protestant? I get lumped in with anyone and everyone who are not even christian by definition but because they aren’t catholic they are protestant…

Does this seem fair?
 
Singinbeauty said:
All right… I know what kind of can I am opening with this but I am gonna do it anyways… 😛

I HATE the term Protestant. There I said it. I am Non-Denominational (and we have had so many convo’s about that term… this is not the place for it!) but because I am not catholic I am considered protestant. Gee, that’s fair.

Anything and everything that is NOT catholic is considered protestant… right? So, mormans or JW’s or some obscure cult that doesn’t believe that Christ is the Lord of All and the Savior of our Souls are considered protestant? From what I understand ‘protestant’ is a person or group that protests the Catholic Church, right? I don’t protest the RCC… Why am I still protestant? I get lumped in with anyone and everyone who are not even christian by definition but because they aren’t catholic they are protestant…

Does this seem fair?
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The Orthodox are not termed Protestant, nor are any true particular Churches (the PNCC for example). I suppose then that a Protestant is someone who protests against Apostolic Succession. Maybe that’s why it’s so hard to class Anglicans.
 
No, Mormons, JWs and others who deny the divinity of Jesus are non-Christians, not Protestants.

What would you prefer to be called?

God love you,
Paul
 
Singinbeauty said:
Ahem… Get ready for it… It’s hard to swallow for SOME (maybe not you, you seem nice 🙂 )… Ready?..

Christian :eek:
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Of course we will call you Christian! The only reason I would call a Protestant Christian a Protestant is to distinguish them from Catholic Christians. It’s a nice and easy all-enveloping term!
 
Atreyu said:
Of course we will call you Christian! The only reason I would call a Protestant Christian a Protestant is to distinguish them from Catholic Christians. It’s a nice and easy all-enveloping term!
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But WHY distinquish? That is my question. If we could get rid of the ‘labels’ and join together under Christ think of the impact we could make on this world…

And thanks for the ‘of course we will call you Christian’… You don’t know how much I hear… ‘whatever’
 
Singinbeauty said:
So, mormans or JW’s or some obscure cult that doesn’t believe that Christ is the Lord of All and the Savior of our Souls are considered protestant?
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Well, for one thing, calling Mormons “Protestant” would be wrong because they’re not even Christians. Not sure about JWs…
 
I’m Catholic, Singin, but I can’t say I blame you. I have long been amazed that Protestants (not sure what other term to use right now) continue to use that term.

The term contains only the following information: “I am Christian (that’s pretty well understood) but I have differences with the Catholic Church”. That’s 100% of what the term means. To know anything more about the individual’s beliefs, one must inquire or just assume whatever one thinks is likely. Worse, it is a tacit admission that one’s religion is derivative, and has meaning only by reference to Catholicism. If I were a Protestant, I would never use the word. Never. And I truly don’t understand why Protestants continue to use it after these 500 years.
 
exoflare:

JWs aren’t Christian either … they believe Jesus is a creature … in fact, they believe He is Michael the Archangel.
…
 
Singinbeauty said:
All right… I know what kind of can I am opening with this but I am gonna do it anyways… 😛

I HATE the term Protestant. There I said it. I am Non-Denominational (and we have had so many convo’s about that term… this is not the place for it!) but because I am not catholic I am considered protestant. Gee, that’s fair.

Anything and everything that is NOT catholic is considered protestant… right? So, mormans or JW’s or some obscure cult that doesn’t believe that Christ is the Lord of All and the Savior of our Souls are considered protestant? From what I understand ‘protestant’ is a person or group that protests the Catholic Church, right? I don’t protest the RCC… Why am I still protestant? I get lumped in with anyone and everyone who are not even christian by definition but because they aren’t catholic they are protestant…

Does this seem fair?
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I’m not sure why it bothers you so much? When I was a Protestant :eek: I didn’t care one bit. I claimed it proudly as a matter of fact. And I was all over the place denominationally, and ended up mostly nondenominational also, before my journey into the Catholic Church.

I guess I just don’t get why it would be a button for you. Most people who are outside the Catholic Church really could care less what the Catholics think about them or how they refer to them. I know I didn’t.😉
 
exoflare said:
Well, for one thing, calling Mormons “Protestant” would be wrong because they’re not even Christians. Not sure about JWs…
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Speaking as a Methodist-Protestant:D
I don’t consider JW or Mormons to be Christian.
Others may disagree with me.
WP
 
Singinbeauty said:
But WHY distinquish? That is my question. If we could get rid of the ‘labels’ and join together under Christ think of the impact we could make on this world
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I hate useless labels just as much as you, believe me…

But sadly the issue here is not just a question of arbitrary labels.
 
sandmountainsli said:
Speaking as a Methodist-Protestant:D
I don’t consider JW or Mormons to be Christian.
Others may disagree with me.
WP
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Mormons are not Christians - that’s just a fact. I’m leaving it open on JWs only because I don’t know anything of their teachings…
 
Singinbeauty said:
But WHY distinquish? That is my question. If we could get rid of the ‘labels’ and join together under Christ think of the impact we could make on this world…
Click to expand...
I am praying for the day of unity to happen.

One thing I could say the reason why we have this distinguish is because I don’t want to attend the wrong church where it does not teach my faith. In other words, it’s used to define what you believe. Nevertheless, I normally call “noncatholic”.

On the other hands, a non-catholic person call Catholic that they are not “Christian” 🙂
 
JW’s don’t believe in the Trinity, or the Divinity of Christ. So, they are not Christians in the orthodox sense of the word.
 
If you don’t like “Protestant”, then try out these optional names:
  1. “Northern” Christian
  2. “Reformed” Christian
  3. “Independent” Christian
  4. “Non-Traditional” Christian
  5. “Individualized” Christian
  6. “Non-Conciliar” Christian
  7. “Occidental” Christian
  8. “Anglo” Christian
  9. “New World” Christian
    OR…
  10. “Trinitarian” Christian
 
Singinbeauty said:
Ahem… Get ready for it… It’s hard to swallow for SOME (maybe not you, you seem nice 🙂 )… Ready?..

Christian :eek:
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The problem with Protestants hijacking the term “Christian” is that they affirm that ONLY Protestants are Christians, as in “I used to be Catholic, but now I’m Christian”.

I will call you a non-Catholic Christian, or a Protestant Christian, but I refuse to buy into the anti-Catholic Protestant hijack of the term that truthfully applies to Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants.

BTW, Protestants are only 25% of the Christians on earth today. 50% are Catholic, 25% are Orthodox and 25% are Protestant. For the first 1500 years of Christianity there were no Protestants. So it is prideful in the extreme for the Johnny-come-lately Protestants to appropriate the term “Christian” to themselves exclusively, as if Christianity suddenly appeared in 1535 AD.

God bless you,
Paul
 
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