Protestant vs. Cafeteria Catholic?

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HabemusFrancis

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Whose soul is in a better position, or which is more desirable to be?

A “Cafeteria Catholic” baptized in the faith, who attends mass every Sunday, but who picks and chooses Catholic Dogmas freely (same sex marriage,sex before marriage, etc. etc.) almost making God in their own image? or

A devout Protestant who sincerely believes the Catholic Church is a distortion of Christ’s message but who takes the bible seriously and truly believes in the grave evils of the aforementioned sins.

I ask this because I think for far too many Catholics, Catholocism is just a cultural thing, almost on par with being Irish or Italian, and so they count themselves Catholic without having much of a serious faith to back up the claim. I notice this is practically never the case with serious evangelicals/baptists.

Any ideas?
 
Good question.

Does the protestant believe in once saved always saved?

I would say the catholic because they are outside the correct house instead of inside the wrong house, no offence.
 
Unless you believe that you can peer into a person’s soul and see what state it is in, these threads are pointless, and very judgmental.

:crying:
 
People who live the faith to the best of their ability are in the better position. Jesus said," to whom much is given, much will be required" (Luke 12:48). So protestants, hindus, buddhist, etc. who live their faith according to what they know and the natural law, are in a better position than Catholics who reject what they know and live according to their own standards. I think a simple example is that a good protestant, hindu, etc accepts a higher authority and tries to live accordingly, but the Catholic who rejects the authority ends up living by their own standards.

Having said that, only God can judge the individual for “what they know” and whether or not they have lived up to that to the best of their ability.
 
MaryT777 said:
No one on this forum can judge souls.
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And, unless one is a trained professional, no on can tell from the outside the mental, emotional,intellectual, or psychological capacity and ability of another. Have to agree with the above poster(s), the question is a straw dog.

:twocents:
 
HabemusFrancis said:
Whose soul is in a better position, or which is more desirable to be?

A “Cafeteria Catholic” baptized in the faith, who attends mass every Sunday, but who picks and chooses Catholic Dogmas freely (same sex marriage,sex before marriage, etc. etc.) almost making God in their own image? or

A devout Protestant who sincerely believes the Catholic Church is a distortion of Christ’s message but who takes the bible seriously and truly believes in the grave evils of the aforementioned sins.

I ask this because I think for far too many Catholics, Catholocism is just a cultural thing, almost on par with being Irish or Italian, and so they count themselves Catholic without having much of a serious faith to back up the claim. I notice this is practically never the case with serious evangelicals/baptists.

Any ideas?
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The scenario you describe is impossible to predict.

However, I would say THIS:

– A devout Protestant who does NOT bash Catholics or the Catholic Church, who considers Catholics to be Christians, and who does NOT insult the Mother God is most likely in a much better place than a “dissent” Catholic.

NOTE: I said “dissent” Catholic, not “cafeteria” Catholic because a dissent (at least to me) fully knows the Church’s teaching and is still actively going against it. A “cafeteria” Catholic very well may lack knowledge in regards to Church teachings.

God Bless.
 
Only God knows. I know protestants who know the bible well and dont live it. I know Catholics who dont attend Mass but seem to live it better than those who do.

I’ll say this… I think we will all be surprised to see certain individuals in heaven. And we will wonder why some people aren’t there with us.

Let us pray that we are all counted among those who stayed faithfull. And for those who are in most need of his mercy
 
As an aside, do Protestants have the Sacrament of Reconcilliation
 
Only God knows. Anyone who gives you a definitive answer is a fool. We can speculate, but never be sure.
 
Roseeurekacross said:
As an aside, do Protestants have the Sacrament of Reconcilliation
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No. But many do pray directly to God for forgiveness, seeking what Catholics would call Perfect Contrition.

However, I might be mistaken, but I don’t think they have Imperfect Contrition, which Catholics (and Orthodox) can receive via the Sacarment (if not perfect contrition). << but I could be VERY wrong about this.
 
I think the underlying issues here are serious and worthy of discussion. Indeed, they are often discussed.

It is unfortunate that the OP framed it in terms of the state of people’s souls, which invites the response that only God knows that.

However, if instead of asking about the state of souls we look at the wider observation that Protestants are often better informed about their religion and more visibly committed to it than Catholics then there is a genuine topic.

This confronts people who are considering conversion or who have converted. I remember when I was considering conversion that I felt that I knew the Catholic faith better than most of the people in the parish I was attending, and yet they were receiving communion and I wasn’t.

This perception sometimes draws Catholics out of the Church and into a more “committed” or “welcoming” church. It is also a very common criticism made of the Catholic Church by other Christians. They are almost scandalised by a perception of Catholics as scripturally ignorant, morally lax or just lukewarm.

The basic answer is that the Catholic Church is like a family, whereas a Protestant congregation is more like a special interest club. We don’t get to choose the members of our family, but we still have to get along with them. It’s easier to get along in a club because we have all chosen that club.

I think this is what the OP was getting at with:
HabemusFrancis said:
I ask this because I think for far too many Catholics, Catholocism is just a cultural thing, almost on par with being Irish or Italian, and so they count themselves Catholic without having much of a serious faith to back up the claim. I notice this is practically never the case with serious evangelicals/baptists.

Any ideas?
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ps. A knowledge of Church history shows that almost every heresy and schism has arisen from a “stricter” group reacting to apparent laxity in the Catholic Church.
 
Evangelism begins at home. Religious education does not end at First Communion. How many times have we heard these things? Once a year, during Lent, we’re reminded to go on a journey through the desert for forty years with the Israelites, and into the desert for forty days with the Lord, to gather ourselves around fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, to seek spiritual and personal intensity. And how few take up the challenge. Be hot or cold, the Lord commands us; the lukewarm get spit out.

Many Protestants have the fallback position of “invincible ignorance.” Not so the well-educated Catholic. To their individual consciences I refer the problem. OP, you’ve joined the voices crying in the wilderness.
 
MaryT777 said:
No one on this forum can judge souls.
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Let’s say I ask you, “Which is the graver sin? Adultery or stealing candy bars?”

Are you sincerely going to tell me that the answer to that question is, “Well, no one can judge souls, aside from God Himself, so who knows?”

Just as homosexuality is wrong on the objective level, so it is wrong to be a Modernist, on the objective level, and so it is wrong to be a Protestant on, you guessed it, the objective level.

Is one of those two camps LESS sinful than the other? I would say someone who goes to a Catholic parish, who has access to Church teaching, who knows what that Church teaching is, who knows that they must assent to it, and who furthermore REFUSES to assent seems to be a little bit closer to objectively committing grave sin than a Protestant who does or knows none of those things.

Let’s phrase it a different way.

If a Catholic Modernist knew that Jesus Christ wanted him to submit to the teaching of the Church, would he do it? If he says yes, then that’s wonderful. But he has to explain to Christ why he is presently refusing to do so when he knows the religion he adheres to tells him he should.

If a Protestant knew that Christ wanted him to submit to the teaching of the Church, would he do it? I think the average sincere Protestant absolutely would. And while he still has some explaining to do, he also has far more formation that has actively taught him to stay away from the Catholics altogether.

Both of these groups could overcome their barriers, but one, all other things being equal, has less of an intellectual distance to go than the other, and therefore, objectively speaking, is more proximate to sin.

Now, is any of this judgmental? No, because we’re not speaking of individuals.

So those of you who have played that card need to stop being so bloody modern. 😉
 
HabemusFrancis said:
Whose soul is in a better position, or which is more desirable to be?

A “Cafeteria Catholic” baptized in the faith, who attends mass every Sunday, but who picks and chooses Catholic Dogmas freely (same sex marriage,sex before marriage, etc. etc.) almost making God in their own image? or

A devout Protestant who sincerely believes the Catholic Church is a distortion of Christ’s message but who takes the bible seriously and truly believes in the grave evils of the aforementioned sins.

I ask this because I think for far too many Catholics, Catholocism is just a cultural thing, almost on par with being Irish or Italian, and so they count themselves Catholic without having much of a serious faith to back up the claim. I notice this is practically never the case with serious evangelicals/baptists.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Let’s put it this way - anyone who goes around judging souls is sinning big-time. He’s usurping Christ as our only judge (James 4:11-12). If he also thinks he’s any better then he could be in for a nasty surprise (Luke 18:9-14). And the very idea of stereotyping certain types of Catholics sows discord in his church (Romans 14). Oh dear oh dear :D.
Edmundus1581 said:
This perception sometimes draws Catholics out of the Church and into a more “committed” or “welcoming” church. It is also a very common criticism made of the Catholic Church by other Christians. They are almost scandalised by a perception of Catholics as scripturally ignorant, morally lax or just lukewarm.

The basic answer is that the Catholic Church is like a family, whereas a Protestant congregation is more like a special interest club. We don’t get to choose the members of our family, but we still have to get along with them. It’s easier to get along in a club because we have all chosen that club.
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In a city not far away, many Catholics are in special interest clubs, which meet in Holy Week to compete in horsemanship, etc. The two main fraternities sit opposite each other to cheer their own side and boo the others. They shoulder or pull floats, pasos, of Christ and Mary. The floats are works of art and there are fine embroideries and so on. It’s a tourist attraction now but every town does similar on a smaller scale. All the generations join in, it’s tradition. - youtube.com/watch?v=5D801M4OKzM

See from Good Friday this year the Paso Azul carrying Christ and Mary, including pointy hats and Mary being ticker-taped, from minute 9 to 13.

Some may not go to church often, and use condoms, approve of equal marriage, etc., but that’s not necessarily how they define their Catholicism. The kind of Catholicism sometimes shown on CAF seems dead and passionless by comparison, as if the message that Christ came to set us free got replaced by a rule book. Maybe those Spanish Catholics have more in common with these Pentecostals from Australia.
 
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