Us vs Them mentality

[alekzander]

I’ve noticed alot of threads have developed this Us (Catholics) Vs Them (protestants) mentality,well if you are Catholic and believe you have the fullness of the faith why resort to such childish antics?I’m not coming off as arrogant here but I truely believe that the Catholic church is the Lord’s church and to get involved in bickering and looking for negative things Evangelicals,Baptists,Lutherans say about the Catholic church is a waste of time.I look as John Paul II as an example,he didn’t force catholicism down people’s throats and he was around Muslim’s,Jews,hindu’s…he simply preached the Gospel and the TRADITIONS of the church and he preached with such confidence,he knew he had the truth,we need to follow his example.

 

[Della]

Um. You do know that this is a Catholic apologetics site, right? What are we supposed to do? Just abandon the truth so we can all sing cum-by-ya together?

Of course we should share the truth in love, and that is what we are trying to do, but we won’t back down on the truth to just so we can “all get along” and all go to hell together.

 

[kamz]

I agree with Della, if you go to a Lutheran message board and try to take the “we are all christians so can’t we all just get along?” you will get the “we may be all christians but we Lutherans need to help save you Catholics cause you are wrong” belive me, been there done that, and this is a Catholic board so I think that we do have a right as when I go onto a Lutheran board and post, I better be ready to take a beating

 

[alekzander]

I’m refering to the people that go out of their way to find nasty things protestants say about catholics then come on these boards and say “Look what they are saying about us”. Who cares! If you are confident in your faith you should be able to laugh this stuff off and just shake your head.

 

[alekzander]

Della with all due respect don’;t tell me you are one of these people who think 1 in 1,ooo people are going to make it to heaven,that were all going to hell together,don’t tell me you are one of these doomsdayers!

 

[AmISearching]

actually the thing I don’t get is why any protestants who don’t want to convert hang around here? Nothing against protestants, I am still at this moment a protestant… But - to me, if I wasn’t planning to convert I’d have no reason to keep checking this message board you know? oh I might come through and read a bit to understand a friend, but I wouldn’t be posting…

Now if one of you protestants who are not planning to convert can answer me with your reasons -I’ll accept it - its just that in my mind if I wasn’t converting I wouldn’t be here so it makes me wonder… wouldn’t you be better off finding yourself a protestant message board?

This isn’t a “I don’t think you should come here” post at all - I think they should stay if they liked… its rather “I just don’t understand why you’re here” - help me understand please…

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

Della:

Um. You do know that this is a Catholic apologetics site, right? What are we supposed to do? Just abandon the truth so we can all sing cum-by-ya together?

Of course we should share the truth in love, and that is what we are trying to do, but we won’t back down on the truth to just so we can “all get along” and all go to hell together.

There are several choices - not two:​

1. For Catholics to be inflexible in doctrine
2. For Catholics to be flexible in doctrine
   3/4. For Protestants to be flexible/inflexible in doctrine
   5/6 For Catholics (or Protestants) to make allowances for those they are trying to convince, instead of saying, in effect, “If you don’t like everything we hold to, tough” - are people to be converted to Christ, or to the necessity of celibacy for Roman Rite clergy, for example ? Are people to be saved by faith in Christ, or in the necessity of church government by presbyteries ?
   7 etc…Any other combinations of possibilties there may be.

IOW, When people hold out for this or that, are they always holding out for something which is indispensable to the Gospel; or are they “majoring in minors” ? Sometimes, “standing up for the truth” turns out to mean “standing up for things which need not and should not divide us, but which have assumed an importance they do not really have”.
Does it really matter whether a man of the cloth wears a chasuble or a business suit to lead God’s People in worship? Yet that is the kind of issue that has caused enormous anguish & division. It’s not the kind of thing a novelist would dare to invent. It’s beyond satire.
So often, the very things that are given for the unity & well-being of the Body, have caused terrible divisions. Can’t we minimise these as much as possible, short of being unfaithful to what we cannot but believe and do ?
Yet so much of what actually causes trouble is of relatively minor importance; or is unfamiliar rather than wrong; or needs a bit of explaining in terms familiar to those we want to persuade, rather than in ours.

 

[Della]

alekzander:

Della with all due respect don’;t tell me you are one of these people who think 1 in 1,ooo people are going to make it to heaven,that were all going to hell together,don’t tell me you are one of these doomsdayers!

LOL! Not at all! I was just employing a bit of hyperbole with that expression.

 

[Della]

alekzander:

I’m refering to the people that go out of their way to find nasty things protestants say about catholics then come on these boards and say “Look what they are saying about us”. Who cares! If you are confident in your faith you should be able to laugh this stuff off and just shake your head.

I know just what you mean. Some newbie board member comes here all worked up about some anti-Catholic website and all but demands we go over there and beat the snot out of those heretics! :bounce:

They are almost always surprised and disappointed when we tell them it isn’t worth the time and effort. And while I admire such zeal and believe in evangelizing as much as they do, I also take Jesus’ words quite literally when he told us not to “cast your pearls before swine.”

Anti-Catholics have souls worth saving, of course, but the kind that host websites whose primary reason for existence is to bash the Catholic Church are hardly fertile ground for the seed of the Gospel. Their hatred is profound and immovable, except by the grace of God. We ought to pray earnestly for them as Jesus commanded us to do, but we don’t have to :banghead: trying to get them to see what they don’t want to see, either.

 

[Steven_Merten]

alekzander:

I’m refering to the people that go out of their way to find nasty things protestants say about catholics then come on these boards and say “Look what they are saying about us”. Who cares! If you are confident in your faith you should be able to laugh this stuff off and just shake your head.

Hello alekzander,

While you may be secure in your faith, there are many Catholics who do not have the a sound defense against the constant anti Catholic bombardment of many Protestants.

Do you think it is safe for Catholics to hear from Catholics that all denominations are fine and we are one big happy family and then they hear from the Protestants that Catholics are all damned to hell? Do you think that, in a situation like this, those Catholics weak in the faith might become Protestants in which case they would be taking both Protestant and nice, non-contraversy, Catholics advice?

And then people wonder why we are loosing Catholics.

Let us not hold back on the truth at these Catholic forms simply because we want to look like “nice” guys. Let us tell it like it is.

 

[terri910]

alekzander:

I’m refering to the people that go out of their way to find nasty things protestants say about catholics then come on these boards and say “Look what they are saying about us”. Who cares! If you are confident in your faith you should be able to laugh this stuff off and just shake your head.

Who has to go out LOOKING for nasty things people say about Catholics? It has always been a part of my life, because I was raised protestant and converted to Catholicism as an adult. I heard just about every misconception about Catholicism by the time I was a teenager: they worship Mary and idols, they think the Pope is God and can’t make a mistake. I am VERY confident in my faith, and there is no way I will laugh off some of the things I hear. That would be like hearing someone tell horrible lies about my husband and just let them go ahead with a smile.

Ain’t gonna happen.

You don’t have to be nasty to set lies straight. But you have to set them straight.