Were you raised with a bias toward.....?

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IGotQuestions said:
Catholics Were you raised with a bias toward Protestants?
Protestants Were you raised with a bias toward Catholics?
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I was. My parents converted to Pentecostalism before I was born in very Catholic Italy, and there was some bad blood between the two groups, so the Assemblies of God in Italy, the denomination my parents joined, tried to distance themselves from Catholicism as much as they could. Crossing oneself was unacceptable, they generally did not name their churches (they would refer to the individual church by referring to the street name), and Christmas was “reduced” in terms of emphasis, lest they seem too influenced by the Catholic Church.

Once we came to the United States, over the years my parents’ perceptions of Catholicism changed. They warmed up to Catholicism much more, although they still consider it in error in many ways (but they do not at all deny that Catholicism is a Christian faith). Growing up in American churches, I would say I heard very little (if any) hostility to Catholicism at all in the congregations. But it’s my personal experience so I don’t know what other people might have experienced.
 
Raised Pentecostal with the beliefs that:
  • Catholics are not Christian.
  • Catholics worship Mary and the Saints
  • The Catholic Church is the whore of Babylon
  • The anti-Christ is likely to be the Pope (I still have 1 brother who believes that - he seems to think all Catholics must do whatever the Pope says and that we follow him blindly).
Most of the family now think that Catholics can be Christian but it is despite been Catholic. The vast majority of Catholics are not Christians. . My impression is that they think I’ve been tricked and I don’t know my faith. I certainly feel I am no longer welcome to involve myself in the religious discussions in the household. My view is no longer valid.

There is no dislike for Catholics. More just pity that they’ve been deceived. My parents didn’t say who I could or couldn’t be friends with as a child. They were of the view that we all had the right to pick our own friends. We were not required to like their friends (we did have to be respectful of course) nor were they required to like ours.

Although the Catholic Church wasn’t so bad when I was 13 and my brother got his (15 yr old) girlfriend pregnant. That night Dad thought it would be a good idea if I became a Catholic nun.
 
I was agnostic until I was 27.

Raised in a quasi-Christian home. (My family would later become very devout)

Growing up heard all the horrible things about the Catholic church.

It was the whore of Babylon that worshiped Mary instead of Jesus.

They added 7 books to the bible at Trent.

They think they are working their way to heaven by doing all that “sitting, kneeling, standing” during Mass.

They dishonor Jesus by naming Churches after Saints.

And on and on and on…

I used to laugh at it then because I thought all the Christians were lunatics who believed in fairy tales told by bronze aged goat herders. I was very ugly to those who tried to evangelize me. And I found it amusing that these people were fighting over who had correctly interpreted these “fairy tales”.

After being protestant for over a decade and then becoming Catholic, It has not been received well. I really don’t care though, I am convinced this is the Church Jesus established and I trust in Him that He did not allow it to go off the deep end. God keeps promises as we saw time and time again in the OT, and He made a promise to Peter and the Church, And I trust in it.
 
I was baptized as a child and raised Catholic as my mum is Catholic, but I attended Protestant schools and even attended Protestant church for a while as my dad was Protestant, and so are most of my relatives. I always considered myself Catholic though [even when not practicing] so I guess there was a bias. I only got confirmed as an adult, too.
 
Lenten_ashes said:
I was agnostic until I was 27.

Raised in a quasi-Christian home. (My family would later become very devout)

Growing up heard all the horrible things about the Catholic church.

It was the whore of Babylon that worshiped Mary instead of Jesus.

They added 7 books to the bible at Trent.

They think they are working their way to heaven by doing all that “sitting, kneeling, standing” during Mass.

They dishonor Jesus by naming Churches after Saints.

And on and on and on…

I used to laugh at it then because I thought all the Christians were lunatics who believed in fairy tales told by bronze aged goat herders. I was very ugly to those who tried to evangelize me. And I found it amusing that these people were fighting over who had correctly interpreted these “fairy tales”.

After being protestant for over a decade and then becoming Catholic, It has not been received well. I really don’t care though, I am convinced this is the Church Jesus established and I trust in Him that He did not allow it to go off the deep end. God keeps promises as we saw time and time again in the OT, and He made a promise to Peter and the Church, And I trust in it.
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I feel badly when I read stories of bias like those which you shared, Lenten Ashes and CatholicSheila. I imagine it is even more painful when the bias comes from family members. I realize it’s not the same, but please accept a heartfelt apology from a lifelong Protestant who has come to understand the depth of love, service, and devotion to our Lord that many Catholics have.

In my case back in high school where my best friend at the time did not reciprocate in attending my Protestant church service because of the bias (in my opinion) of his Catholic mother (post #39), I feel some Catholics whom I’m come to know on CAF would’ve reciprocated in attending one of my services at my church provided that they had fulfilled their Sunday obligation on Saturday night or later in the day on Sunday – if I understand Catholicism correctly.
 
Raised by two Irish Catholic parents, the main things about Protestants I was taught were, although they believed in Chist, they did not believe that He could become the Body (subtlety suggesting they didn’t really believe as God could do anything), that white Anglo Saxon Protestant s would never Really accept me as a Catholic, and that Masons were secretly trying to rule the world :D.
 
Tommy999 said:
I feel badly when I read stories of bias like those which you shared, Lenten Ashes and CatholicSheila. I imagine it is even more painful when the bias comes from family members. I realize it’s not the same, but please accept a heartfelt apology from a lifelong Protestant who has come to understand the depth of love, service, and devotion to our Lord that many Catholics have.

In my case back in high school where my best friend at the time did not reciprocate in attending my Protestant church service because of the bias (in my opinion) of his Catholic mother (post #39), I feel some Catholics whom I’m come to know on CAF would’ve reciprocated in attending one of my services at my church provided that they had fulfilled their Sunday obligation on Saturday night or later in the day on Sunday – if I understand Catholicism correctly.
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Thank you very much Tommy.

Now as Catholic I see a few devout Catholics who have these unkind things to say about protestants as well, and I don’t like that either. Even though I do not agree with protestant theology, many of them are good and sincere Christians who love the Lord and we shouldn’t do things to cause more division among us.

And yes, you understand correctly. We can and would go to your service, we just cant substitute it for the Mass.

Pax
 
Tommy999 said:
I feel badly when I read stories of bias like those which you shared, Lenten Ashes and CatholicSheila. I imagine it is even more painful when the bias comes from family members. I realize it’s not the same, but please accept a heartfelt apology from a lifelong Protestant who has come to understand the depth of love, service, and devotion to our Lord that many Catholics have.
Click to expand...
Thank you Tommy. I can not be too harsh with my family however. They just don’t know better. The truth is they’ve never really researched and it is very easy to listen to what others in your own group say someone believes than actually speak to the people whose beliefs you disagree with. We see it often here where Catholics try to explain non-Catholic beliefs. How often do we get it wrong?

I must admit in my pentecostal days I was involved in street preaching and I recall telling at least one Catholic that “no, you’re not Christian. Try reading your bible”. Oh, how things have changed.

I also understand some of their views. Whilst we don’t worship Mary and the Saints, if a protestant doesn’t agree that the Eucharist is the blood, body, soul and divinity of our Lord I can understand why they may think we worship something other than God. They’re wrong, but I get their view.
 
I was raised Pentecostal, and while there was considerable opposition to all things Catholic, I don’t recall any particular bias toward Catholicism. Our pastor considered Catholicism to be a false version of Christianity, not because of any particular Catholic characteristics, but because Catholics were allowed to drink, smoke, and cuss, and therefore they were sinners who had never even been saved. I don’t think that he actually knew enough about Catholicism to be an anti-Catholic.

Also, we were told that if we were invited to attend a Catholic Mass, that we first insist that the Catholic who invited us attend one of our services. Of course, in the pre-V-II days that was a deal-breaker, because no observant Catholic would set foot inside a Protestant church.
 
I was raised by atheist parents. Dad is a militant atheist and anti-theist, yet he insisted on sending all his children to Anglican/Catholic boarding schools.

To his dismay all his children are christians. 😃

2 Catholics, 2 Anglicans and 1 Church of Nazarene

In answer to your question, I was taught to distrust all religions and that they are the primary cause of all the world’s problems. I suppose I should thank Dad for being a part of my conversion because his mantra of “question and research everything” led me to the Catholic Church.
 
Portuguese Catholic here,
Was never raised with Bias, but to be honest in Portugal there are very few Protestants… so there wouldn’t be many bias to put to work either.

God bless,
D.
 
I didn’t even know other denominations and religions existed until I was around fourth grade. Before then, whenever I would see a Baptist church for example, I thought it was just a parish where people were baptized a lot. And whenever I saw a Muslim woman, I thought she was a nun.
 
Both. 🙂

I was raised by a lapsed-Anglican father and a then lapsed Catholic mom…we returned/joined the RCC when I was 12.

The Anglican side of the family was quite anti-Catholic. The Catholic side was not thrilled with Protestants. My father turned out to be very anti-Catholic, my mom wasn’t anti-protestant but her family had some biases.

It got quite confusing for me to be sure.
 
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