Were you taught negative information about another faith in church?

[Fred_4]

Oh yes, most certainly! I was raised in a fundementalist Baptist church which was extremely and consistently negative regarding just about anyone who wasn’t “us.”

In fact, for awhile (as a child) I just accepted that from the time of the apostles until Martin Luther everyone went to Hell because everyone was Catholic. That is until I was able intellectually to realize how absurd this must be… and by the way, if Martin Luther was so great why do we now distrust and dislike Lutherans as much as Catholics?

Oh my God it was terrible! In college I got into the evangelical movement (Campus Crusade for Christ, “Bible Church”) which was much more moderate and accepting of others views. Well, not really, but they spent much more time evangelizing and teaching the Bible than reviling everyone who wasn’t them.

I thank God that, in his mercy, he allowed me to become Roman Catholic. My wife is a cradle Catholic and she has reiterated what so many other posters here state… that they never heard a negative thing about others. She states that she was only taught to respect and love everyone regardless of their religion. She can hardly believe some of the stories I tell her, or (since Chicago is a “Catholic-friendly” city (by virtue of there being so many of us here)), the level of anti-Catholicism in this country outside of our environs.

Anyway, I’m done with that. Of course, I believe the teachings of the Church and believe them to be “right” which necessarily makes others who are contrary to this teaching “wrong.” But I have no interest whatever in disparaging anyone or doing anything other than accepting them and loving them as best I can. Not that I’m a saint… I know I can be kind of a jag-off a lot of times. But that’s just me… not a result of what another person believes or does not believe. And I’m working on it. I know God wants me to be better. Anyway, I’ve officially crossed into the “rambling” territory. Sorry. That’s all.

The Lord is kind and merciful… Psalm 103

 

[Nevarlander]

I’ve never been taught in a church, Catholic or Protestant, anything negative about any religion at all. Only about why being a Christian is so great.

 

[sneakers]

As a child I don’t recall being taught much, if anything, positive or negative, about any faith but Catholicism.

Same here. I never heard an unkind word - or anything at all for that matter - from our priests or the teachers at the Catholic school I attended. We learned about our Catholic faith. I was dimly aware, when I was six or seven, that some people went to other churches, but I thought almost everybody else was Catholic! )

 

[Light_Seeker]

During RCIA we had a Priest who served many years in the Vatican as a theologist, who converted to RC from Episcopal, talk at length about what Catholics believe compared to Protestants, Baptists, JW’s, Mormons, Lutherans, even Muslims, Hindus & Buddhists. At no time was he ever negative or said they were wrong, just what their beliefs are compared to Catholics. Very educational.

 

[KnightErrantJR]

During RCIA we had a Priest who served many years in the Vatican as a theologist, who converted to RC from Episcopal, talk at length about what Catholics believe compared to Protestants, Baptists, JW’s, Mormons, Lutherans, even Muslims, Hindus & Buddhists. At no time was he ever negative or said they were wrong, just what their beliefs are compared to Catholics. Very educational.

See, now I don’t think that people should be constantly harping on what’s wrong with other religions, since the crux of all education should be what you beleive and what you should be doing, IF you do start delving into other religions, especially religions that are not Christian, I think its a slippery slope to start teaching their beleifs and NOT pointing out that they are wrong.

If you don’t, then it start to become a matter of “they are all equally valid, just find the one you like the best.”

 

[Tweety]

I have never been taught anything except ‘love, tolerance, acceptance, forgiveness and don’t judge!’

 

[mark_a]

My dear Catholic, non-Catholic Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Mormon, etc. brothers and sisters, Please answer the following question:

Were you taught negative information about any other faith(whether or not you deem it to be truth) at church by your priest, pastor, minister, rabbi, etc. or other religious person in charge of your religious formation? Please explain your answer if you wish.

As a Catholic child, I never heard anything negative about other religions and always just thought different people had different ways of worshiping the Lord. In adulthood, I began to hear from friends and acquaintences that they were taught from the pulpit and Sunday school teacher negative things specifically about the Catholic faith.

Ditto.

I have yet to have a priest say anything negative about another faith during Mass and since I’m now almost 38, I’ve attended a lot of Masses.

Me neither. One of our local priests tells us it is better for someone to become a good Baptist, Presbyterian, ect than to be a bad Catholic.

The worst thing I’ve ever heard about another religion from a priest is that double predestination is cruel.

 

[Techno2000]

No problem, Maybe I can get you a link to a Mass so you can see for yourself, I know I have one and I will try to post it if I can find it, Its been a long time since I even looked at it honestly, since I dont seem to find a reason to look at a link.

I will be happy to mail to you “The Mass Explained” by Father Larry Richards
its from the Mary Foundation and the bottom in bold says
Get the facts. Decide for yourself.

If you would like I will mail it to you ASAP.

You will see, that the Holy Mass is not a platform for this kind of thing.

Let me know via PM or here on the thread and I will send it right away.

saintmaryparish.net/ordo_missae.htm
You are right, everything is in order in the Mass.

 

[ASimpleSinner]

As a child I don’t recall being taught much, if anything, positive or negative, about any faith but Catholicism.

As a child I don’t recall being taught much, if anything, positive or negative, about any faith **even **Catholicism.

I had one foot out the door before someone put a few books in my hands clearing up a lot of things. And then another. And then another…

When it came to non-Catholics - if we talked about them at all - it would be said “that’s how they do it” wihtout any real sense of whether the difference was important.

 

[Publisher]

I was…and from the level of “negative posts” on the CAF I’d wonder where the Catholics got all their negative opinions about Protestants if not from their church?

I see statement from Catholic posters which are gross misunderstandings of Protestant belief each day I come here ranging from “good works” to “christology”. If it wasn’t learned from Catholic priests then it was learned from Catholic books…but no matter who it was learned from, it was still wrong information…in much the same way that we non-Catholics were taught some very false info about the RCC either directly or through books.

I’m amazed at the response on the polls.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

I have to differ–I don’t see very much in the way of negative statements about Protestants–to the contrary.

Certainly Catholics do not believe in Protestant teachings. I am sure that, to a Protestant, this comes across as ‘negative’. But it is not directed at the individual.

After all, as a Protestant you feel Catholic teachings are wrong–but I’m sure you would say that you don’t have negative feelings about Catholics.

And (again), the fact that you believe your Church’s information (as we do yours) means that you are going to believe that, where we differ from your teaching, it is because we have been exposed to ‘negative teaching’. But. . .and I can’t stress this enough–you have to understand that to us, our teaching is the positive. Whatever is not is ‘not positive’. It isn’t really that we are searching for ‘negatives’–we are, rather, trying to stress the positive–and to us, the positive is the truth of Catholic teaching.

We cannot ‘help it’ that by our acknowledgement of Catholic teaching as fully true, it logically follows suit that non-Catholic teaching is less true or even at times false. We have ‘fullness of truth’; others do not necessarily lack truth but they lack that ‘fullness’.

I’m sorry if it comes across as negative. It is not meant to be. It is, instead, a call to explore and examine the fullness of Catholicism.

 

[Bennie_P]

I was…and from the level of “negative posts” on the CAF I’d wonder where the Catholics got all their negative opinions about Protestants if not from their church?

As a former Protestant and now a Catholic the negative aspects of others beliefs come from outside the church in my experience. From others who don’t take the time to find out what is really taught within the different belief systems. As a protestant only once did I hear teaching about other faith systems and it was a comparison of beliefs, though how the Catholic Church was presented was really wrong and full of misinformation and this was done in a class setting, not from the pulpit, nor in a regular “sunday school” class.

As a Catholic I hear more negative comments mainly in the arena where people are searching for the truth, or are trying to defend their own faith as they are getting more serious about thier faith.

Most negative teaching I recieved about different churchs as a youth came from those that didn’t practice any faith at all, or from people that were negative about thier own religous upbringing which they rejected and a lot more of that came when I went to College and the false teaching of others’ beliefs came from people who claimed to be agnostic or athiest.

 

[kell0618]

I was…and from the level of “negative posts” on the CAF I’d wonder where the Catholics got all their negative opinions about Protestants if not from their church?

Many people on the religious forums, myself included, had not ever had their faith attacked as happens in on-line/anonymous discussion groups. I have been a part of various religious forums for three or four years and have been attacked for my faith to the point where I couldn’t sleep some nights and had to stay away from the forums for a while. The benefit from those attacks is that it has made me even stronger in my faith and I have studied up on my faith so that I can engage better in apologetics.

I hope this offers a bit of insight.

Kelly

 

[Publisher]

As a former Protestant and now a Catholic the negative aspects of others beliefs come from outside the church in my experience. From others who don’t take the time to find out what is really taught within the different belief systems. As a protestant only once did I hear teaching about other faith systems and it was a comparison of beliefs, though how the Catholic Church was presented was really wrong and full of misinformation and this was done in a class setting, not from the pulpit, nor in a regular “sunday school” class.

As a Catholic I hear more negative comments mainly in the arena where people are searching for the truth, or are trying to defend their own faith as they are getting more serious about thier faith.

Most negative teaching I recieved about different churchs as a youth came from those that didn’t practice any faith at all, or from people that were negative about thier own religous upbringing which they rejected and a lot more of that came when I went to College and the false teaching of others’ beliefs came from people who claimed to be agnostic or athiest.

I guess I wasn’t necessarily thinking “negative” as much as “misinformed”…definitely not “attack”.

Yes we do have differing views…but I thought the gist of the OP was “negative” information as opposed to “attacks”…Prior to my return to the Society of Friends I attended a Church of the Nazarene, I did hear “attacks” against Catholics every once in a while, but now that I’ve been coming here, I realize it’s just “misinformation” as to what Catholics really believe…I think that Catholics have a large amount of misconception about Protestants…but misconceptions and ‘negative’ posts aren’t attacks…it’s negative posts based on misconceptions…IMO

 

[jack_hawkins]

yes, a big distinction must be made between misinformed and spiteful
I found a lot of what I had been told about Catholicism was wrong, but I’m sure there was no malicious reason for that

 

[KarenNC]

Many people on the religious forums, myself included, had not ever had their faith attacked as happens in on-line/anonymous discussion groups. I have been a part of various religious forums for three or four years and have been attacked for my faith to the point where I couldn’t sleep some nights and had to stay away from the forums for a while. The benefit from those attacks is that it has made me even stronger in my faith and I have studied up on my faith so that I can engage better in apologetics.

I have had a similar experience, though I do have to admit that I have had my religion attacked in person as well. As I said in the poll on “why are you here at CAF,” a couple of the benefits for me have been that it has made me even more sure and grounded in my faith and has been great apologetics practice, helping me strengthen my knowledge of my own faith and crystallizing my arguments for it as I answer questions and confrontations.

It’s also given me a lot of practice in learning to try to deal rationally and calmly in the face of extremely negative personal attacks rather than sink to the other person’s level. It is not an easy thing and I do not always manage it. Things like the call for an online exorcism, being called a demonic spirit because I was “too kind,” told I was a loser living in my parents’ basement, unemployable, a rebellious teenager, social reject, uneducated, stupid, idiotic, playacting with my “so-called pretend gods” to get attention (and more) entirely on the basis of the name of my faith (because those posters did not show any real knowledge about it), not with any personal knowledge of me or my living situation at all (which doesn’t fit the above description, suffice it to say).

It’s hard to pass these sorts of things off as simple misinformation or misunderstanding about someone’s faith rather than spiteful and malicious attacks against the individual’s character as a person. Misinformation about my religion and others similar to it I can and do deal with regularly(and expect, it is one of the reasons I am here–to help clear up those misconceptions). Spiteful and petty juvenile personal attacks simply because I have a different belief system are different issues entirely.

One hopes that the posters (most Catholic) are not getting this idea of my religion from their priests, but since there is at least one person on the boards who uses this sort of language about other religions regularly as far as I can tell and says he is a priest, I don’t hold huge hopes that it doesn’t happen. One can only hope he is atypical.

 

[kell0618]

I just lurked for about 5 minutes at the CARM website and was sickened by the blatant attacks on Catholicism. No wonder why some posters here doubt that Catholics don’t teach hatred from the pulpit; it seems there are many other Chrisitian churches that do.

 

[jack_hawkins]

when I replied in the positive to the question posed, it was in reference to the churches I was brought up in
I have not heard any negative comments from my priests, they are very good in recognizing the things that the Catholic church has learnt from Protestant churches
I think ministers of most denominations (being more educated) don’t tend to be the ones being negative, it’s more the foot soldiers

 

[Allweather]

I just lurked for about 5 minutes at the CARM website and was sickened by the blatant attacks on Catholicism. No wonder why some posters here doubt that Catholics don’t teach hatred from the pulpit; it seems there are many other Chrisitian churches that do.

I just now looked in there at CARM and browsed around. On the Roman Catholicism link, there is this:

""The Protestant Church cites the Bible alone as the source of doctrinal knowledge. The Catholic church, on the other hand, cites the Bible and Tradition. Please consider the following…"

I like it that he says “The Protestant Church” as if there’s only one. Ha Ha Ha… it is too ridiculous to take seriously.

 

[kell0618]

I just now looked in there at CARM and browsed around. On the Roman Catholicism link, there is this:

""The Protestant Church cites the Bible alone as the source of doctrinal knowledge. The Catholic church, on the other hand, cites the Bible and Tradition. Please consider the following…"

I like it that he says “The Protestant Church” as if there’s only one. Ha Ha Ha… it is too ridiculous to take seriously.

Browse for just a few minutes and you’ll see the patronizing banter referring to “Romanism” and the “Romanists”, etc. etc. Go to the Roman Catholicism, other forum. You can spend weeks there in the muck if you can stomach it, but I’ll leave that for the already well-established CARM thread on CAF.

Interesting to see from the poll results in this thread that there is a definite consistency in percentages even as the numbers increase.