This is an interesting question. I’m still mulling over the answers and trying to pick the best one.
I understand that it’s difficult to provide a comprehensive answer within the character limits of the poll options, but since I don’t have those limitations for this post, I’ll be a bit beyond what is permitted for a poll option.
Catholics and non-Catholics disagree on a variety of things. When you talk about these things, it leads to conflict. And according to a saying that I’ve found to be pretty reliable, “There’s no conflict without relationship and there’s no relationship without conflict.” Conflict of almost any variety can be dealt with in a healthy way that leads to greater trust in spite of (and in a way, even because of) differences and disagreements. Conflict can also be dealt with in an unhealthy way that leads to a relationship that, in the long term, is painful and just bad. When it goes that way, it’s pretty common for people to just push each other away and discontinue the relationship. (Problem solved: No more relationship, no more conflict). Both people often wind up in a place where they’d rather have nothing than something bad. From another perspective, though, you might say they’ve given up on dealing with the conflict in a healthy way so that it leads to a good relationship. Yes, there will still be conflict along with the relationship- that absolutely goes with the territory in any relationship, and the level of conflict generally correlates positively with the closeness of the relationship. But it’s manageable conflict that can be beneficial instead of harmful.
I don’t know if this could be condensed to a viable poll option, but I might summarize it this way: This kind of hate happens because one or both parties don’t resolve their conflict in an appropriate way. Resolving conflict doesn’t usually mean you both believe the same things at the end of it. The conflict has resolved in the sense that the animosity has come to an end, but the differences are still there- and you can love each other in spite of them. In some ways, it can lead to an even closer relationship than what you can have with someone who believes all the same things you do. That’s because it takes a greater amount of trust and vulnerability in order to achieve this result through conflict resolution. And when you put more work into making a relationship work, it also tends to be more rewarding.
Granted, it’s a whole lot easier to develop good relationships with people in the absence of great amounts of conflict. However, if you’re going to develop a really close relationship with anyone, you have to come to terms with each others’ differences and work through a few conflicts on some level. (The easiest place to find testimony to that effect is from the marriages of pretty much any person you’ll ever talk to). If you have a total absence of conflict with another person, it probably means your relationship isn’t very close. When there’s a lot of differences and a lot of potential for conflict, that certainly makes it a lot more difficult. But if you place a comparably high value on your relationship with that person and they’re nice enough to return the favor, I’d say it’s worth it to do what it takes to make it work.
All of that probably applies best to non-Catholics who (sometimes) hate Catholics (though sometimes they come across that way but deny that they actually do). As far as non-religious folks who hate Catholics, I’d guess it’s mostly because transubstantiation makes you a really easy target for someone who regards the world from a naturalistic perspective. In their eyes, you’re…well, delusional is the word I see the most. Muslims who hate Christians are probably a lot more likely to hate Catholics than non-Catholics, for obvious reasons…(Starts with a C, ends in S, 8 letters)…Same goes for Jews, with a special animosity reserved for Spanish Catholicism. In the course of examining the entire spread of people who might hate Catholics, there’s a half-dozen different reasons just based on who it is you’re talking about. But my initial answer deals with what I would guess is most often applicable to the kinds of people you’ve experienced in your own life.
they all started hating me…
) but it does mean not loving things… not holding on to them so tenaciously… not holding on to them whne someone else could use them… The Bible says elsewhere that if you have 2 cloaks, lend to the one who has none…