Why are Non Catholic Christians ignorant?

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Linhares

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I say the rosary everyday on my way to work & from work (I have started doing this for about 2 months now. About 2 weeks back a man standing near me noticed me & asked if there was any benefit of saying the rosary? I initially assumed he was a Hindu but then he started talking like a typical Protestant (about how we should have a personal relationship with God, how we should sit & talk to him (God). Then he said that Repetitive Prayer i.e The Rosary was not really useful).

Again this week he seen me & said he want to preach the word of God to me but unfortunately he could not coz I was saying the rosary!

The reason I ask this is coz why do Protestant, etc always think that they are way better than us & its our church (The Catholic Church) that is evil, bad, etc? Are they that stupid that cant understand that their founders left the Catholic Church or that Jesus only founded one church. Do they not know that they have no way of tracing their own religion (which they hold in such high regard) back to Jesus?

After all even the best copy of an original is still just a copy!!!

P.S: I don’t hate anyone but I love my religion a lot. For me its a privilege to be Catholic & I feel its my obligation to defend my religion!
 
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I think you are not a native English speaker. Neither am I. You may not know that “stupid” is a strong word in English. Maybe “ignorant” is a better word for what you describe?
In the text of your post I think the man prozelytizing you was most likely “obnoxious”.
I recommend you edit your post or thread will most likely go off topic and turn poisonous and you will definitely not get an answer to your question. 🙂
 
I was talking to another Catholic the other day and we both had experiences similar to yours, so I know where you are coming from. Probably, rather than stupid protestants are just deceived or lack the knowledge of the Catholic faith. They are just trying to do and say what they were taught. I guess I would say, just like there are Catholics who lack catechesis, protestants lack Christian knowledge even more. There is a lot of anti-Catholicism out there. Someone I heard recently called it the only predjudice left that is allowed.

Anyway, I have a co-worker that believes Catholicism is horrible and the cause of all the problems within Christianity and the world and she doesn’t hesitate to let me know, and not in a joking way, a very serious way. She is very anti-Catholic and very outspoken about it.

I, also lost many protestant friends when I returned to the Catholic church, some when they heard I was returning to the Catholic church, just stood their with their jaws dropped and I never heard from them again, others had some comments to say before unfriending me.

I would say, just continue to do what you do, pray your rosary and practice your faith and pray that you are a witness of the truth to this person. Sometimes when people say things, it really could be a sign of their own curiosity.
 
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They’re ignorant not stupid. Stupid is avery strong word
 
I think there is too much concentrating on one word and missing the point of what is happening to the OP.
 
I’m going to just skip some troubles of style and try to answer what I think you are asking.

The word protestant has protest in it. Their history originates with protest against the Catholic Church and so this protest must be continued to justify their history and existence. If they did not believe we were wrong, they could not exist.

As for the rosary, if your devotion to it allows you to speak from a place of deep love about it, then go for it. Otherwise, I’d just save up some one liners like “Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.” If your conversational style is similar to your post, interfaith dialogue might not be your calling at this time.
 
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I can understand why that person was on your nerve but not all Protestants are like that. Some of them are just like your good old neighbor next door.

Yes, I agree with you that many of them are ignorant about our belief.
 
Well, look. You think Catholicism is the fullness of the truth. They think their denomination is the fullness of the truth. This is why disputes occur.
Linhares said:
Are they that stupid that cant understand that their founders left the Catholic Church or that Jesus only founded one church. Do they not know that they have no way of tracing their own religion (which they hold in such high regard) back to Jesus?
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Having respect for other denominations will get you so much further. Remember that this man holds his beliefs to be just as true as you consider Catholicism to be. Don’t disrespect his beliefs or call him stupid because that makes you look like the ignorant one. Instead have a conversation with him. Tell him why you pray the rosary. Treat him like your equal, not your inferior.
 
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To give you a serious answer:

Yes, it’s generally true that they don’t know. A lot of protestants have been told a lot of things about the Catholic church and they may think they have a better idea than they actually do. Many tend to see prewritten or repetitive prayers as bad because they don’t really understand the meditative aspect - they see it as just repeating words because that’s what you’re supposed to do instead of saying something from your heart.

Many protestants are very wary of ritual because they are concerned that ritual leads to people just doing the rituals because that’s what they’re supposed to do and they don’t have to think about their faith. And there are Catholics out there who meet that description. And I think that many people who convert from Catholicism to Protestantism especially were like that, that Catholicism for them was mostly about following the rules.

Most protestant denominations don’t regard history as important in the way most Catholics do. The common belief is that the modern Catholic church is a corruption of the historic faith as reflected in the Bible. They tend to focus on the accuracy of the Bible and on how they believe their practices are accurate to what’s reflected in the Scriptures. They would see the protestant reformation as returning to the true biblical faith from an increasingly corrupt church (which wasn’t an entirely inaccurate description at the time). So the lack of a historical trace doesn’t bother them because it’s not important to the way they see faith.
 
Those kinds of "non-Catholic Chrisians’ were usually taught as part of their religious training that Catholics do not have a personal relationship with Jesus, that Catholics were idolatrous, that the Catholic Church was wrong or even evil, and that saying the Rosary was “worshipping Mary” and was bad. They were also taught that it’s their duty as Christians to barge in and “correct” you.

Just issue a gentle sentence or two telling the person he was wrong, tell them you would like him to respect your belief and leave you alone, and then carry on praying your rosary. If he continues to harass you, tell him to stop or you’ll have to call the police. Pray for the person also that he comes to understand the Truth or at least learns to respect others’ practices.

I note that there are plenty of non-Catholic Christians who do not do these “ignorant” things, and some of them, such as Anglicans, might even pray a version of the Rosary themselves.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
Those kinds of "non-Catholic Chrisians’ were usually taught as part of their religious training that Catholics do not have a personal relationship with Jesus, that Catholics were idolatrous, that the Catholic Church was wrong or even evil, and that saying the Rosary was “worshipping Mary” and was bad. They were also taught that it’s their duty as Christians to barge in and “correct” you.
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Someone who’s got bad information is often worse than someone who has no information.

Yes, as a kid who grew up with that, it was basically if you didn’t barge in and correct the Catholics, then you personally were responsible for them going to hell because you didn’t warn them to repent.

This did not lead to polite, charitable behavior.
 
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I can vouch for this and tisbears comments. When I was a Protestant I read and was taught that Catholics are involved in idolatry and we would be encouraged to ‘witness’ to them and also to non believers or those of other religions.
 
Catholicism is the fullness of truth. I think if she continues to pray and live out her faith, she would be a good witness.
 
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MagdalenaRita said:
Except Catholicism is the fullness of truth. It is not just something she thinks.
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That’s my point. Catholics say Catholicism is the fullness of the truth. Protestants say their denomination is the fullness of the truth. Both believe their statements, which is why it can be difficult to have exchanges that don’t end in upset or anger at the end of it. My advice to the OP is built on that - remember that he holds his beliefs as dear to him as you do to you. Work from that standing point because it will give your conversations a foundation of respect.
 
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As an ex-protestant here, who is now Catholic, I remember as a protestant we did not say we had the fullness of truth but that all protestants together had some truth and when we reach heaven God would let us know who was right about what and who was wrong about what. In other words, it wouldn’t be until we reach heaven that we would find out which protestants were right and which ones were wrong.
 
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