Why do other Christians "hate" Catholics?

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I happened to turn on a religious radio station (not Catholic) the other night, and I couldn’t believe what the speaker was saying about the Catholic Church – I couldn’t turn off the station a/c I wanted to hear it but it absolutely “blew” my mind.
 
28562 said:
I’m sure many of you have had some of the same experiences I have regarding many Protestants. I’m not sure what it is that makes them so hateful, judgmental, and rude towards Catholics. What is it? I feel that a lot of it is ignorance about who we really are, but what is their reasoning for their opinions?
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The ONLY time people respond like that is when they are facing the truth.
 
dianaiad said:
I think that the posts here so far have been right on the mark:
  1. “Other” Christians don’t hate the Catholic church (or Catholics). They hate…if hate is the right word…what they perceive the Catholic church, and Catholics to be. They are almost invariably wrong.
  2. They cannot believe themselves to be right unless everybody else…perhaps specifically Catholicism…is wrong.
  3. Humans are tribal; they have ‘in’ groups and ‘out’ groups. Members of their perceived ‘in’ group have great difficulty thinking of any other group as ‘as good as’ their own. Considering anybody not in the ‘in’ group as inferior and wrong is pretty common, especially in religious matters.
  4. It ain’t just the ‘other Christians’ who hate Catholics, folks. The above points are also very true for those Catholics who ‘hate’ others. You know, like Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses or (insert belief system here). Now me, I understand being on the ‘being hated’ side of the equation very well, as do many of you. Do you understand the reasons why many of you are on the ‘hating’ side?
Because many of you absolutely are.

And yes, I know Mormons who don’t think much of other religions, too. It’s a very human thing.
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Your post started out fine, and then you veered off into accusations.
Who exactly ‘hates you’ on CAF?
 
porthos11 said:
Because the only way they can really justify their existence is for us to be wrong. Otherwise, if we are right, they had no reason to separate from the Catholic Church and they would have to admit that they are schismatics and heretics.

Since of course, they’re not likely to admit that without reconciling with the Catholic Church, the only other logical recourse is to conclude that the Catholic Church is wrong.
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👍
28562 said:
This makes sense, but I highly doubt (with the anti Catholics I’ve encountered ) that the thought process goes that deep and that far back.
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But I do think it is true of organizations that individuals are members of, like those started in the 19th century. Some of them rely on the total failure of the Catholic Church, and have a very anti-Catholic history.
 
Because they are jealous. Jesus himself founded the Catholic Church.

DGB
 
28562 said:
I’m sure many of you have had some of the same experiences I have regarding many Protestants. I’m not sure what it is that makes them so hateful, judgmental, and rude towards Catholics. What is it? I feel that a lot of it is ignorance about who we really are, but what is their reasoning for their opinions?
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I love Catholic. They preach Christ crucified. They administer the sacraments. We, as western Christians, owe so much to the Catholic Church.

Jon
 
I don’t think “hate” is the right word. Many feel that we are self-righteous i.e that we make it clear we consider everyone else to be wrong. Some may feel we make too big an issue of being Catholics and can’t understand why we seem unable to just practise what we believe without mentioning it so frequently.
Others may find our apparent intolerance offensive, especially outspoken condemnation of others’ “sins”. We can possibly appear very judgemental.
Equally we may seem overly defensive and possibly lacking in the ability to laugh at ourselves.
Anyway, - just a few personal thoughts triggered by the title of the thread. 🙂
 
I think in America it is mostly due to mis information, but while I was in Britain a while ago I did hear another good reason, the very same reason why a Catholic cannot sit on the throne of England or hold the office of Prime Minister even today (Why Tony Blair waited until after he finished his term before converting).

Catholics are to put their Catholicism before everything else, their family, their country and every other allegiance. Those who are old enough (or are into history like myself) might remember some tracts from fundie groups around the time of Kennedy’s campaign saying that if the Pope ordered Kennedy to order the armed services kill the heathens as a good Catholic he’d be obligated to obey.

In less words, Catholics (historically, especially in protestant countries) have not been considered loyal citizens because they owe their first allegiance not to their countrymen, or the King, but to the Pope, a foreign temporal power (who was often hostile and passive aggressive at their very best behaved for most of history towards Protestant Europe).

Thats why the Brits won’t have a Catholic prime minister even today, how you can be a British leader loyal to Queen and Country but obedient (in theory at least) to an Italian monarch first?
 
Anytime a “Label” is put on groups, specifically 2 groups,
there will be those in the other group who “hate” the other.

Just look at any NFL game 😉

but seriously, religion is not a football game, but when you have any 2 people
who are convinced they know the Absolute Truth and that everyone else is wrong, you
will naturally have some “hate”. But I hate to use the word “hate”

I think a good thing would be to focus on what we have in common, not just as all Christians, but also as human beings…namely being the capacity and ability to love and forgive one another.
 
I think it has more to do with the individual and where and what one is taught. One does not just hate Catholic’s all on their own. I think that one is taught that and learn it from family, pastors etc. Otherwise they would not know. Although I will say that there those ex-Catholic’s who for whatever reason hate the CC and all it stands for.
 
I know the types you mean. The Catholic Church is satanic, the pope is Antichrist, the pope has altar boys hidden under his “dress”, Catholics have killed millions of people, etc. Many of these accusations are easily disproved, and you can even show them the evidence, and yet they still wallow in their hatred and lies. When I see some of the comments these people write, I want to do violence to them. (I know that’s not Christian!). But here’s the deal that I hope will clarify the subject for you:

Several times now, I have done research into the lives of these people who post the worst of anti-Catholic vitriol. It’s not difficult to do. The worse they are, the more vile and hateful they are, the more they will post on forums, blogs, articles, etc. It isn’t difficult to track these people down and find out all kinds of details of their lives and habits. They always reveal a little more, and a little more, about themselves with every post I find.

And you know what I’ve always found out about them? Without exception, every single one of these hate-mongers has been a very solitary, lonely, neurotic loner without family or friends. Many, many, of them have criminal convictions from stalking and harassment, to drug possession, to child porn. That’s the skinny on these people. The worse they hate, the more personal problems they always have. You can bet on it.

So the next time you come across a grossly anti-Catholic website, do a search and see what you can find out about the author of the site. You’ll get an eyeful. The origin of their hate is their own failures and psychoses. There is nothing rational about it. *They’re just completely nuts. *
 
JustaServant said:
Your post started out fine, and then you veered off into accusations.
Who exactly ‘hates you’ on CAF?
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Where did I mention CAF? The “you” I was referring to is a general ‘you,’ referring to Catholics as a whole.

Notice that I didn’t leave Mormons out of the 'they who also are on the wrong side of this issue" group.

Like I said. It’s a very human thing.
 
Valiente88 said:
I think in America it is mostly due to mis information, but while I was in Britain a while ago I did hear another good reason, the very same reason why a Catholic cannot sit on the throne of England or hold the office of Prime Minister even today (Why Tony Blair waited until after he finished his term before converting).

Catholics are to put their Catholicism before everything else, their family, their country and every other allegiance. Those who are old enough (or are into history like myself) might remember some tracts from fundie groups around the time of Kennedy’s campaign saying that if the Pope ordered Kennedy to order the armed services kill the heathens as a good Catholic he’d be obligated to obey.

In less words, Catholics (historically, especially in protestant countries) have not been considered loyal citizens because they owe their first allegiance not to their countrymen, or the King, but to the Pope, a foreign temporal power (who was often hostile and passive aggressive at their very best behaved for most of history towards Protestant Europe).

Thats why the Brits won’t have a Catholic prime minister even today, how you can be a British leader loyal to Queen and Country but obedient (in theory at least) to an Italian monarch first?
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Well…I rather imagine that the laws against having a Catholic on the throne or as Prime Minister are there for at least two reasons: first, it would be rather awkward if the head of the Church of England were Catholic, and two…I think they would all prefer not to be haunted by Henry VIII. There is a leetle too much political history there: one of the problems with having state religions.
 
It seems to me that anyone who hates Catholic’s or Jews or anyone who does not thinking the same that they do are really not being Christian and also are very un -Christian to my way of thinking. if one is truly Christian which means being a follower of the teachings of Christ than hate has not place in being a Christian of whatever stripe.
 
Emily2014 said:
I don’t think “hate” is the right word. Many feel that we are self-righteous i.e that we make it clear we consider everyone else to be wrong. Some may feel we make too big an issue of being Catholics and can’t understand why we seem unable to just practise what we believe without mentioning it so frequently.
Others may find our apparent intolerance offensive, especially outspoken condemnation of others’ “sins”. We can possibly appear very judgemental.
Equally we may seem overly defensive and possibly lacking in the ability to laugh at ourselves.
Anyway, - just a few personal thoughts triggered by the title of the thread. 🙂
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This and…

I just want to point out that I don’t hate Catholics… I am married to one!

My husbands rather large family is almost entirely Catholic… so what I know, I know from them.
  1. It is frustrating to some when you hear that “it’s the true church” and “fullness of truth” and then in the next sentence state that you don’t agree with the church on Birth Control.
  2. Catholic Education around here is sorely lacking. It’s pretty bad when I have to tell them what the CCC states on an issue.
  3. Those who are relatively well educated tend to be overly scrupulous… very annoying to listen to.
 
There seem to be many, many accusations on these boards that others “hate” Catholics.

It always brings to mind the quotation, “You wouldn’t worry so much about what other people think of you if you knew how seldom they do.”

For the non-Catholics or former Catholics, were your lives really filled with seething hatred of Catholicism before your conversion or did you spend your life like I did - never giving one thought to Catholicism at all, never having one conversation about Catholicism? Did your churches really preach hatred or judgment of Catholicism or did they preach Christianity and scripture? Has my life experience attending literally scores of non-Catholic churches all over the world and never ever hearing Catholics or Catholicism mentioned been such an extremely rare thing? Are Catholics paranoid?
 
whatsmyname said:
There seem to be many, many accusations on these boards that others “hate” Catholics.

It always brings to mind the quotation, “You wouldn’t worry so much about what other people think of you if you knew how seldom they do.”

For the non-Catholics or former Catholics, were your lives really filled with seething hatred of Catholicism before your conversion or did you spend your life like I did - never giving one thought to Catholicism at all, never having one conversation about Catholicism? Did your churches really preach hatred or judgment of Catholicism or did they preach Christianity and scripture? Has my life experience attending literally scores of non-Catholic churches all over the world and never ever hearing Catholics or Catholicism mentioned been such an extremely rare thing? Are Catholics paranoid?
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My question was inspired by the many ignorant and hateful, if not just stupid and disrespectful comments I have gotten throughout my life from non Catholics. It’s not imagined, it’s things they actually said. If I’m not mistaken, the worst offenders were Pentecostal holiness members and church of Christ members. Extremely judgmental would be putting it lightly.
 
It seems to me that the word “hate” just comes on way to strong in describing various views among Christians. I will say that there is little doubt that the Catholic Church in general is truly “hated” by some segments of our society in which we are accused of shoving our morals down people’s throats (never really understood that one).

But while we can get into some heated arguments and sometimes be less charitable than we should, I can’t imagine “hating” any poster on this forum and I don’t think there are many that do. As far as misunderstanding the Catholic faith, there is plenty of that, but an equal share in the misunderstanding of Catholics when it comes to various Protestant denominations. I just don’ think it translates into “hate”.
 
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