Why do protestants eat meat during lent?

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I know Protestants who fast during Lent or don’t eat meat on Fridays. Actually I know a lot of Protestants who put a lot of Catholics I know to shame in the fasting department.
 
There are somewhere around 200 Protestant denominations. Asking why Protestants do this or don’t do that is a ridiculous question if you expect an informed answer.

Some follow liturgical seasons, participate in Lenten fasting, and receive ashes on Ash Wednesday (Lutherans).
 
Let’s turn this question around.
Why do we Latin Catholics gorge themselves on fish, oil, and dairy during the days of Lent? For Eastern Christians, simply abstaining from meat is super lax :P.

Seriously though, you can’t paint Protestants with one brush. Some observe Lent very solemnly. Some Protestant traditions don’t observe Lent at all.
 
lilypadrees said:
“Ash Wednesday is tomorrow and thus, the beginning of Lent for Catholics,” many Protestants shrug and say, “That’s only for them. (Catholics). We’re Christians. We don’t do that.”

However, I’ve noticed an increasing number of Protestants getting ashes on their foreheads on Ash Wednesday
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Your Lutherans observe Ash Wednesday, and some of them will come to a Catholic Church for them if their own church isn’t available. An old Lutheran lady that used to be my boss years ago, very argumentative toward Catholicism, but still saw fit to get ashes.

This is of course , Pittsburgh, where we can have arguments on religion without people getting upset.
 
Augustinian said:
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lilypadrees:
“Ash Wednesday is tomorrow and thus, the beginning of Lent for Catholics,” many Protestants shrug and say, “That’s only for them. (Catholics). We’re Christians. We don’t do that.”

However, I’ve noticed an increasing number of Protestants getting ashes on their foreheads on Ash Wednesday
Click to expand...
Your Lutherans observe Ash Wednesday, and some of them will come to a Catholic Church for them if their own church isn’t available. An old Lutheran lady that used to be my boss years ago, very argumentative toward Catholicism, but still saw fit to get ashes.

This is of course , Pittsburgh, where we can have arguments on religion without people getting upset.
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The Protestants I witnessed getting them were Methodist. They drove up, got their ashes in the parking lot and then drove off. I was appalled at how lightly they seemed to take it.
 
John337 said:
Why do protestants eat meat all during lent and then on good friday they want be gluttonous and fill up on fish and crawfish as if as if they deserve to have like nothing even happen?
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Because this is part of Church law.

“Don’t eat meat on Fridays of Lent” isn’t something a person pulls out of their hat. Most protestants don’t have a liturgical calendar, so the concept doesn’t even begin to translate.
 
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John337 said:
They want to say that is something made up by the church.
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I’ve heard people trot out an urban myth about one of the Popes making up the no-meat rule to help out his family who made their living as fishermen. So some do see abstinence as a bit of Papist trickery.

Never mind that there is absolutely no requirement to eat seafood just because one is abstaining from meat.
 
LilyM said:
Never mind that there is absolutely no requirement to eat seafood just because one is abstaining from meat.
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Also, never mind that fact that only a tiny minority of Catholics back in the day before refrigeration lived near commercial fisheries.
 
@(name removed by moderator)

Where have you been?
 
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phil19034 said:
Most protestants today are Sola Fide (Faith Alone).
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No they aren’t.

The average person on the street intuitively grasps the idea of doing things. They will more than likely be somewhat mystified by specifically abstaining on Fridays of Lent, but that is because most contemporary protestants have either no concept or a reduced concept of a liturgical calendar or Church law, and its connection with the Old Testament & the Christian faithful over the centuries. Bear in mind that the majority of Protestantism doesn’t talk a lot about Christianity 20 years ago, let alone 500 or 1000 or 1500 years ago. The vast majority have little or no clue about the politics behind the Protestant Reformation, among many other things. None of that is common knowledge anymore unless a person goes out of their way to learn.


This pie chart is 8 years old. Sects such as Anglicanism and Lutheranism would now be even smaller as a ratio. Outside of the CC and the Orthodox/Oriental Churches, most of Christianity is gradually moving towards unaffiliated & independent.
 
Catholics are highly encouraged to do some sort of penance during Lent and every Friday, fasting is one option, but I didn’t find out if it meant just meat. Restrictions on diet before receiving Eucharist became less restrictive after Second Vatican Council, 1962-1965
 
lilypadrees said:
The Protestants I witnessed getting them were Methodist. They drove up, got their ashes in the parking lot and then drove off. I was appalled at how lightly they seemed to take it.
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Good grief. If we judged piety by how long each denomination spends in Church, Catholics would be the loosers by far.
 
The abstinence from meat on fridays actually is still a thing. After Vatican 2, you could do another form of penance in place of not eating meat, but that backfired and people assumed they did not need to do it anymore except on Friday’s during lent. It’s in the catechism I think. And the fast before Holy Communion used to be over night, then three hours, and then Vatican two shortened it to one. I’m trying to remember all this off the top of my head so if any of it is incorrect, someone please correct me 🙂
 
I grew up in the Episcopal church and we had ASH WEDNESDAY and LENT. We didn’t have to eat fish on Friday though.
I would give up certain things every year for Lent.
 
JetteZ said:
There are somewhere around 200 Protestant denominations. Asking why Protestants do this or don’t do that is a ridiculous question if you expect an informed answer.

Some follow liturgical seasons, participate in Lenten fasting, and receive ashes on Ash Wednesday (Lutherans).
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Also Anglicans and Episcopalians.
 
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