Why Don't Some Protestant Websites Let Catholics Join?

  • Thread starter Thread starter rfournier103
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
R

rfournier103

Guest
The “Catholic Answers Forums” allows anyone who wishes to join regardless of their faith - even if they have none! I imagine that the reason is to foster dialogue and understanding and promote a better understanding of the Catholic Faith among Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

However…

Some Protestant web forums refuse to let Catholics join them. Why is that? How can there be discussion if one side isn’t allowed to even present their case? Even the most strident Catholic forum I know of allows Protestants to join… am I to believe that ecumenism is a one way street?

I am particularly interested in the opinions of our Protestant brethren on this matter.
 
rfournier103 said:
Why is that? How can there be discussion if one side isn’t allowed to even present their case
Click to expand...
Different websites and forums have different missions. The owners of the website you are referencing is just not interested in an adversarial discussion on this particular forum.

Are only Catholics banned from this forum, or do they also ban others who aren’t on their team too?
 
Simple solution. Don’t tell them you’re Catholic. If they want a religion, just say “Christian.”
 
rfournier103 said:
How can there be discussion if one side isn’t allowed to even present their case?
Click to expand...
You’d have to ask them, but maybe they don’t see discussion and debate as the point of the website.
lilypadrees said:
Simple solution. Don’t tell them you’re Catholic. If they want a religion, just say “Christian.”
Click to expand...
Nah. Don’t violate the rules. If they’ve decided to be Protestant only, respect that (even if it’s a dumb rule.) It’s their treehouse, they get to make the rules.
 
Last edited:
Since Protestants are Christians, it isn’t a violation of the rules for a Catholic to put “Christian.” Remember, there are still Protestants who don’t believe Catholics are Christians.
 
I think in this situation the rules say “Protestant only” not “Christians only”. If you know that’s what they mean, being evasive is disingenuous.

Why would you want to belong to that website anyway?
 
Yes, if it says “Protestants only,” one must respect their wishes. But if it is just a matter of them refusing membership just because the applicant puts “Catholic,” it would be better to just put “Christian.”

What is this website that is so prejudiced against Catholics? I remember putting in an application to join RaptureReady solely for the purpose of answering one of their questions about Catholics and the Our Father. It took a month for them to accept my membership. I answered the question and never went back.
 
I have a non-denominational friend who can never understand why my Lutheran Church won’t permit him to commune. He takes it as a personal offense because he misunderstands the purpose of Holy Communion.

You seem to be doing something similar with wanting to be a part of something that isn’t yours to be a part of. So I’ll give you the same advice I gave him: not everything is about you.

There is a tendency among Roman Catholics and “Protestants” alike to believe that the Christian world is entirely Romocentric – that all the “Protestants” are essentially united and basically the same because, well… they’re all not-Roman Catholic. Now, defining a category in the negative is silly enough, but expecting that arbitrarily-labelled group to fit neatly into that category is even sillier. I know this might be a difficult concept for many to come to terms with, but that’s not how all dialogue needs to be. Nonetheless, some Roman Catholics and some “Protestants” still conclude that ecumenical discussion between Christians must always be framed through a Rome vs. “Protestant” paradigm.

There’s probably a chance that the forum you’re referring to has bought into that silly worldview, and wants more cohesive unity on the “Protestant side” so they can lob heftier bombs at the Roman Catholic “side.” If so, that’s lamentable.

But there’s also a chance that the forum you’re referring to is simply trying to simplify the conversation among Christians. After all, not every “Protestant” group has its primary beef with Roman Catholicism. Some are decidedly more opposed to other “Protestants.” Maybe they just want to have a conversation without someone regularly chiming in with a “Protestants, come home!” or “Martin Luther was evil!!!1!!1!” Everyone has trolls.

Whether you give them the benefit of the doubt or not, my advice would remain the same: Just leave them be. It’s not about you.
 
Some people just like their echo chamber. That’s all there is to it.
 
I am Catholic I am not Roman Catholic. I am a Catholic of the Latin right which does not equate to being Roman. Other than that I agree with you you should not shove your way into places you’re not wanted.
 
hope said:
I am Catholic I am not Roman Catholic.
Click to expand...
what is the difference in the two. I am afraid at this point of missing out on something! I have fallen in love with the Catholic Church.
 
One other thought. A Catholic who is well educated in his/her religion, is well spoken, and can articulate the truth of the Roman Catholic religion might just be a threat to the other non-Catholic participants in the website.
You just might be someone they just don’t want to deal with.

Besides, I agree with BoomBoom. Why bother?
 
Last edited:
The difference is that the name is Catholic not
Roman Catholic the difference is Roman Catholic came from a disparaging source. Look at the catechism you don’t see it being called Roman only Catholic. Yes yes I know there are some parishes that put Roman on it but that was an accommodation.
 
Last edited:
The basic part comes from St. Peter in Acts as he establishes his office in Rome and is known as the Bishop of Rome. About 1,500 years later as the Martin Luther movement started, it sustained it’s “protest” by separating themselves from the very institution that they had belonged to.

The secondary part may come from the history of the church itself, starting in the 450’s when there were two capitals of the Catholic Church, one West in Rome and one East in Constantinople. Around 1054, there was a major split between the two because the Eastern church did not recognize the bishop of Rome to be the supreme authority. Here the difference between East and West can be seen in papal authority whereby the East says St. Peter was one among equals and the West holds that St. Peter was given a special office, above and beyond the other 11 apostles.

The third source of the “Roman Catholic” comes from modern protestants who want to degrade the catholic faith in any way they can. From the historical times of the gospels, we can all agree that Rome represented the classic pagan society, brutal, and just overall “bad people” because of the debauchery and superstition. As we know the Romans were the “bad guys” and the catholics have a bishop in Rome, it is an underhanded, although sometimes unwittingly by the protestant, insult to the catholics by adding the Roman part. Thus, whenever I see a faithful, fellow catholic refer to themselves as Roman Catholic, I wonder if they were converts from a protestant denomination or whether they just use it because of the link between the Bishop of Rome and the Latin Rite.
 
People don’t like having their ideas challenged. As a non-Catholic I can tell you there is vitriol and nastiness for competing ideas here, too.
 
The lowercase ‘catholic,’ meaning universal, is used by many creedal Christians, including the Orthodox, Lutherans, Anglicans, among others. ‘Catholic’ with a capital-C is a descriptor that other Christian denominations also claim. For example, Lutherans have considered themselves ‘Evangelical Catholics’ for centuries, though most have accepted the once-disparaging name “Lutheran” in common discourse so as to be easily identified. It can often be helpful in ecumenical discussions to use those specific descriptors. It’s not intended as any sort of put down nowadays. At least, not unless you visit the-forum-that-shall-not-be-named (don’t do it).

But someone will always find something to be offended for. 🙃
 
How would you suggest that we Roman Catholics differentiate ourselves from our Greek Catholic friends?
 
steido01 said:
The lowercase ‘catholic,’ meaning universal, is used by many creedal Christians, including the Orthodox, Lutherans, Anglicans, among others. ‘Catholic’ with a capital-C is a descriptor that other Christian denominations also claim. For example, Lutherans have considered themselves ‘Evangelical Catholics’
Click to expand...
"[T]here are many other things which most properly can keep me in [the Catholic Church’s] bosom. The unanimity of peoples and nations keeps me here. Her authority, inaugurated in miracles, nourished by hope, augmented by love, and confirmed by her age, keeps me here. The succession of priests, from the very see of the apostle Peter, to whom the Lord, after his resurrection, gave the charge of feeding his sheep [John 21:15–17], up to the present episcopate, keeps me here. And last, the very name Catholic, which, not without reason, belongs to this Church alone, in the face of so many heretics, so much so that, although all heretics want to be called ‘Catholic,’ when a stranger inquires where the Catholic Church meets, none of the heretics would dare to point out his own basilica or house" - Saint Augustine (Against the Letter of Mani Called “The Foundation” 4:5 [A.D. 397]).

🙂
 
Last edited:
I am unsure of what you mean? When you write Greek Catholic are you referring to the Eastern Church in union with Rome? In that case, Catholic of the Eastern rite. Just as I am a Catholic of the Latin rite.
 
hope said:
The difference is that the name is Catholic not
Roman Catholic the difference is Roman Catholic came from a disparaging source. Look at the catechism you don’t see it being called Roman only Catholic. Yes yes I know there are some parishes that put Roman on it but that was an accommodation.
Click to expand...
Well, I am a Roman Catholic and not ashamed to refer to myself as such. Those who use the term in a disparaging way do so because they don’t know the truth. It is up to us to inform them.

“Roman Catholic” not only differentiates members of the Catholic Church in full communion with the Pope in Rome from other Christians, especially those who also self-identify as “Catholic”, Catholic" is one of the Four Marks of the Church. “Roman” refers to the Rite used (aka the Latin Rite.)

We refer to ourselves as “Catholic.” But there are other Rites used in the Catholic Church. To know which Rite is practiced in the Catholic Church you belong to and wish to attend if you are a newcomer to the area is a good thing.

Latin Rite
Latin

Alexandrian Rite
Coptic Ethiopian Eritrean

Armenian Rite
Armenian

Byzantine Rite
Albanian Belarusian Bulgarian Croatian and Serbian Greek Hungarian Italo-Albanian Macedonian Melkite Romanian Russian Ruthenian Slovak Ukrainian

East Syrian Rite
Chaldean Syro-Malabar

West Syrian Rite
Maronite Syriac Syro-Malankara
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top