Why Is Catholicism So Unattractive to Evangelicals?

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Denise1957 said:
I think I understand what you’re saying. The Evangelical idea about missions, spreading the word, revitalization - these things hardly lend themselves to the idea of a small Church.

Or maybe they think it’s just the Catholic Church that needs to be small or smaller? I dunno. 🤷
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Yes, that is it. They are trying to revitalize Presbyterianism by mission. They don’t want to be a small Church - that means people are not receiving the message. I always wonder though if there is any time in this model to actually become Christlike - or do you just worry about spreading the message of salvation working on the assumption that you are Christlike or even better saved. I honestly don’t really see a lot of love, humility, patience, generosity, forgiveness oozing from these folks - but I do hear about how they are saved big time.

From what I saw the PCAUS is in free fall - there are a couple of groups that have split off and started “new” branches of the Church - not sure if this is schism or what. They have differing beliefs which are listed on charts. The new groups are conservative - traditional marriage, abortion only for life of mother, little shaky of women priests (they rely on Holy Spirit here to guide the decision). They are growing by leaps and bounds (300 churches or so I think). The PCUSA just recognized gay marriage - they are closing Churches and losing thousands of members annually. Word to the wise…
 
Starwarsfan2 said:
The simple way to answer the question is to say that Protestants already are part of the Catholic Church , so why should We be part of the Roman part , that and major doctrinal differences .
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You bring up a good point here. If the Protestants or Evangelicals are already part of the Catholic Church, then there’s no point at all in converting to Catholicism.

And if Catholic truth is just one truth among many, and everyone’s view is just as legitimate (and equal) as another, then there’s another reason why Catholicism would or might be unattractive to Evangelicals. In this case, religion is only a matter of personal opinion.
 
Well I thought it was the 'Universal Church" - the body of Christ consists of all who profess Christ as their savior. That is not the “Catholic Church.”
 
Denise1957 said:
And if Catholic truth is just one truth among many, and everyone’s view is just as legitimate (and equal) as another, then there’s another reason why Catholicism would or might be unattractive to Evangelicals. In this case, religion is only a matter of personal opinion.
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Exactly - the Word of God no longer matters if half the Church believes in gay marriage and the other half doesn’t. What did God ordain? That is why we have imperfect and full communion I would presume. To safeguard against this.
 
FollowChrist34 said:
Exactly - the Word of God no longer matters if half the Church believes in gay marriage and the other half doesn’t. What did God ordain? That is why we have imperfect and full communion I would presume. To safeguard against this.
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Yes, the above would be the old-fashioned Catholic view. Nowadays, however, it’s fashionable for even Catholics to dissent against Church teaching, and it’s not a big deal. I’ll bet that some Protestants and Evangelicals may be turned away from Catholicism when they observe this.

Even in the Catholic Church, what God has ordained tends to be a matter of personal opinion. It’s no longer a matter of back-and-white dogma, but rather a matter of relativism.
 
Denise1957 said:
Yes, the above would be the old-fashioned Catholic view. Nowadays, however, it’s fashionable for even Catholics to dissent against Church teaching, and it’s not a big deal. I’ll bet that some Protestants and Evangelicals may be turned away from Catholicism when they observe this.

Even in the Catholic Church, what God has ordained tends to be a matter of personal opinion. It’s no longer a matter of back-and-white dogma, but rather a matter of relativism.
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I agree that Catholic dissension is potentially a big turnoff to Protestants or Evangelicals. But truth be told, they have a lot of it going on in their own Churches. We aren’t going to make it go away, no matter what Church you are in or how many times you subdivide.

I think you have to believe in basic Christian doctrine as revealed in Scripture, the CCC - Catholic / classical Protestant doctrine or you have not properly accepted Christ, you don’t know him, you are essentially “accepting” yourself in the guise of Christ. This is where the relativity comes in. I realize I am describing whole denominations here. 😉 I am ok with that.
 
FollowChrist34 said:
I agree that Catholic dissension is potentially a big turnoff to Protestants or Evangelicals. But truth be told, they have a lot of it going on in their own Churches. We aren’t going to make it go away, no matter what Church you are in or how many times you subdivide.

I think you have to believe in basic Christian doctrine as revealed in Scripture, the CCC - Catholic / classical Protestant doctrine or you have not properly accepted Christ, you don’t know him, you are essentially “accepting” yourself in the guise of Christ. This is where the relativity comes in. I realize I am describing whole denominations here. 😉 I am ok with that.
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I agree. However, while Protestant or Evangelical churches have their dissenters, too; at least their dissenters have the option of leaving to start their own church.

Unfortunately, some Catholic dissenters tend to stay in the Church and cause problems, or worse; their dissent is tolerated, and even accepted eventually, so that it affects the whole Church. Not good, IMO.

Okay…we’re starting to go a bit off-topic. My fault. :o
 
Denise1957 said:
I agree. While Protestant or Evangelical churches have their dissenters, too; at least the dissenters have the option of leaving to start their own church.

Unfortunately, some Catholic dissenters tend to stay in the Church and cause problems, or worse; their dissent is tolerated, and even accepted eventually, so that it affects the whole Church.

Okay…we’re starting to go a bit off-topic. My fault. :o
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100% agree. I had the same thought while looking at that stuff about the Presbyterians online. How the main PChurch is basically dying and these little upstarts are spreading like wildfire. It is inspiring - I will hand it to them. I am glad they are doing that. We should learn from it - somehow. Unity at the cost of truth is a bit much.

(And why is it that whenever you score a point on a Protestant they just go off line? Drive by witnessing = drive by faith. You think they act that way when Christ tells them something they don’t want to hear? (or does he ever do that - maybe if you are saved worrying about adhering to doctrine - as opposed to professing your salvation - becomes a little passé :D:cool:)
 
FollowChrist34 said:
100% agree. I had the same thought while looking at that stuff about the Presbyterians online. How the main PChurch is basically dying and these little upstarts are spreading like wildfire. It is inspiring - I will hand it to them. I am glad they are doing that. We should learn from it - somehow. Unity at the cost of truth is a bit much.

(And why is it that whenever you score a point on a Protestant they just go off line? Drive by witnessing = drive by faith. You think they act that way when Christ tells them something they don’t want to hear? (or does he ever do that - maybe if you are saved worrying about adhering to doctrine - as opposed to professing your salvation - becomes a little passé :D:cool:)
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Well, I only visit Catholic websites, and so I’m not at all familiar with what is going on in the Evangelical world, except for what’s posted here on CAF. 😃

There are things that our Lord says (in Scripture) that aren’t pleasant to hear (or read). I’m not sure that many Catholics or Evangelicals want to read them, though. You know…the parts about sin, and the edict against divorce, etc. Very few want to read about those things. I think that there’s this idea that our Lord didn’t really mean to say those things, or that they just don’t apply or aren’t relevant anymore. But if they aren’t relevant now, then nothing else in Scripture is relevant either (logically speaking).
 
Denise1957 said:
Well, I only visit Catholic websites, and so I’m not at all familiar with what is going on in the Evangelical world, except for what’s posted here on CAF. 😃

There are things that our Lord says (in Scripture) that aren’t pleasant to hear (or read). I’m not sure that many Catholics or Evangelicals want to read them, though. You know…the parts about sin, and the edict against divorce, etc. Very few want to read about those things. I think that there’s a this idea that our Lord didn’t really mean to say those things, or that they just don’t apply or aren’t relevant anymore. But if they aren’t relevant now, then nothing else in Scripture is relevant either (logically speaking).
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This is it exactly. Radio silence from our Protestant buddies…uh, and the Shadow Council. 😉
 
Starwarsfan2 said:
The simple way to answer the question is to say that Protestants already are part of the Catholic Church
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Not trying to be mean, but there’s a difference between consistently claiming to be Catholic (like we do) and only whipping that claim out at odd times (like you guys generally do).
theropod said:
Sure it is. Well, we use lower case “c” catholic.
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Exactly: you aren’t Catholic.
 
Peter_J said:
Not trying to be mean, but there’s a difference between consistently claiming to be Catholic (like we do) and only whipping that claim out at odd times (like you guys generally do).

Exactly: you aren’t Catholic.
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We prefer the qualifier “Roman” for your side, but it’s not necessary for us to capitalize a word we aren’t using as a proper noun. 🙂
 
FollowChrist34 said:
(And why is it that whenever you score a point on a Protestant they just go offline? Drive by witnessing = drive by faith. You think they act that way when Christ tells them something they don’t want to hear? (or does he ever do that - maybe if you are saved worrying about adhering to doctrine - as opposed to professing your salvation - becomes a little passé :D:cool:)
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Regarding the bolded: Ever consider people have their own lives, families, jobs, real life friends, a need for recreation and rest, a lack of obsession with internet discussions?
FollowChrist34 said:
This is it exactly. Radio silence from our Protestant buddies…uh, and the Shadow Council. 😉
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Sometimes your posts seem to me like they’re coming from two different people, FollowChrist34.
 
theropod said:
We prefer the qualifier “Roman” for your side,
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Well that depends, because many posters use “Roman Catholic” (RC) as a shortened form of “Roman*-Rite *Catholic” (RRC), in which case it applies to the majority of Catholics-ICWR, but not to all.
 
Peter_J said:
I am, of course, nowhere near as good as Hahn as dispelling that kind of thinking (although sometimes I dream of a big publishing company calling me up to ask if they can put my phrase “Catholicism isn’t a website” on a bumper sticker ;)) which is unfortunate because it sounds like the story of my life (well okay not literally 😊): to wit, that Protestant assume that stuff like “Calvary wasn’t a sacrifice” or whatever, is representative of Catholics, and just ignore posts from Catholic posters who don’t fit their preconceived notion of “Catholics”. 😦
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Good luck with your bumper sticker.😃 I think mine would be “American Evangelicals–So much more than TV shows and mega churches”.
 
Denise1957 said:
You bring up a good point here. If the Protestants or Evangelicals are already part of the Catholic Church, then there’s no point at all in converting to Catholicism.

And if Catholic truth is just one truth among many, and everyone’s view is just as legitimate (and equal) as another, then there’s another reason why Catholicism would or might be unattractive to Evangelicals. In this case, religion is only a matter of personal opinion.
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Point two is off , we don’t believe in anything goes , but we do believe that there are differences in belief within the Catholic Church . we do believe in churches within the Catholic Church to keep pure doctrine though .
Point one is correct .
 
AbideWithMe said:
Regarding the bolded: Ever consider people have their own lives, families, jobs, real life friends, a need for recreation and rest, a lack of obsession with internet discussions?

Sometimes your posts seem to me like they’re coming from two different people, FollowChrist34.
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Literally read my mind.
 
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