Why Is Catholicism So Unattractive to Evangelicals?

  • Thread starter Thread starter JustaServant
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Indeed.

The Scriptures limn some very specific instructions about how priests were to be dressed:

For your brother Aaron you will make sacred vestments to give dignity and magnificence. You will instruct all the skilled men, whom I have endowed with skill, to make Aaron’s vestments for his consecration to my priesthood. These are the vestments which they must make: a pectoral, an ephod, a robe, an embroidered tunic, a turban, and a belt. They must make sacred vestments for your brother Aaron and his sons, for them to be priests in my service. They will use gold and violet material, red-purple and crimson, and finely woven linen.–Exodus 28:2

And nothing in the NT contradicts this.
Incidentally, which vestments for pastors looks more like what God commanded in the OT here:



What Catholic priests wear?

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

Or what Evangelical pastors wear?

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
Semi-ditto, my experience was IRL. I had absolutely zero opinion on Catholics or Catholicism until my family joined our first Parrish as a family. That is where I was turned off to, what I see as, exclusionary portion of Catholicism.

It was putting off, and quite confusing, to see my name in the Church directory, on our Church mailbox, Collection envelops, mailers, etc…with an asterisk to denote that I, in fact wasn’t Catholic. When talking with the Father when joining, when he found out I wasn’t Catholic he wanted zero to do with me. At festival time, all the teen and adult members of the Church were assigned duties for the weekend…except myself and the other one or two non-Catholics.
I don’t suppose it ever occurred to you that just maybe the priest may be respecting boundaries you placed by not being Catholic, that just maybe he didn’t want to come across as pushing Catholicism on you? The same could hold true for “assigning” tasks, when I have a party I don’t assign tasks to the guests I invited them to a party not a work detail.
 
Just so.

I don’t want to offend our brethren, but I think that if I were to spend time on a Protestant forum (which I don’t) my primary purpose would be to remind myself that things here are not bad, comparatively speaking.
Try CARM for a week.
 
Because of the Law of Non-Contradictions, Lamb.

So…either the Pope is the vicar of Christ, or he is not. One of the 2 paradigms has to be wrong.

Either God is a Trinity of God is a Unity. One of these 2 paradigms has to be wrong.

Either Jesus is the 2nd person of the Trinity, or he is not. One of these 2 paradigms has to be wrong.

Either the Bible Alone is the Word of God, or God has other channels of revelation. One of these 2 paradigms has to be wrong.
Sorry. You are neglecting some logical conditions.
  1. The false choice.
    Code:
      Should I go to the grocery store, or to the meat department? 
       The meat department is in the grocery store.
    
      Either my way or war.  
      There may be other ways besides war.
  2. The both-and
    Should I go to that cute little Victorian house to get my hair done?
    That house is where I get my hair done.
  3. It has not been revealed to us
  4. It makes no sense.
    Either frogs have wings or frogs have catapults.
    They have neither.
    Code:
         We all agree the Lord of the Rings is the best book ever written in Klingon,    or  whales are figure skaters.              
          Uhh, it was written in English. And as far as I can tell, whales do not figure skate.
You can have a valid either-or only after it has been demonstrated that the two choices are mutually exclusive and both are ‘real’ choices.

God is both a trinity and unity, three in one.

Jesus is the Son of God and the Second Person of the Trinity, a man and God.

There is general revelation AND special revelation.
 
I never thought I’d say something was triggering me…but that’s triggering me.
I know what triggering is but there is nothing wrong with that picture.

Are you asking someone to do something about it? Or are you asking for help?

PR put it more concisely: Huh?
 
I know what triggering is but there is nothing wrong with that picture.

Are you asking someone to do something about it? Or are you asking for help?

PR put it more concisely: Huh?
Sorry, was a joke. I guess I picked that up frequenting places that make fun of RadFems saying every little thing “triggers” them.

I think I’d still walk right back out of that guy’s church if I saw him looking like that though.
 
Sorry. You are neglecting some logical conditions.
  1. The false choice.
Fair enough.

Can you tell me what the false choice is between these 2 statements:

The Pope is the vicar of Christ.
The Pope is not the vicar of Christ.

What other choices are there?
God is both a trinity and unity, three in one.
Again, fair enough.

Perhaps I misspoke when I said God is either a Trinity or a Unity.

I amend my question to: Can God be both a Trinity and not a Trinity?

The point is, in response to the question, “Why does anyone have to be wrong” (in the context of doctrine/theology), it remains true: sometimes when one denomination makes a doctrinal assertion that is contrary to another denomination’s doctrinal assertions, it MUST BE TRUE that one of them is wrong.
 
Because most Evangelicals are ignorant of the role of the early Church in the subsequent growth of Christianity. And those that do know about the early Church summarily reject it.
 
I think I’d still walk right back out of that guy’s church if I saw him looking like that though.
I hear you.

Unctious is the word that comes to mind when I see the picture.

And staged tenderness.

However, in their defense, the very nature of a photo op is staging, so we can’t fault them for that, eh?
 
Two thoughts …

First, thank you for talking about Catholicism IRL – it’s amazing how tired I can get of people saying "Well, somebody called CatholicPerson1234 said such and such on such and such webpage, so what that tells us about Catholicism is … " :rolleyes:

Second, fwiw, there’s a parish where I live that I now make a point not to go to, because of judgmental/triumphalistic/whatever comments that I have heard the priest (yes, the priest) make when I have been there in the past. I’ll grant you that’s rather troubling (imagine if there were, oh say, a kindergarten class where the worst behaved person in the class was the teacher :hmmm:) but the thing is, that’s one parish out of about a dozen in the area, so we can hardly conclude that it is representative.
Hope this helps. 🙂 :cool:
I think that line should go a long ways in this thread, for everyone.

And that is what I’m trying to understand with Catholisicism. From what I can understand the level of exclusion, in my experience, has a lot to do with direction from either the Deacon or Father in charge of said church.

My first dip of the toe was a Father who didn’t want non-Catholics in the church. He wouldn’t perform the wedding between my wife and I, as well as what I described earlier. And like I said about my upbrining, this exclusionary practice was exceptionally offputting and unwelcoming (which sounds from talking to a lot of people around town was pretty much on purpose) which really pushed me away. I mean it’s been 10 years and I’m still confused as to whether I’m really welcomed/wanted at Mass or not.

Now…with that said it seems like Father’s come-and-go in the Parrish every few years, and how welcome non-Catholics are really depends upon the Father you have at the time. When it came to the baptism of my 2nd son, my not being Catholic seemed to be no biggie to the Father, and when I went through marriage classes at a different Parrish that would marry us, the Nun who performed the classes loved me.

Is that fair…accurate?
 
Of course…

No-one expects the Spanish Inquisition!

First it’s the comfy chair, then Winnie the poo and Piglet go collect firewood… then out comes the torch! 😛
What exactly have I said that you take issue with? You are not giving specifics - I will respond to serious questions about comments. This post is just anti-Catholicism as old as the hills (and personal attacks which are against forum rules). Are you the “true” Christian - acting like this? Is this the fruit of conversion in action?

A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” So then, you will know them by their fruits.…Matthew 7:19

Again, what are you bringing to the table? How is it good fruit? Is this what Protestantism amounts to - is that what we are to conclude? (my view of it is sinking by the minute…)
 
When I attend a Catholic mass, I expect the priest to wear priestly attire because that is normal for Catholic priests. I also like the symbolism involved.

I read a while back on CAF where a priest in Chicago routinely wore a Chicago Bears’ jersey under his priestly robe. Did that make him less of a priest? I don’t think so. His service and devotion to God, The Catholic Church and his flock matters more than how he is dressed, I would think.

I would wager that more than a few scoundrel priests and Protestant ministers were ornately adorned in the finest clerical garb and probably fooled a lot of people by their appearance. They were dressed as peaceful men of God but underneath they were ravenous wolves, preying on the innocent in different ways – some sexually, some financially or in other ways.

However, there were also many fine and godly priests and ministers who wore similar attire of the clergy which is why it’s not the clothes that make the man of God. It’s what he does that matters most.

I personally don’t care how a pastor dresses, although I prefer he wouldn’t dress like the guy in the photo a few posts back. I would dare say he is the exception and not the rule, or at least the pastors at the churches I have attended never looked or dressed like that.

At my church, the pastor usually wears slacks and a nice shirt. In other words, he dresses like the rest of us. He doesn’t stand out by his appearance. However, his message from the Word of God stands out and is inspiring to the congregation.

The Lord – through him – helps equip and encourage us to live out the Christian faith in a real and meaningful way in our daily lives in a way that helps us be better Christians and face life’s challenges head on and helps us to love and serve others.
 
The Lord – through him – helps equip and encourage us to live out the Christian faith in a real and meaningful way in our daily lives in a way that helps us be better Christians and face life’s challenges head on and helps us to love and serve others.
👍
Way to go, dude.
It’s a honor to call you my fellow Christian.
 
What exactly have I said that you take issue with? You are not giving specifics - I will respond to serious questions about comments. This post is just anti-Catholicism as old as the hills (and personal attacks which are against forum rules). Are you the “true” Christian - acting like this? Is this the fruit of conversion in action?

A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” So then, you will know them by their fruits.…Matthew 7:19

Again, what are you bringing to the table? How is it good fruit? Is this what Protestantism amounts to - is that what we are to conclude?
Anti-Catholicism? I take it you’re not a Monty Python fan. I was trying to make a joke about you saying you would “carry the torch”, thinking my mock horror and deliberate misconstruing of your meaning would be clearly meant to be a joke. Yes, indeed, a “true” Christian can make attempts at humor that fail. 😃

I suspect I spelled Winnie’s title wrong. I think it must be Winnie the Pooh?
 
Anti-Catholicism? I take it you’re not a Month Python fan. I was trying to make a joke about you saying you would “carry the torch”, thinking my mock horror and deliberate misconstruing of your meaning would be clearly meant to be a joke. Yes, indeed, a “true” Christian can make attempts at humor that fail. 😃

I suspect I spelled Winnie’s title wrong. I think it must be Winnie the Pooh?
Yes, you are way too esoteric (and Christian, bien sûr) for me I am afraid. And, ironically, I am a Monty Python fan. Go figure.
 
Likewise, FollowChrist34. By the way, I deeply admire Pope Francis. I think he embodies much of what is good in Catholicism and the Christian faith.
He does indeed. Though I admit to being more in the JPII/Benedict camp. So far, I am quite pleased with his comments here in the US - people say he is “threading the needle.” He is just being a Christian, right? He applies doctrine to either side properly - they hate it. 😉

I do hope we can hold it together at the Synod though, speaking for the Catholic Church as a whole. Pray for us.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top