Why is Evangelical Protestantism so intolerant of other Christians?

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I’m a convert. I grew up Protestant, but not with a hatred of other Christians. I wasn’t raised with animosity towards Roman Catholics or the Eastern Orthodox. Perhaps it’s because I love and study history that this mentality is alien to me. I never considered it a priority to bring other Christians into my particular branch of Christianity. Why do so many Evangelicals feel it’s appropriate to judge whether someone is “saved”? Why do so many teach their children to critique the salvation of others? It’s reinforced in their myriad number of “bible colleges”. It leads to arrogance and pride. It’s as wrong as some traditional Catholics that take a literal view of “No salvation outside the Catholic Church”. I even read online a critique of the Amish.
 
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The worst offenders can be former Catholics who have now become Protestants, especially those who have become Baptists. They attack their former faith tradition with unquenching zeal and delight.
 
Is it Protestantism per se or Evangelicalism? What exactly makes Evangelicals different from other Protestants? I sometimes quarrel with the Catholic hierarchy. I’ve struggled with some things, but I would never say, even if I were to leave that Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox aren’t Christians.
 
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People in protest (PROTESTantism) speak very loudly against that which they protest.
A protest against baptism as the granting of citizenship to the Kingdom of God is loudly replaced with a different method of acquiring entrance to the kingdom of God: the answer to the “Are you saved” question - " I accepted Jesus as my personal savior."
This must be shouted loud to drown out anyone promoting baptism as Christ’s command.

John Martin
 
It’s not all Protestants. I rarely hear this from Episcopalians or Anglicans or Lutherans. They are Protestants that seem to have left the religious wars in the 16th and 17th century. Maybe it’s because they were first and saw the terrible cost of the religious wars.
 
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glencor63 said:
It’s not all Protestants. I rarely hear this from Episcopalians or Anglicans or Lutherans.
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I believe you missed the point: protesters speak loudly against that specific Doctrine against which they are protesting; most Lutherans and Episcopalians and Anglicans are protesting other items within Catholic Doctrine and therefore speak loudly about those items or doctrines.

John Martin
 
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Yes, I understand what Protestantism is in relation to Roman Catholicism. I still insist that this intense hatred among many Evangelicals towards Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians is directed by specific Protestants, overwhelmingly Evangelicals.
 
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I attended protestant churches for years and they almost never spoke of Catholicism in a positive light. They mostly regarded Catholics as decieved and the Church as a corrupted tool of satan. Of course, they were hostile towards other protestants too if the differences were significant enough, but there was a special place of hate reserved for Catholicism.

I think it all simply reduces to: “If you’re right, then I’m wrong…and I can’t be wrong”.
 
I never experienced this type of animosity. It seems to be a special brand of Protestantism, mainly Evangelicalism.
 
I don’t know that it’s universal. It was strongest on the fundamentalist end of the spectrum, but I encountered it everywhere I spent any significant amount of time. Over the years that was in Baptist (mostly independent), non-denominational charismatic, and Church of God churches.
 
I would not say Evangelicals, but sects of Christian Fundamentalism which range from televangelism to conspiracies about the Vatican.
 
I feel an urgency that people should know the Gospel, but not necessarily that they should become Roman Catholic. I think the different branches are allowed to exist by God for reasons unknown. I’ve never felt a need to convert people to what I believe specifically. My belief in God is based on personal encounters, inner conviction, and personal experiences. As much as I love scripture it didn’t bring me back to Christ. Someone else’s horrific death hundreds of miles away was the catalyst that made me search for Jesus anew.
 
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John_Martin said:
most Lutherans and Episcopalians and Anglicans are protesting other items within Catholic Doctrine and therefore speak loudly about those items or doctrines.
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What items or doctrines, specifically, do Anglicans protest loudly about?
 
Yes, God gets to people in different ways. Even those who have never encountered any brand of Christianity can be saved. The protestant churches are less than perfect, but God clearly works through them. I’ve wondered why he doesn’t move powerfully to push them towards the historic Church. He doesn’t seem to work like that though.
 
There are some Evangelical Protestants who are extremely intolerant of Catholics and any person who is not of their particular church.

There are also some Catholics who are extremely intolerant of Protestants and any person who is not of their particular church.
 
The evangelical Protestants are (from what I can figure) are the modern day version of the Born Again Christian movement from the late sixties and early seventies.

Personal relationship with Jesus is very important to them, and they think the high liturgical churches lost their way in focusing on rituals over relationship.

They have a curious steak of claiming to be not legalistic, while at the same time, fundamentalism is associated with evangelicalism and being very conservative in their thinking and life choices.

(Please note, “fundamentalism” does NOT mean “crazy religious nutter”. There is an actual set of defined Fundamentals of belief that some group of Protestant pastors came up with, I think around the year 1900 and the Protestants who agree with it are the Fundamentalists)

Also, Evangelicals tend to be associated with the Baptist Church, or influenced by Baptist thinking.

As for the Amish, I’ve noticed that a lot of my evangelical and Baptist associates aren’t very fond of them. They don’t see them as quaint and picturesque as the rest of us do. Maybe it’s because they all come from the same branch of Protestantism (Anabaptist) and it’s just that they get on each other’s nerves.

And, to be fair, the Amish aren’t above criticism. They directly defy the Great Commission, which Christ gave us to “go and make disciples of all nations”.

Actually, none of us is above criticism 😏
 
“Actually, none of us is above criticism”.

I believe very strongly that there are weaknesses in each branch of Christianity that is a strength in the other. For instance, though the Roman Catholic Church has much scripture in the Mass it has a poor record of encouraging personal reading of scripture among the laity. Protestants beat Catholics hands down in studying and reading scripture. They also excel at exegesis.

The Roman Catholic Church, however has seven sacraments and the Eucharist, which fundamentalist Protestants deny, despite saying they are biblical literalists.

I believe the Eastern Orthodox Christian claim that the Pope is “First among equals” and that he is subject to the authority of a church council. I think there’s strength in all the branches.

*I feel very lonely in my walk with God. I am beyond being Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox. I feel God leading me to something heretofore unknown. All the division and animosity greatly disturbs me.
 
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I think it depends on the person or church. Evangelicalism is very broad, and it can come in with very well-defined, rigid standards or be so open and ambiguous that it’s barely a religion anymore.
glencor63 said:
I even read online a critique of the Amish.
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Did an Amish person give a response?
 
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