Posted on 12/30/2008 4:47:26 PM PST by SeekAndFind
While Catholics and Protestants both fall under the broad umbrella of Christianity, they practice their faith in different ways.
A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of regular churchgoers found that 25% of Evangelical Christians read the Bible on a daily basis along with 20% of other Protestants. Just seven percent (7%) of Catholics do the same. At the other extreme, 44% of Catholics rarely or never read the Bible along with only seven percent (7%) of Evangelical Christians and 13% of other Protestants.
Consider the divergence among the faiths in other areas, too. (All the figures that follow are based upon those who attend church at least twice a month.)
Ninety-one percent (91%) of Evangelical Christians consider themselves to be born again. Sixty-three percent (63%) of other Protestants have been born again along with 25% of Catholics.
Forty-four percent (44%) of Evangelical Christians reflect at least daily on the meaning of Scripture in their lives. Thirty-six percent (36%) of other Protestants and 22% of Catholics do the same.
Fifty-two percent (52%) of Evangelical Christians have had a meaningful discussion about their faith with a non-Christian during the past month. Twenty-eight percent (28%) of other Protestants and 18% of Catholics also have held such a discussion.
Sixty-eight percent (68%) of Evangelical Christians attend a regular Bible Study or participate in some other small-group activity. Forty-seven percent (47%) of other Protestants take part in small groups related to their faith, along with 24% of Catholics.
Seventy-one percent (71%) of Evangelical Christians say their Church does an excellent job helping them understand the Bible. Fifty-seven percent (57%) of other Protestants and 52% of Catholics say the same.
Despite these differences, the overwhelming majority of all Christians believe that the God of the Bible is the one true God. Ninety-eight percent (98%) of churchgoing Evangelical Christians hold that view along with 94% of other Protestants and 92% of Catholics.
Forty-four percent (44%) of American adults attend Christian church services at least twice a month, and 92% of these regular churchgoers believe the God of the Bible is the one true God.
Sixty-one percent (61%) of adults also say life in the United States would be better if more Americans lived as Christians.
Thanks for this post.
You say it well.
Huh? We really only get readings from Acts during the Easter Season. There is a Gospel at EVERY Mass. The epistle I hear come out of a lector's mouth most often is Romans with Corinthians a close second and from the OT, there's more Isaiah than anything else. The readings are chosen to match each other.
I don't have a Lectionary in front of me, but your statement is simply not true.
>>I know, I’ll tell you how I know<<
You know squat about me.
You know about YOU.
I am a Lector at Mass. You have no clue how much studying I do for that calling as well as preparing my 11-year-old for her readings.
You may have sat in mass yawning and ignoring what was given to you. Pity you chose to ignore the wonder of the Holy Mass.
I’m a lector. I’ll vouch for it.
I see. The union (read diocese) takes care of all that and as long as you're a card carrying member, you'll be fine, right? Never mind those parts of God's Word that happen to speak to the contrary (the ones you apparently don't need to know). Please, let me help:
Joshua 1:8
Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
LOL!!!!
What makes you think that not spouting the book and verse references means that one is letting the “Book of Law depart from your mouth”?
Those reference points are not for the Lord, FRiend!
PeteePie,
These are quite a few, subjective and personal observations and perceptions that miss the larger picture.
I ,too, am a lector. I know what it takes to prepare to read the Sacred Scripture in such a way as to elevate and edify for the sake of the listeners. It isn’t about us lectors and we are told that. It’s about prayerful meditating on the Scriptures that we are to read so that we understand it and have assimilated it into our lives. Only in this way can ANYONE benefit from Scripture.
I also am part of a large community of people who have committed themselves, as lay people, to a life of daily prayer, the Divine Office (now known as the Liturgy of the Hours). This practice is the Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer which is the meditative reading of the Psalms, selections from the Epistles and/or the Old Testament.
In my lay community alone (Carmelite) we have about 10,000 committed members. Other lay commmunities, of which there are many, (such as Benedictine, Franciscan, etc.) have equal numbers of members.
There is no way that anyone can qualify or quantify the working of the Holy Spirit in the life of another person.
That you have “experienced true worship” is your experience and you proclaim it. It isn’t prudent to deny the working of the Holy Spirit in any other person. As Scripture tells us, the Spirit moves where He wills. And we poor mortals don’t know the how, where, who and what in all that He does.
Your “guess” could easily be interpreted as an attempt to read the mind of another.
A guess is just a guess. Nothing more.
You are not familiar with Christ giving the keys of the kingdom to Peter, leader of the apostles, and of Christ sending the apostles out to preach to all nations and baptize in the Name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, or of St. Paul who converted many Gentiles.
Another thing — the first monastery/seminary was walking with and learning from Jesus himself. Again — it’s in the Bible.
It’s all there in the Bible.
We don’t practice YOPIOS as you do — translation — Your Own Personal Interpretation Of Scripture.
**There’s just no life in the redundancy of the ceremony and none among the obligatory attendees. I had to escape Holy Mother Church with the velocity of an ejection seat.**
There is much life in the Catholic Church — are you talking about fellowship? Fellowship doesn’t get you to heaven, believe in Jesus, the REAL PRESENCE in the Holy Eucharist and taking part in the Sacraments gets you on the way to heaven.
You can come back to the Catholic Church any time. I invite you right now. Please sit down with a priest and get your questions answered, for you see, if you were baptized a Catholic — you STILL are a Catholic!
(That is unless you filled out tons of paperwork and had a hearing in front of a panel.
I can assure you that there is fellowship among Catholics and is experienced in many and varied ways. We just don’t normally refer to it as “fellowship”, but rather as “community”-—which is a way of expressing our brotherly experience with one another in Word, worship and daily life. (as the Church expresses it: “communio”)
Fair enough. I am eminently satisfied with my current abiding but thank you. Let’s agree to disagree and hash it out on the other side.
With 1 hr 15 min to go: Happy New Year from Iraq!
You wrote:
“I am Potestant...and yet I’ve never heard of this....what is embraced by my denomination is that we are saved by God’s grace through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice.....and that no action on our part, other than our acceptance of said grace, can accommodates God’s salvation....”
You just described OSAS (once saved, always saved). And that was invented in the 16th century. Even some Protestants admit this.
“Thus, if truly believe and accept such you our saved....if you accept it, than later deny it, and than come back to accept it once again...than yes..you are saved...which I suppose has happened...but probably isn’t the norm...and should not be confused with human doubt and sin that we as humans will harbor throughout our life...even after accepting Christ...”
In any case, OSAS is a 16th century belief and is not part of historical Christianity until that point.
You are being EXTREMELY presumptuous about me.
I am not your Aunt
I am not you
And presuming the mind of a FReeper is against the rules of the Religion Forum.
My relationship with Our Lord is between me and Him. I don’t care what you think of it. It really doesn’t matter to me at all. You are proclaiming over and over that you got nothing out of the Holy Mass. Pity.
>>(My guess is that you probably don’t find concern yourself with chapter and verse because the whole topic isn’t something you discuss much among your peers.) <<
Life is not Awana.
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