Where Have All the Protestants Gone?

NOR ^ | January 2006 | Thomas Storck

[NYer]

Has anyone noticed the almost complete disappearance of Protestants from our nation? "What!" I can hear my readers exclaim, "Storck has really gone off his rocker this time. Why, just down the street there's an Assembly of God church and two or three Baptist churches and the Methodists and so on. My cousin just left the Catholic Church to become a Protestant and my niece just married one. Moreover, evangelical Protestants have many media outlets of their own and they have great influence in the Bush Administration. They're everywhere." All this, of course, is true. Except that for some time, they no longer call themselves Protestants, but simply Christians, and increasingly they've gotten Catholics to go along with their terminology.

I recall over 10 years ago when I was a lector at Mass, for the prayer of the faithful I was supposed to read a petition that began, "That Catholics and Christians…." Of course, I inserted the word "other" before "Christians," but I doubt very many in the congregation would even have noticed had I not done so. Just the other day I saw on a Catholic website an article about a Protestant adoption agency that refused to place children with Catholic parents. The headline referred not to a Protestant adoption agency but to a Christian one. And how often do we hear of Christian bookstores or Christian radio stations or Christian schools, when everyone should know they are Protestant ones?

Now, what is wrong with this? Well, it should be obvious to any Catholic -- but probably isn't. Are only Protestants Christians? Are we Catholics not Christians, indeed the true Christians? About 30 years ago, Protestants, especially evangelicals, began to drop the term Protestant and call themselves simply Christians as a not too subtle means of suggesting that they are the true and real Christians, rather than simply the children of the breakaway Protestant revolt of the 16th century. This shift in Protestant self-identification has taken on increasingly dramatic proportions. A recent Newsweek survey (Aug. 29-Sept. 5, 2005) found that, between 1990 and 2001, the number of Americans who consider themselves "Christian" (no denomination) increased by 1,120 percent, while the number of those who self-identify as "Protestant" decreased by 270 percent.

But perhaps I am getting too worked up over a small matter. After all, are not Protestants also Christians? Yes, I do not deny that. But usually we call something by its most specific name.

Protestants are theists too, but it would surely sound odd if we were to refer to their radio stations and bookstores as theistic radio stations and theistic bookstores. Language, in order to be useful, must convey human thought and concepts in as exact a way as it can. And, in turn, our thoughts and concepts should reflect reality. As Josef Pieper noted, "if the word becomes corrupted, human existence will not remain unaffected and untainted."

Moreover, words often convey more than simple concepts. A certain word may seem only to portray reality, but in fact it does more. It adds a certain overtone and connotation. Thus, it is not a small matter whether we speak of "gays" or of homosexuals. The former term was chosen specifically to inculcate acceptance of an unnatural and immoral way of life. When I was an Episcopalian, I was careful never to speak of the Catholic Church, but of the Roman Catholic Church, as a means of limiting the universality of her claims. I always called Episcopal ministers priests, again as a means of affirming that such men really were priests, in opposition to Leo XIII's definitive judgment that Anglican orders are invalid and thus that they are in no sense priests. Perhaps because of these early experiences, I am very aware of the uses of language to prejudge and control arguments, and I am equally careful now never to call Episcopal ministers priests or refer to one as Father So-and-So. And I think we should likewise not go along with the evangelical Protestant attempt to usurp the name Christian for themselves. They are Protestants, and public discourse should not be allowed to obscure that fact.

Apparently, though, it is the case that some Protestants call themselves Christians, not out of a desire to usurp the term, but out of an immense ignorance of history. That is, they ignore history to such an extent that they really don't understand that they are Protestants. Knowing or caring little about what came before them, they act as if their nicely bound Bibles had fallen directly from Heaven and anyone could simply become a Christian with no reference to past history, ecclesiology, or theology. The period of time between the conclusion of the New Testament book of Acts and the moment that they themselves "accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior" means nothing. Even Luther or Calvin or John Wesley mean little to them, since they can pick up their Bibles and start Christianity over again any time they want. These souls may call themselves simply Christians in good faith, but they are largely ignorant of everything about Church history. They do not understand that Jesus Christ founded a Church, and that He wishes His followers to join themselves to that Church at the same time as they join themselves to Him. In fact, one implies and involves the other, since in Baptism we are incorporated in Christ and made members of His Church at the same time.

So let us not go along with the widespread practice of calling our separated brethren simply Christians. They are Protestants. Let us begin again to use that term. It is precise. It implies Catholic doctrine in the sense that it suggests that such people are in protest against the Church. Moreover, it forces them to define themselves in terms of, rather than independently of, the One True Church. And if we do resume referring to our separated brethren as Protestants, perhaps a few of them might even be surprised enough to ask us why -- and then, behold, a teachable moment!

[Cronos]

While Orthodoxy is not in communion with Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy rejects the notion that Roman Catholicism is the "other half" of the Church, this, coupled with the fact that Orthodox doctrine rejects certain teachings unique to Roman Catholicism - papal supremacy and infallibility, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, to name a few -- does not mean that the Orthodox Church is "anti-Catholic."

Really -- you're mixing two things up -- yes, the Orthodox disagrees with the above Catholic thoughts, but all the ORthodox I've spoken to consider the Catholics as part of the Apostolic Church -- yes, they consider us to be wrong on some issues, but so do we, yet neither says that the other is NOT part of the Church.

[x5452]

And you preach the faith invented in the 1400s by a men who refused to even acknowledge the Torah from which hrist and the apostles preached.

Flout the commandments and worship men somewhere else.

[Cronos]

ok, simple words for you -- If you don't belong to the Assyrian Church or the Oriental Churchs or the Catholic Churchs then you aren't part of the Christian Church. Happy?

[tenn2005]

Wrong again. where do you get your misguided conceptions?

[x5452]

The official Orthodox doctrine of every major orthodox confession consider Catholics to be heterodox, and there are no varying degrees of heterodox nor banches of the true church.

[x5452]

Will you or will you not acknowledge which confession you attend? Have you so little faith in it's truth you cannot even name it?

[Cronos]

Tenn -- do you believe in the Trinity and in the Nicene Creed?

I BELIEVE in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

 And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages; God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God; begotten, not made; of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.

Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and was made man. He was also crucified for us, suffered under Pontius Pilate, and was buried. And on the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven.

He sitteth at the right hand of the Father: and He shall come again with glory, to judge the living and the dead: and His kingdom shall have no end.

And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, Who, together with the Father, is adored and glorified: who spoke through the prophets.

And in the one, holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. And I await the resurrection of the dead and the life + of the world to come. Amen.

[tenn2005]

Yes, I am very happy. Fortunatly I do not belong to any of the churches that you named. I am simply a Christian who belongs to Christ's church. If it is good enough for Him it is good enough for me.

[tenn2005]

Yes, all except the apostate catholic church bit. My church is called the church of Christ just as it was called by Paul.

[tenn2005]

Does that give you a problem?

[x5452]

Yet you refuse to build God's house as he commanded.

BTW does you're bible have Maccabees?

[Cronos]

Roman Catholic perishes do and teach a lot of things that are unscriptural. They require a woman to cover their heads before entering. what does this have to do with the admonition against a woman praying with her head uncovered. I have even a had a woman ask to borrow my handkerchief so she could enter a Catholic church with her head covered.

Oh, and they make people SIT in pews -- that's not scriptural either !!!! /sarcasm And they speak ENGLISH, that's definitely not scriptural...... /double sarc

[tenn2005]

We build exactly as He commanded. No, does yours?

[x5452]

(There are decisions from councils which require all to stand btw, they are flouted throughout the west but I don't beleive they've been repealed)

[Cronos]

If you don't believe in the Nicene Creed, then you are not a Christian. Just as Mormons are nice folks but not Christians (as they don't believe in what's stated in the Creed), if you don't follow the above, you aren't Christian.

[tenn2005]

I think that you have had a bit too much to drink and need to sleep it off.

[Cronos]

I guess it's one of the all-singing, all-dancing, no theology, just some guy standing up on a dais and gesticulating wildly while shouting like Rev. Al Sharpton kind of group (can't call it a Church) -- one which does not recognise any sacraments or give it's members any deeper religious teaching than kumbaya.

[Cronos]

I doubt it would have Maccabbees -- that was removed by Luther, so all these little groupings that claim to be not man made, follow the same thought.

[Cronos]

nope, just find it funny refuting Scientologists, slammies and similar groups

[tenn2005]

The Catholic church is an apostate church and the Pope is a fraud. It is God, not you or your church who decides who is a Christian and who is not. You like to belittle those who do not blindly follow the erroneous teachings of the Pope and his church. As for me and my family we will follow the Lord.