Since the followers of Christ are hated because of their beliefs, which are identified with Christ, your point creates a distinction without a difference. It's a shame that, in addition to the pagans and worldlings who have always opposed the Catholic Church and its members, other brands of Christians direct so much similar animosity toward it.
A multitude of anti-Catholic threads here on FR bear this out. They often do not merely disagree with doctrine, they are smear threads, designed solely to make the Church look bad or ridiculous. Their posting is certainly engendered by hatred of some type! Likewise, there are threads with simple disagreement with Catholic teaching as a theme, which wind up getting hijacked by sometimes hundreds of posts that have not much, if anything, to do with the thread theme, but simply use it as a springboard to bring up vile imaginings or half-truths. Surely, those are not motivated in Christian charity!
Ignoring your assertion that Catholic doctrine is inspired by the devil as simply coming from ignorance, it is still true that much of what is directed against the Church is just raw hatred swinging wildly against what people see as Catholic shibboleths, or against what they think is "Catholic doctrine," but, in fact, is a total falsehood or strawman set-up to complain about. That we allegedly "worship Mary" is a good and common example of this sort of thing. No matter how many times it is denied, no matter how many times the Catholic catechism is cited to show this is demonstrably false, some people can't let go of it, for the thought that Catholics are idolators gives them, apparently, too much comfort. Archbishop Fulton Sheen got it right when he said: "There aren't one hundred people in the whole country who hate what the Catholic Church teaches, but there are millions who hate what they think the Catholic Church teaches." Events on this forum alone prove him right, in spades!
Very well said.
Followers of Christ are hated because their lives line up with their beliefs and the world hates Jesus. With the followers of religions, on the other hand, it is a distinction with a difference. The Bible tells us not to hate those who are lost, but have compassion upon them. We are to hate those whom the Lord hates, and the Bible tells us who He hates: outwardly religious people whose hearts are far removed from Him and His Truths.
Smears happen from RCs as well as against them, so your observation about those activities is off-setting as well as irrelevant.
I didn’t say RCC doctrine was from Satan - I said Mormon doctrine about Christ is the doctrine of demons. I do think, however, that there is no neutral corner in the spiritual realm and that any teaching that denies essential Christian doctrine (the deity of Christ, His sufficiency, etc.) is not of the Lord and must, therefore, be of Satan. I give you the “Revival in Lakeland” as an example. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2037402/posts
So when an RC claims any man or group of men to be without error when interpreting God’s will (if he sits in the right chair or whatever the conditions are), this is a lie from hell. Same with anyone’s claim that new birth requires works from the one who would be born again.
But how people on either side of an issue behave is not for me to define or defend. People are the rule for what is right or wrong - the Word of God fills that spot.
Regarding Mary worship - from this side of the fence, RCs deny it fanatically, but news reports and RCC pronouncements show otherwise, though the denials grow louder and more strident. Mary (and other idols) are worshiped by untold numbers of people around the world. The RCC has tried to assimilate cultures as it moves in, rather than reproving sin with the Word.
While many people err in claiming to know the official teachings of another religion, that is not a defense against false teaching within that religion. Arguing that the critique hasn’t stated the doctrine just so doesn’t, in and of itself, invalidate the argument.
Amen brother. I am a Catholic.