[murphE]

I have heard Catholics justify or excuse some of the horrible persecutions of the past. Someone actually quoted Aquinas' justification of killing heretics a few months ago. Although he backed off from saying that HE would personally burn me, once gets the feeling that he'd prefer to. It's absolutely chilling. All of the sudden, the wild paranoia of militant, persecutory, conspiratorial, inquisitional Catholicism, that I used to recoil at, now seems to have a grain of truth. I'll never look at Catholicism so trustingly again.

Rest easy. We're much more concerned with burning the heretics within the Church, and by the time we get done with them we'll have run out of wood and matches. ;^)

[Earthdweller]

"Rest easy. We're much more concerned with burning the heretics within the Church, and by the time we get done with them we'll have run out of wood and matches."

I assume that you are joking..in any case, it's not funny because their are those that really still feel this way. The Catholics that I know who make such wild statements just don't know enough about Protestants. IMHO

Let me tell you a little of my observations.

My Catholic acquaintances run the entire gamut from claiming devotion to their faith and rarely attending church to spending all their time in the church. Same with Protestants.

The Catholics run the gamut of being addicted to drugs, porn, et, to complete self control and discipline..same with the protestants.

Of the Catholics that I know some read their bible regularly and pray and some don't..again, same with the Protestants.

In both cases the condition of the lives of these people is all across the board. In other words..I don't see a big difference in what really counts.