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Welcome to Free Republic! Where attacks on Muslims are frowned upon, but attacks on Roman Catholics are "open to discussion!"

Disclaimer - I'm neither Muslim, Christian, or Jewish.

"As Charles R. Morris noted in his recent book American Catholic, the real mainstreaming of the church did not occur until the 1950's and 1960's, when educated Catholics--sons and daughters of immigrants--were finally assimilated into the larger culture."

This is true in my experience. I remember well my Irish grandparents telling stories about moving from St. Louis to Dallas,Texas (the South). They needed to rent a house. One thing they learned quickly was not to ask if there was a Catholic Church nearby or they would not get a rental. They were also afraid of the Ku-Klux-Klan.

By the time I was in school in the early 50's things had gotten much better. Those stories were ancient history to me. But then one day, I was about 7 or 8 I met this other little girl and I told her I was Catholic. She said, "My daddy is Baptist and he says the Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon and the anti-Christ." I was just stunned!! I felt like some of dog or something for a minute or two. It did not know what a whore was but it sure sounded terrible to me!! LOL.

Everything went along fine after that. I never ran into prejudice. Oh peers in my early 20's who would tease me because I was a naive Catholic girl. But it was mostly in good fun. And anyway, they were right.

Then about two years ago I told some Bible Christian friends I was Catholic and they said to me that I should read Jack Chick so I would know that the Catholic Church is a cult and the Whore of Babylon. I was just floored. I was shocked. And what's worse by this time I KNEW what a whore was!! (LOL) Never had any of my rights denied over being Catholic and that's not my complaint. Gosh we have prominet leaders in all walks of life who are Catholic, things are vastly improved. Ecumenical meetings with our Protestant brothers and sisters are the norm now. Still there is a current of anti-Catholicisim America, it is small but is rising again. Just do a search on the Internet and you can find Catholic bashing sites galore. I don't include doctrinal disagreement (no matter how vigourous)with Catholic bashing. But you can spot sites where The Catholic Chruch is actually feared, loathed and insulted not just disagreed with.

Why is it okay to bash groups because of thier faith and not okay to bash groups because of thier race or sexual orientation? Anti-Semitism is frowed on but not anti-Catholicism. It is a double standard and it is not right.

Thanks for that. I do think there is Catholic bashing on FR. Not a whole lot but it is present and I am just trying to raise awareness.