Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Question_Assumptions
Yes, I did ask them to clarify and, yes, that's exactly what they meant. I've run into plenty of Catholics that say "Catholic" instead of "Christian" and once I've pointed the distinction out to them, they still sometimes fumble and then correct themselves when they realize what they've said.

I'm having a hard time following. Are you saying that your Catholic friends believe that only Catholics are Christians??
348 posted on 07/15/2005 2:26:15 PM PDT by InterestedQuestioner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 318 | View Replies ]


To: InterestedQuestioner
I'm having a hard time following. Are you saying that your Catholic friends believe that only Catholics are Christians??

No. I'm saying that there are Catholics that I have known that speak as though Catholic and Christian is the same thing and, in a few rare cases, never seemed to ponder the possibility of a non-Catholic Christian. They use the word "Catholic" and "Christian" interchangibly. I think that suggests that part of the reason why Protestants in the South ask people if they are "Catholic or Christian". They may be using "Christian" interchangibly with "Protestant".

Of course in the broader sense, there are indeed Catholics who don't think of Protestants as proper Christians just as there are Protestants who don't think that Catholics are proper Christians. Don't think that it doesn't go both ways. Perhaps you don't see it when Catholics are a minority but one can see it when Catholics are in the majority and I can certainly point out that my mother was denied a church blessing for her marriage and thus communion because my father (having a chip on his shoulder from growing up as a minority Protestant kid in a majority Catholic city) didn't think it fair that he had to promise the Catholic church to raise any potential children Catholic. As I mentioned earlier, I have Catholic-Protestant marriages in my family going back well over a century on both sides and I can tell you with absolute certainty that both Catholics and Protestants often did not (and in some cases still do not) treat each other with respect.

Again, I am not singling out Catholics. Protestants certainly do it to. And I think it's stupid no matter which way it goes.

413 posted on 07/15/2005 3:06:26 PM PDT by Question_Assumptions
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 348 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson