Catholic ping!
The fringe groups are easy to dismiss, but the stereotypes about Catholicism are especially hard to take coming from people who should be smarter, like those working for presidential candidates.
This is where the author gets off the track a bit. Both the bloggers and the "Pope is the Antichrist" crows are both on the fringe.
I wish they could be published, with blanks in the worst places, so that people could get an idea of just exactly how far outside decent public discourse these two women were.
Once again, despite its (unmerited) conservative image, Catholics are a historically "oppressed minority" in the United States and will pull out the victim card as quickly as anyone (as the reference to "Know-Nothings" demonstrates).
The author dismisses the idea that Catholics are not considered "Bible-believing chr*stians," but it is a simple and undeniable fact that most Catholics (especially the theologians and clergy) subscribe to higher Biblical criticism and naturalistic theories about how the world works. It is simply ridiculous to deny this.
Also, Catholics and other non-missionary religions do indeed demean other (missionary) religions by attacking them for being missionary religions. Although I am a Noachide and accept the authority of the Jewish Sages, I am simply dumbfounded by the dogmatic anti-proselytization ideology that holds that "I'm right and you're wrong, but that's perfectly all right." This simply makes no sense! Is the non-proselytizer a snob of some kind who doesn't want the other person to be as correct as him?
It is absolutely astounding how many religions think the worst possible thing that can happen is to be handed a tract by a Protestant missionary. Of all the evils in the world, is there nothing else to fight against?
I foresee a time when sinister forces will attempt to create a syncretistic new age "religion" based on nothing but the condemnation of Protestant missionaries.
I know, I know . . . this site "isn't really Catholic" or its authors are "Protestants who don't realize it." What else is new?