I don't know why for the life of me we cannot communicate with each other(Catholics and Protestants in general) without getting nasty about it.
These are simply my beliefs and if you choose not to believe them than that is your choice.
For your information, one of my very good friends is a Baptist. And unlike what most of you think about us Catholics, I don't think that she is going to rot in Hell for her beliefs.
I actually went to a few of her Bible study sessions for awhile as she had invited me to. I have to say that I could relate to what was being said despite the fact that I didn't agree with some of what was said. The one thing that will always stick out in my mind is how some of the people in the group could not help but to bash the Church. They knew I was Catholic by the way. They would make snide little comments etc. She would apologize for it but I told her not to because I was really on her turf anyway.
What I just don't get is the absolute hatred that some Protestants have for us Catholics.(I don't know if that includes you). I went to a Bible study at my own church and I can honestly tell you that not one nasty comment was ever made about the Protestants. So I just don't get it. I swear, some of you just don't have it in you to be civil.
I think it may be the arrogance that many Roman Catholics express about their church. That tends to get under the skin of other Christians, who feel like you’re looking down on us as “separated brethren,” saying that “there is no salvation outside the church.”
Here are some quotes that reinforce this arrogance that some Roman Catholics have toward other Christians:
“To be Christian one must be Roman. One must recognize the oneness of Christ’s Church that is governed by one successor of the Prince of the Apostles who is the Bishop of Rome, Christ’s Vicar on earth” (Pope Pius XII).
“So long as the member was on the body, it lived; separated, it lost its life. Thus the man, so long as he lives on the body of the [Catholic] Church, he is a Christian; separated from her, he becomes a heretic” (Pope Leo XIII).
“Whoever leaves her [the Catholic Church] departs from the will and command of Our Lord Jesus Christ; leaving the path of salvation, he enters that of perdition. Whoever is separated from the Church is united to an adulteress” (Pope Leo XIII).
“He who abandons the Chair of Peter on which the Church is founded, is falsely persuaded that he is in the Church of Christ” (Pope Pius IX).
You ask why many Christians sometimes bristle when in dialog with Roman Catholics? It’s because many Roman Catholics see us as non-Christian heretics, even though Christ is our Lord.
FWIW, I’m CC’ing Petronski so he can see the first quote above, in which a Pope said, “To be Christian one must be Roman.”