“All religions adapt from other cultures. I don’t know why people make such a big deal out of this.”
I think for many Protestant anti-Catholics it comes with the whole territory of restoration theology and ecclesiology. They think they have tapped into some long lost original Christian church which was hanging around in the pages of the New Testament and in the ether of the air just waiting for pure Protestant hands and hearts to find it. That demands that everything “added” since then that might smack even remotely of “Roman Catholicism” must be stripped away and abandoned as horrible, superstitious, latter day, pagan or semi-pagan accretions snuck in there by Constantine or some evil pope or whatever the crack pot theory of the week is. Some things seem to show up in this twilight world of idiots on a rather routine basis: 1) they do not always apply to the same theory to their own lives (i.e. they continue with their wedding rings, pagan named days of the weeks [Thor’s-day anyone?!] or what have you; 2) they try to establish a church and practice that is nothing more than their fantasy for their Protestant beliefs nullify and possibility of their creation actually resembling the original Church in beliefs no matter what else they do.
Well, as always, Vlad, you’ve said it all! It’s one of the reasons you’re my favorite Catholic poster.