“Nope. We’re not all protestants.”
Accept sola fide? Accept sola scriptura? Then you are a Protestant.
“As I have repeatedly affirmed, words have meanings. The ‘protest group’ was specific. They only gave rise to a split. Those who arose later had nothing to do with that split.”
False. What you are claiming is denied by the Protestants themselves in their own writings, charters, confessions, books, conventions, TV shows, etc. The “restorationist” idea that some Protestants are not Protestants is just nonsense.
“And we all don’t have the same doctrine.”
So you reject sola scriptura and sola fide?
“Doctrinal distinctives are probably the major reason for different denominations.”
Perhaps, but Protestants all adhere to sola scriptura or sola fide or both.
“It rankled me as a military chaplain when higher-ups grouped certain ‘sects’ into the ‘Protestant’ camp simply because they weren’t Catholic.”
That’s not why they did it. Are you a Mormon? No. Buddhist. No. Hindu? No. Muslim? No. But a Protestant is a Protestant.
“It became clear to me at that time that we were all more understood by our differences, and that some were entirely different religions.”
And Protestants are still Protestants.
“I have a career’s worth of experience in dealing with these different denominations. No one can convince me of their being ‘in the same camp’.”
But they are. It has nothing to do with you being convinced.
But they aren't, and you are simply wrong.
We do not have the same doctrine, and targeting only sola scriptura and sola fide means you have somehow left out 3 of the solas.
1. Sola scriptura: “Scripture alone”
2. Sola fide: “faith alone”
3. Sola gratia: “grace alone”
4. Solo Christo: “Christ alone”
5. Soli Deo gloria: “to the glory of God alone”
And since Catholics subscribe to 3, 4, and 5 (and probably 2), that means Catholics are Protestants, too.
Wonderful. :>)