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I see a "brothers and sisters in Christ" POV expressed by Protestant people-of-good-will from time to time. I always welcome this, as I think it's God-pleasing and also because it's more mutually enriching to play catch with the non-biting breeds.

That goes for non-biting Catholics too.

I suspect that maybe some don't hang out in the Religion Forum very much because it has the reputation of being a sado-ecumenical no-go zone. Genial believers and non-believers who peek in from time to time are probably scared right out of the neighborhood.

>> I see a "brothers and sisters in Christ" POV expressed by Protestant people-of-good-will from time to time. I always welcome this, as I think it's God-pleasing and also because it's more mutually enriching to play catch with the non-biting breeds. <<

Most of them (both "mainline" and "evangelical" protestants) seem to be pretty welcoming of non-protestant Christianity and just see Catholics as "fellow Christians with some weird beliefs". I only think maybe 5% of them are the "Catholics ain't Christian and the Catholic faith is a false man-made cult" type mindset.

The problem is that quite a few "Evangelical leaders" DO express that viewpoint, and seem to make it their mission to "turn away Catholics from the error of the Catholic Church" and get us to join some fundamentalist protestant church where we can be "born again" and "saved", cuz otherwise, we're goin' to hell. They think they're saving souls.

I supposed their sincerity is admirable, but I find their tactics to be appalling. The biggest challenge to evangelicalism in Catholicism is getting people who were already raised Catholic but have fallen away to be re-evangelized, not to convince other Christians their church is scum and get them to leave it and join the Catholic Church.

The current crisis will just make low-information Catholics easy picking, unfortunately.

Finally, I think a valid point can be made that these anti-Catholic bigots can get away with preaching ANYTHING they want about the evils of Catholicism in public, but the reverse is not true. If a Catholic minister targeted any protestant church for criticism the way they bash Catholicism (for example, if some famous Catholic priest started quipping that the Methodist Church is satanic and a great lie and that all their members are damned), that would quickly be the end of his career.