[Sca-cooks] Catholic/Christian, was: The Fallwell/Robertson statements

[Elaine Koogler]

I have to say that I've been part of three different Protestant groups during my
life (Presbyterian, Methodist and Episcopalian) and I don't ever recall hearing
the Catholics weren't Christians.  I do definitely remember the reactions to JFK's
running for the Presidency...in fact, a major difference of opinion on this caused
one of the worst arguments I ever had with my parents (I supported JFK).

Kiri

Tara wrote:

> > Now if someone could only explain to me why the Catholics are not considered
> > Christains................................................
>
> Catholics consider themselves to be Christians.  Some Protestant sects
> consider them to be Christian, too.  But, some Protestant sects consider
> Catholic worship of Saints and the elevation of the Pope to a status
> above normal humans to be worshiping false idols.  Catholics consider an
> awful lot of texts (i.e. the writings of Thomas Aquinas,) to be holy
> writs, which is antithetical to Protestants who consider only the New
> Testament to be the word of God.  Catholic rites such as the Host are
> considered magical or otherwise un-holy in some views.  And, the fact
> that many Catholic churches still forbid parishoners to read the Bible
> for themselves is a big sticking point in many Protestant views.  Most
> Protestants consider one's relationship with God to be of utmost
> importance, not to be interfered with by any other person or opinion.
> You are expected to read and understand the Bible and live by it.
> Catholics are expected *not to* read the Bible, but to let their church
> leaders explain it all to them.  So, those preachers theoretically could
> (and historically, sometimes did) teach anything that fits their agenda.
>
> Basically, it's the same sort of rift that long ago led certain Hebrews
> to no longer be Jews.  The first Christians were born and raised Jewish,
> and continued to follow Jewish ways of life and teach them to their
> children.  Jews were busy waiting for the coming of God, and these
> particular Jews considered Jesus to be that God.  As far as they were
> concerned, the Jews who didn't accept this were too un-holy, too worldly
> minded to notice an obvious fact.  Quickly the culture became so
> seperated from it's source that it was no longer distinguisable as
> Jewish, and they effectively became two different religions.
> Protestants seperated from the Catholics, and quickly became so
> different that they were obviously very different.  The difference is,
> the Protestants and Catholics are still fighting over who holds title to
> the word "Christian."
>
> -Magdalena
> _______________________________________________
> Sca-cooks mailing list
> Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/sca-cooks