Hate Towards Catholicism from other Christians

[Sétanta]

Idea taken from the "Telling your religious parents that you are atheist" thread.

Well I am Catholic, many of my friends are Catholic but most are Protestant of some kind.
From them I have recieved a lot of crap for being Catholic to the point they tell me I am not even Christian and Mormons are more Christian than Catholics are. "The Pope is a satanist" and all that stuff.

That confuses me. Why do these people hate Catholics. And they are just kids too.
They don't know anything about Catholicism other than we have the pope.

[Publius]

Well, maybe its time to get some new friends if that's what they do to you all of the time ...

[Sétanta]

Well, maybe its time to get some new friends if that's what they do to you all of the time ...

Not like it causes a lot of tension normally, but we clash whenever we get way into the subject. Sometimes its a joke to. They say "satanist" to me. I say "heretic" to them

But when we dig deeper they have this hate, this fear towards catholicism from god knows where

[MaximiIian]

Well, maybe its time to get some new friends if that's what they do to you all of the time ...

What he said.

But, seriously, how can they think that Catholicism isn't christianity? It was, like, the original christianity...
Ah, well, I'm an athiest, and if someone doesn't like, I just ignore them.

[Spiff]

Being religious is less "cool" these days. Atheism came in when the Macarena went out, and let's not forget a lot of people simply want to be seen as rebelling against their upbringing.

Not to say that all atheists are driven by spite, the majority are not. So lets distinguish between hate and disagreement, as i can see Darth Wong storming in here with words to that effect!

[Sétanta]

Like I said. It depends on the person and the denomination.

Two friends who I talk with this about are Anglican. They "disagree"
One friend is Scottish (Presbyterian?) and he absolutely hates Catholicism. That is no disagreement. We can't bring up religion or we have a litteral fight.
More friends are Lutheran and it borders between disagreement, contempt and hate for them depending on the person.

Besides like you said most of them are kids and are just immature and they dont know better.

What are their parents teaching them then. 15 year olds are usually not full of hate randomly.

[A Spartan Soldier]

Dude im Pentacostal and i have nothing against Catholics. People that say that Catholics arent Christians are fools and arent true christians themselves. Christians arent supposed to judge others and their religion. Besides like you said most of them are kids and are just immature and they dont know better. I also respect the Pope, especially Pope John Paul II.

[mrme]

Well I guess I might as well repeat my post from the other thread. Some of the protestants I've met seemed ****** that the catholic church preached good deeds and faith as the requirements to get into heaven. I heard some things like "I wish I could attend a catholic mass just so I can say that I've been to one and that I hated it"

But then again when I first moved down south I was surprised to see ministers living in 750 000 dollars houses with beamers, mercedes' and jags in the garage. Thats the only thing that ever really bothered me.

[Publius]

Actually, this has arisen between some of my friends before. I have one very religious friend, and one very athiest friend (he likes to call himself this although I am not sure if it is because he is one or thinks it gives him some special status). Often I am the poor bloke caught in the middle, and while most of it is in good fun, I will not lie and say it has not gotten nasty at times. As for where it comes from, it is my view that parents project onto their children their own views, who more often than not proceed to become near ideological clones of their parents. I am not sure if your friends honestly know why they poke fun, it is probably something they are brought up with. Not sure if that answers anything or helps though

[Kino]

Deleted by user.

[Spiff]

The reason they hate is because they are intolerent. Why they are intolerent on the other hand is a different question. But from what youve said it would appear to either be simply in the character of the people you know, or a product of the religion the follow combined with their character, or simply a product of the religion they follow.

Who knows.. but i cant think of any wars fought in the name of differing scientific theories.

[Publius]

Anyone ever stop to think that perhaps religion, an institution which is supposed to set moral standards (amongst other things of course), is in fact leading to more hatred, division, and animosity? Look at the middle east right now for example. Almost all religions say that to kill is a sin, yet how often are people ready to kill or be killed for just this?

[Last Roman]

a major argument I hear is that the catholic church concetrates more on it's traditions than christianity. Whether that is true or not, I don't know because I'm not Catholic. But it does seem that way. The position of pope itself is a creation of the church, not Christanity. Or the 7 sacraments when the bible only mentions 2. There is also the traditional fear of the pope taking over, though I think that argument hasn't held water for a loooong time

[Fianóglach]

Not much I can say here that I havent said about 12 times in previous threads, so I'll keep it short, and relatively sweet.

Protestants hate Catholics, for a number of reasons. Probably the largest being, hate for Catholics and the Pope and they way they ran the world is the entire basis of their religion. Peple could argue that there is much more to it than that, but that is basically the long and short of it. I;ve grown up with Catholic-Protestant hate my entire life being from NI, my mom is Catholic and my dad is Protestant, and we lived in a very Catholic part of Belfast (my dad lived in Scotland, due to him being in the Army) But I was raised Catholic, and up until I left Ireland to live in Scotland, remained a pretty active Catholic. When I went to Scotland to live with my father that sort of died down, as I was living in basically Orange central. My older brother on the other hand was raised protestant (odd family no?) I think I was sort of lucky though, I definately grew up in both worlds so I never really was around that much hate at home.

It's soemthing that will always exist I think unfortunately, if I were you I'd either get better mates, or smack some sense into them. I have lots of friends who are Catholic and Protestant, we get along fine. Occaisionally there comes a debate that gets a little heated, but we always find a way to simmer down and ave some more pints.

[Ó Cathasaigh]

As a protestant (and ex catholic) I can say I feel no hatred for the Catholic church, after all we're all christians. I had a deep respect for Jon Paul II.

I much prefer to talk religion with a catholic then say a jew or muslim because we share more in common.

[therussian]

wait, ex-catholic? What made you switch to the Protestant sect?

[Ó Cathasaigh]

Not sure realy, I was very young and I just remember my parents switched to the Protestant church, therefore I did too.

[therussian]

Ah, I undertand.

[Darth Wong]

Idea taken from the "Telling your religious parents that you are atheist" thread.

Well I am Catholic, many of my friends are Catholic but most are Protestant of some kind.
From them I have recieved a lot of crap for being Catholic to the point they tell me I am not even Christian and Mormons are more Christian than Catholics are. "The Pope is a satanist" and all that stuff.

That confuses me. Why do these people hate Catholics. And they are just kids too.
They don't know anything about Catholicism other than we have the pope.

Dammit, I posted in the other thread before noticing this one. Oh well, I'll summarize here: many Protestants, especially those of the "Sola Scriptura" variety, believe that the Catholic Church is evil because it acts as an intermediary between Man and God. Historically, Catholic priests would interpret Scripture for the masses, who couldn't read it themselves. When Luther made his famous protest, he argued that the Catholics were evil for doing this, and that people should read it for themselves rather than letting the Church tell them how to interpret it. Also, the Catholic church over time added extra material to the Scriptures (the so-called "Apocrypha") and they also have things like papal decrees.

Of course, there's some pretty deep hypocrisy here because the major Protestant denominations tend to tell others how to "properly" interpret the Scriptures themselves, and there's a serious contradiction in the fact that they reject Church authority to add to Scripture or issue authoritative statements on matters of spirituality despite the fact that the Roman Catholic church fathers originally decided what would be in the Bible. I have yet to hear a "Sola Scriptura" Catholic-hater explain why they uphold Scriptural authority as absolute and denigrate Catholic authority as worthless when in fact the latter once decided what would constitute the former.

But there's an even more bizarre twist to Protestant anti-Catholicism: people who believe in "The Rapture" also believe that the "Great *****" mentioned in the Book of Revelation is the Catholic Church. Rather strange, isn't it?

[CaesarCS]

Excellent post Darth!

What I've discovered in my travels is that people hate what they believe about the Catholic Church, not what it is. Also, people in general don't like to have their beliefs challenged. I studied Catholic Theology in college, so I have few problems coming up with answers when Protestants ask my why the Church believes this, why it believes that, and let me tell you-- people just don't like it when I give them real answers.

Just to be fair, I do see many Catholics acting the same way towards Protestants. I wish people would understand that obnoxious prosyletism converts no one.