Are you a Protestant or a Catholic? That is, if you are either one of them.?

Question

What is the reason?

Answer 1

Protestant, I currently attend a presbyterian church. It is a good church with friendly people that support the next generation and believes in the authority of the bible. I know not all of the minor points of the theology and rituals of the presbyterian church are biblically based; I have yet to find a church with perfect theology. I am not likely to find one that meets all my expectations. I feel that all christian teaching should come from the Bible, or at least be supported and agree with it. Some human traditions have been passed down through the different denominations, and some even directly counter the Bible's teachings. One must overlook these minor flaws and instead focus on the ministry God has prepared

Answer 2

Catholic raised Protestant but Chose Catholicism

Answer 3

Closer to protestant. I do not like the ritualistic without reason practices in the catholic church

here is a online book that is the model I believe the Church is to follow!

http://www.pbc.org/library/series/10274

Answer 4

I am a Protestant, a Lutheran to be precise. I chose to be a Lutheran after many years of agnosticism becasue I enjoyed the idea of a divine creator, someone who lovingly crafted man in his own image (which I believe signifies not physical appearance, but moral nad spiritual being). I was never keen on the thought that humanity wriggled up from the slimepools of time; I'd much rahter be descended from the hand of God than bacteria.

Answer 5

Was raised in a protestant church as my mother was one. My father is Catholic. I honestly just consider myself a Christian now. I don't need to be a member of a certain "group" or religion to be saved by Christ.

Answer 6

to be a protestant one must first have been a catholic . so i'm neither, I am a protestant of protestants,the church divided during the reformation God is not for division but unity.His desire is for us to be in one mind and one accord,loving one another working together as the body of christ having various members.

Galatian says if we bite and devour one another we will be consumed,we are to busy competing with one another as the enemy run free.

Answer 7

Protestant because the reformation was needed to rid Christiainity of the corupt Catholic system.....but now I fear Protestants are becoming just as corrupt

Answer 8

I was raised Protestant but have attended Anglican & Catholic services. I prefer to be non-denominational and simply say my faith is in Jesus. I believe when He comes to restore His kingdom all these different denominations will disappear, as we will worship Him in spirit & in truth.

Answer 9

--is Catholic--

I converted to Catholicism way back when I was doing my undergraduate studies. It is a long and terribly involved story but here is the jist of it. I was raised Lutheran/United Methodist (confirmed United Methodists). I want particularly religious (nor "spiritual" as the saying goes) but I was attracted to all things of historical mythology and science fiction, both things of which are ultimately concerned with the ultimate concerns and the working of the universe. So from the beginning you could say that I was interested in things of history and things of true, philosophy if you.

At my undergrad, I started to become heavily (and I mean heavily) involved in an evangelical group on campus (standard evangelical beliefs nothing fancy). A lot of the things that they were saying didn't mesh with my religious upbringing. The constant advice was to read the bible and then you will get it.

So I did, but I did the one thing that evangelicals hope you don't do. Being that I was confused between what I was brought up by, what the evangelicals were saying, and that the evangelical method of reading scripture was causing me to read the Gospels Arian, I searched out how historical the meaning of the bible. In other words, I started reading things in their historical context. This provided a forth option, because anyone reading early Christian works knows that they do not mesh with evangelicalism or Methodism.

At this time, I hooked up with a bunch of people who were interested in what we called "intellectual Christianity" as opposed to the "emotive Christianity" that tends to permeate modern Christianity. It was all about trying to flesh out a historical connected Christianity, one where we didn't have to check our intellect and reason at the door.

Secondly, when you have read enough classical mythology (all types) and science fiction (which really is mythology for moderns) you start to see a connection running through every thing and that these things were not written as BS but rather there is a hope and deep longing that connect everything and points as an arrow shot in the dark. Though I haven't read it at the time J.R.R. Tolkien’s
Mythopoeia (was instrumental in the conversion of C.S. Lewis)
http://home.ccil.org/~cowan/mythopoeia.html
pretty much sums up my feelings on the matter. The first chapter of "The Building of Christendom" is terrific at see how everything fits together.

Somewhere along the way, we started running into Catholic sources. They literally were like a breath of fresh air. If you have ever read a solid Catholic source, it is literally incredible at how clear it is philosophically and how holistic it is. This doesn't make it true however. What needs to be done is to compare them with the Protestant arguments and see which one is historically and philosophically superior; ie which sees the world as it is.

Some of my friends started to move towards becoming Catholic. So question started to revolve around the truth content of Catholicism. Anyone with 1/2 a brain can see that there is truth in Catholicism as well as truth in Protestantism, so you, or at least I, start to really look to see if first if there is something more true and more expressive about fundamental truths of human existence than Protestantism. Yes Catholicism is more expressive about what it means to be human. Ok then, is there something more expressive than Catholicism? What about something non-religious like Atheism? What about something philosophical like Confucianism? What about a different religion all together? What about another form of Christianity? How about Orthodoxy? Now that is very interesting, very much like Catholicism, but different on several points.

Somewhere along in there I read the book "DOES GOD NEED THE CHURCH?" which was very instrumental in my thinking process, even if perhaps not the world's best book. Orthodoxy fell to the side because the orthodox are not united at fundamental levels. There is a lack of communion in the Orthodox Churches, where as in the Catholic Churches (both eastern and western) there is unity in faith, even if the theologies and modes of worship differ.

There is also the important question of whether or not there could ever be anything more true than the Catholic Church in the future? You can look at the answer to that in two ways, first even if there could be something more true, Catholicism is the most true now so that is where you should be, or second that the Catholic Church will be continuous with that future true thing.

So Catholicism won out and I converted because to be Catholic is to maximize the amount of truth that you have, to maximize the human experience, and to maximize one's connectivity to God.

There are a lot of other factors in the conversion, especially some priests who I talked with about things, and a few other books. My former great friend, who is evangelical and ended the friendship because I converted, was terribly instrumental in the conversion, though one shouldn't say that to her.

In closing, I would like to return to the scriptures, even though I didn't talk much about them. The scriptures were always involved in my conversion. There was constant reading and constant trying to understand. And finally one day, the mess and the confusion became a flaming arrow that pointed in the direction of the Catholic Church.

Answer 10

Protestant..but im not into controled religion..too many corrupt people out there..i worship freely