Why are protestants so hostile to catholics?

Question

And yet Catholics dont hit back with the same agression.

I know many protestants have a limited understanding of the bible save for what they have been thought to believe by their pastor.

Yet Catholics just seem to sit confident in their faith and not go up in arms every time a evangelical or fundementalist questions them.

Some protestants seem to be willing to resort to violence in their apologetics.

Still, it seems strange to me that even if you dont believe that Catholics gave you the bible you

a) Have faith that catholics didnt alter all of it when it was in their care for 1200 years

b) Have faith that Martin Luther (a dubious and hate filled man) was so inspired to remove much of the bible and its teachings.

Answer 1

Your take on things seems very odd to me, just shows it comes down to personal experience.

Answer 2

It is a problem of majority and minority, I think.

You say, protestants are hostile to catholics. The readers of your message live in countries with a protestant majority.

I live in Italy. I'm protestant (lutheran). In the Italian section of Yahoo!Answers, the "Religion and spirituality" section has a majority of catholics, among the christians. They say against protestants the same things in your countries protestants say against catholics.

There was a hot discussion, at the very beginning of my participation to this Italian section. I saw how ignorant are many catholics about the Reformation and Co. The attitude towards protestants was hostile.

This is why I think the problem is not a theological one, but it is a problem of ignorance. On one side, people don't have a deep knowledge of the other faith; on the other side, the faith of the other is also a form of the christian faith. Because people are not able to explain what the differences between the forms of the christian faith (the other's and the own) are, they feel the other's faith as an attack to the own faith. And the consequence is a hostile attitude.

Answer 3

not all protestants are like that but alot of catholic history is the supression of knowledge to the masses and in a lot of respects seen as idolitrous even by some of the priests at the time of the reformation such as saintly prayers, pilgramages to saints relics, and money making by means of the saints, and a man having the ability to forgive sin so in a way understandible to an extent but catholics arnt blameless either, the pope sanctioning the assasination of foreign monarchs, having people persecuted for a different belief than them, although both sides are guilty of the same thing is you boil it right down

Answer 4

It basically isn't actual that a majority of Protestants are unfavourable to Catholics. See link decrease than. I do agree although, that too many Protestants carry those perspectives. well mannered and humble conflict of words on diverse subjects is to be predicted, yet hostility is uncalled for. Bigotry is a factor of a fallen human nature, and prefer different sins (greed, hypocrisy, etc) it famous a thank you to rear its head in faith besides as different areas of existence. I grew up Catholic, and function considering that been portion of three diverse mainline Protestant congregations. I see strengths in each and each of them, besides as interior the eastern Orthodox custom. I choose the Church must be greater united decrease than a "super tent" containing diverse perspectives on non-necessities. (i assume the undertaking is that all human beings defines what constitutes the "necessities" in a various way.)

Answer 5

Well If I had a cannon and someone was hitting me with rocks from a slingshot I guess I would be calm also. I don't know if they are confident in their faith or not. It's easy to be confident when you have money, power and influence. It's another thing to be all alone with a slingshot and trust God it will hit Goliath in the head. Faith in God and having faith like Abraham did when he was all alone is, in the end far more powerful than believing in a huge organization. And by the way how do Catholics justify praying to Mary? How do they reconcile the New Testemant with making everyone go to an Earthly Priest for Confession? truly none of it makes sense to me in light of the New Testemant. I believe if someone is "Catholic" they can be robbed of the experience of truly knowing Jesus for themselves. They so busy doing what they are told how can they possibly learn to walk by the spirit? Does the Catholic church just ignore the book of Galations? Wow the answer above me is really detailed! Go TG!!!

Answer 6

Do a little research on the Inquisition, the Crusades, the witch hunts, "Bloody" Mary Tudor, or the IRA in Ireland, and then try to tell me that Catholics are non-violent.

There are plenty of examples of Protestants being violent too. Puritans hanged Quakers. Lutherans drowned Anabaptists.

Oh yeah, and I'm pretty sure they did alter the Bible. The "swords into plowshares" line has to be wrong, because plowshares had not been invented yet.

Answer 7

"And yet Catholics dont hit back with the same agression. "

So it is OK to state that if you aren't a member of the catholic church you are not going to be saved???

Strange, the protestants are accused of that and "hammered" all the time.

The catholic church can be very arrogant, yet ignorant when they are shown that many of their practices are actually prohibited by the Bible. Catholics need to stop listening to their priests and start reading the Bible for themselves.

For example, if the Catholics gave us the Bible, then..

1. Why does it condemn clerical dress? (Matt. 23:5-6).
2. Why does it teach against the adoration of Mary? (Luke 11:27-28).
3. Why does it show that all Christians are priests? (1 Pet. 2:5,9).
4. Why does it condemn the observance of special days? (Gal. 4:9-11).
5. Why does it teach that all Christians are saints? (1 Cor. 1:2).
6. Why does it condemn the making and adoration of images? (Ex. 20:4-5).
7. Why does it teach that baptism is immersion instead of pouring? (Col. 2:12).
8. Why does it forbid us to address religious leaders as "father"? (Matt. 23:9).
9. Why does it teach that Christ is the only foundation and not the apostle Peter? (1 Cor. 3:11).
10. Why does it teach that there is one mediator instead of many? (1 Tim. 2:5).
11. Why does it teach that a bishop must be a married man? (1 Tim. 3:2, 4-5).
12. Why is it opposed to the primacy of Peter? (Luke 22:24-27).
13. Why does it oppose the idea of purgatory? (Luke 16:26).
14. Why is it completely silent about infant baptism, instrumental music in worship, indulgences, confession to priests, the rosary, the mass, and many other things in the Catholic Church?

Stop following a man and seek to follow Christ.

Answer 8

Ignorance of the Bible. One of the core messages of the Bible is love but neither Catholics nor Protestants seem to heed it. If we cannot agree to disagree on issues and leave it at that, we should keep our mouths firmly shout.

Answer 9

jadore, I think you meant to say 95% wrong.

this question only mentions violence as a illustrative word to define some protestants apologetics.
Overall, the question has to do with verbal and theological hostility which is completely true.

The Catholic church says that non-Catholic Christian churches, while not in full communion with what Jesus intended, still hold many valid teachings and are part of the Christian church.
Many protestants say that the Catholic church is of Satan and that Catholics are "not saved" and are going to Hell, etc.

You do the math.

Answer 10

You speak of Catholics and Protestants as if you knew them all. I haven't met each and every one of these people but I can tell you that hostile sentiment is present in both camps.

And Martin Luther never intended to create a new religion; he wanted to reform the corrupted parts of Catholicism in those days.

Answer 11

TG is a classic example of this. He takes something Catholic church has said and twists it to mean what He wants in order to attack us. By saying that there is no salvation outside the church just means that everyone is saved through the church. Being a card carrying member is not a requirement.

Also, he effectively shows that reading the bible doesn't do you much good if you draw the ridiculous conclusions he does. If you want to see all the errrors in what he's saying just search through the answers of my contacts and you'll find more than enough info to easily refute is errors.