Well I see why Catholics are not real christians.

[heinz57]

Yes, and Saint Nicolas (in French) brings present to good children on December 6th !

I thought this was only in Alsatia (je ne sais pas dire Alsace en anglais)??? Never heard of this in Paris or Auvergne...

[JesusFightClub]

I can't believe that we are actually having the Catholics are Christians discussion here. I didn't realize that people who had sense actually claimed otherwise.

I was brought up that Catholics weren't Christians. They were Papists and they worshipped the Pope and Mary, not God and Jesus. My mum and dad didn't teach me that, it was school.

Having said that, one of my cousins married a Catholic girl and my dad was really shocked. And my relative who died was Catholic and some other relatives of mine found a Catholic funeral tough going...

So although I am an atheist and know better I still sometimes struggle to see Catholics as Christians. Upbringing can be tough to get past.

[bananacat]

I don't know which language we specifically took "santa" from, but it is the word for saint in many languages and most Germanic and Latinate languages (that covers most of Europe) use "santa" or some close cognate. I don't think it would be directly from Spanish though because santa is the feminine form and san would have been used for a male saint, plus Claus does not seem like it's the Spanish version of the name Nicolas. But anyway, Santa Claus definitely means Saint Nick and it has nothing to do with Satan at all. Fundies don't understand linguistics or etymology.

[treemom]

About the Crusades, I enthusiastically recommend Amin Maalouf's "Crusades Through Arab Eyes"

http://www.amazon.com/Crusades-Through- ... 0863560237

It's non-fiction but a really easy read, and it's a great eye-opener on how the Arabs saw the events.

(not breaking the link because it's Amazon)

OO! Thanks for the suggestion. That is right up my alley!

[ADoyle90815]

That whole Santa Claus thing reminded me of that SNL Church Lady sketch:

As for the original thing, my fiancee's mom was raised with the belief that Catholics aren't really Christians because they "worship" Mary, and even recently, she said she was upset that it was the case. She was probably upset that his brother's wife's memorial service was held at a Catholic church, as she had worked with that church as part of her job before she died of lung cancer, even though she never smoked nor was around anyone who did.