Why do the fundies "despise" Catholic's so much?

[Justme]

They seem to single them out as not "Christian enough". Yet, the Catholic was the very first church started by Peter. All other churches are "offshoots".

[GolightlyGrrl]

They seem to single them out as not "Christian enough". Yet, the Catholic was the very first church started by Peter. All other churches are "offshoots".

Well here's my 2 cents. As a recovering Catholic, I can safely say social justice and helping others is a big part of Catholic teaching, and we all know how big social justice and helping others is with fundies. Um, not much.

[maybeizfundie]

There is plenty of antagonism all around, historically speaking. At certain points, Protestants and Catholics hated each other enough to kill viciously. :( Ironically my geneology includes a Catholic who was burned at the stake by Protestants, and an Anabaptist who had to flee for his life from Swiss Catholics.

I think it's less that fundamentalists have sprouted unreasoning hatred, but more that Catholics and most Protestants have gotten past the history and realized we all have the same goal, and the same Savior. A few slivers of Protestantism have decided to cultivate the bad feelings instead of let them go.

Also, I think Protestants would disagree that the Catholic church (with a capital C) was started by Jesus. The Church (universal) was begun by him, and became Catholic in form some time after that, and then the Protestant Reformation happened because the Catholic church was in need of reform. Or something along those lines.

[DamnPrecious]

The view is that the Catholic church is full of idol worship, superstition and rituals. That's the basics.

[clarinetpower]

Look here: born-again-christian.info/catholics.htm

I'd copy it, but their page won't let me. It's a top 10 list of why Catholics are not Christian. :roll:

I admit, I think a lot of the stuff the Catholic church does is whackadoo, but it's not my place to judge anyone else. According to the Bible, that's Jesus' job.

[clarinetpower]

Look here: born-again-christian.info/catholics.htm

I'd copy it, but their page won't let me. It's a top 10 list of why Catholics are not Christian. :roll:

I admit, I think a lot of the stuff the Catholic church does is whackadoo, but it's not my place to judge anyone else. According to the Bible, that's Jesus' job.

Note, this is from Chick publications. My favorite!!! :lol:

[GenerationCedarchip]

They seem to single them out as not "Christian enough". Yet, the Catholic was the very first church started by Peter. All other churches are "offshoots".

My current church doesn't really pick on the Catholics, but on the fundie-farm, the teaching we always got was that the Catholic church was indeed the first church, but that the early church reached a point where it deviated from following the teachings of Christ and started adding lots of things on its own. We were then taught that the Catholic church of today is so far removed from the church that existed in the days of the Apostles as to be unrecognizable and that churches like ours were founded to try to follow the Bible as given to people by God.

[Cassandra]

From vaguely poking around in my friends belief system (and trying not to yell or have an exorcist moment), I've found that its mostly because of the cultural differences in how the religion is practiced.

i.e. all the ritual and saint-y-ness.

I keep meaning to ask my friend who believes this what they called Catholics prior to the Reformation. Not christians obviously :roll:

[emmyfair]

I've often wondered if it had something to do with the Catholic veneration of Mary. Since, so far as I can see, fundies hate women, having a female figure held in such high esteem would cause a real problem. To add insult to fundie injury, Mary was an unwed mother, traveled on her own to see her cousin, went to census with Joseph betrothed (alone, gasp!!!), and as Catholics see it, only had the one child. Not really good QF material, huh? IMHO.

[debrand]

When I was on Catholic Answers Forum, a lot of contention between Catholics and Fundamentalists arose because of slightly different beliefs about salvation.

Fundies and some Protestants believe that an individual can't loose their salvation. If you are a real Christian, nothing you can do will seperate you from Jesus. The Holy Spirit will guide the person to remaining a Christians.

Catholics and quite a few Protestant denominations believe that a person can loose their salvation but that there is always forgiveness. A person matures as a Christian over their life time.

Sometimes it seemed that the different groups were saying the same thing, just talking past one another.

[mnb357]

and as Catholics see it, only had the one child. Not really good QF material, huh? IMHO.

[dianapavelovna]

My current church doesn't really pick on the Catholics, but on the fundie-farm, the teaching we always got was that the Catholic church was indeed the first church, but that the early church reached a point where it deviated from following the teachings of Christ and started adding lots of things on its own. We were then taught that the Catholic church of today is so far removed from the church that existed in the days of the Apostles as to be unrecognizable and that churches like ours were founded to try to follow the Bible as given to people by God.

This is a fairly reasonable argument. Indulgences, anyone? But it still doesn't make Catholics non-Christians. Reminds me of the RINO phenomenon. If you and I don't have identical beliefs on everything, you can't possibly identify the same way I do.

[HowRude]

This is just things I've heard people are around me.For one they are mad about the length of the service(because if you don't spend two hours or more hours in church its not really church) and how short it is and how you don't "get anything" out of it. They think that if you don't go to Church every single Sunday you're going to hell. They are mad about the imagery and how much they care about Virgin Mary. They don't like the whole idea of purgatory because there are only two place you can go and you cannot pray yourself into one or the other if you mess up. They overall think its too "easy".

[lilwriter85]

The hatred of Catholics by fundies has to do with all of the reasons mentioned. Years ago I visited a website that was anti-Catholic and there one section that was devoted to how the "communion" was disrespectful to Jesus.

[doggie]

My current church doesn't really pick on the Catholics, but on the fundie-farm, the teaching we always got was that the Catholic church was indeed the first church, but that the early church reached a point where it deviated from following the teachings of Christ and started adding lots of things on its own. We were then taught that the Catholic church of today is so far removed from the church that existed in the days of the Apostles as to be unrecognizable and that churches like ours were founded to try to follow the Bible as given to people by God.

but thats utter bull since no church does what they did way back when. there was a lot of superstition and fear and a hell of a lot of control. the church ran the land was the government and controlled through fear most people.

[synchroswimr]

In my experience, fundies hate a straw-man church. I've not met a fundie who accurately reflects the reality of Catholicism, just their ideas and misconceptions.

[Juniper]

I was actually just thinking about this yesterday because I remembered a post from god-sdaughter.blogspot[dot]com (this one god-sdaughter.blogspot[dot]com/2011/07/something-for-you.html) that mentions a friend going on a mission trip to Poland, which is a largely Catholic country. I don't understand the attempts to convert Catholics to "Christianity" and the fact that they went to Poland just pisses me off, because I'm Polish and I know how deeply religion runs in Poland. I just can't understand the thought process behind converting Catholics.

I did grow up in the south and I heard a lot of "you're going to hell because you're Catholic" but it never bothered me. I know some Protestants take issue with praying to Mary and the saints but I honestly don't understand how they believe Catholics aren't Christians.

[JenniferJuniper]

Growing up in a very Catholic area of a predominately Catholic city, I can confirm that many of the Catholics I knew (who were mostly second and third generation Irish and and some Italian) intensly disliked and distrusted Protestants. I never even knew any Protestant kids in public school. Just Catholics and Jews. Even the African American kids were Catholic. There was one Lutheran, but everyone assumed her family belonged to some kind of cult. Kindly friends would take her along to Saturday evening Mass from time to time to help her fit in.

Once when I was about 10, an elderly great aunt who was showing old family photos to me, quietly whispered "I'm sorry to have to tell you this, dear, but my mother came from a family of Dirty Prods. She converted when she married my father of course, but I thought you should know the truth."

:character-stan:

Bottom line, many people think their religion is the only "correct" one and the more fundementally inclined one is, the more likely one is to see other religions as strange and foreign.

Agnostics and atheists, on the other hand, tend to consider all organized religions equally strange and rooted entirely in the minds of human beings.

[Boltingmadonna]

As a cradle (now ex- ) Catholic who has also known a lot of Protestant fundies, I think the disputes between them are basically nothing but turf wars. Catholics say a lot of bad things about Protestants, too. When I was a kid, we weren't allowed even to enter Protestant churches because they weren't real churches, just places where heretics gathered to preach falsehoods. It was a grave sin to even go into a Protestant church. And, since outside the Church (i.e. the Catholic Church) there was no salvation, all Protestants were automatically damned. Since Vatican II, they've reinterpreted "outside the Church" in a rather convoluted fashion: to the extent that non-Catholics have any right ideas about God or are behaving in accordance with divine law, they must not be "outside the Church," since only within the Church is truth found. Therefore, if you are a good person, you can only be so by being actually sort of in the Church, even if you think you're not. Clear? :D But a lot of right-wing traddie Catholics still think anyone who isn't a Catholic is bound for Hell. "Traddie" is basically the Catholic version of "fundie."

There's also a huge turf conflict due to the different interpretations of the Bible. Protestants base everything they do on being able to interpret the Bible to justify their beliefs and practices. Catholics teach that "tradition" and the authority of the Catholic Church are actually what determines how to read the Bible. That would pull the rug of authority out from under all Protestant preachers, since they couldn't preach their own interpretations any more. Conversely, if everyone can read the Bible for himself, we would no longer need the Pope and bishops to tell us what it all means, and so the Pope's authority would be undermined. That's where the wars started, and it's still a major conflict today.

I have no dog in this hunt since I officially reject the whole lot of them and every form of their so-called authority.

[nutella addict]

Am I the only one here who grew up in a community that happily went to each other's worship services, who experienced no Protestant vs Catholic turf wars, and had loads of Jewish friends too? I went to Catholic services with my Catholic friends if we had a sleepover at their place, and they came to my Lutheran church if they slept over at my place. And as part of confirmation classes we had field trips to every denomination and religion in the area (no mosques to go to at the time, so this just meant a lot of different Christians and a reformed Jewish synagogue). The first time I heard "Catholics are going to hell!" was on this forum...

Maybe that was why we were one of the areas that hosted Irish students to help show them that the other one (either Catholics or Protestants) wasn't evil, but in fact had the same core beliefs. (Catholic teens were placed in Protestant families and vice versa...)

[Chrystal-J]

I've often wondered if it had something to do with the Catholic veneration of Mary. Since, so far as I can see, fundies hate women, having a female figure held in such high esteem would cause a real problem. To add insult to fundie injury, Mary was an unwed mother, traveled on her own to see her cousin, went to census with Joseph betrothed (alone, gasp!!!), and as Catholics see it, only had the one child. Not really good QF material, huh? IMHO.

Ditto. How do you promote women as 2nd class citizens and hold Mary in such high esteem? This, plus the fact that there are so many Catholic. They want the strength in numbers that the Catholic church has--jealous, perhaps?

[shesinsane]

I'm neither Catholic nor Fundie, but it seems there's a conflict about authority. Fundies put the father of the family at the head of everything, the Catholic church has a very clear power structure of priests/cardinals. Priests and cardinals are men, but they've taken a vow of celibacy and will not be fruitful and multiple. Home churches seem like another aspect of fundamental beliefs that would clash with the Catholic church.

[forever ago]

I wouldn't say my town has denominational 'turf wars' but it's hardly inclusive at the same time. Ignorance abound...

Baptists, which seem to the be majority here, do not like Catholics and are under the impression that they worship saints and do the whole penance thing. You know, like wearing a burlap sack and sleeping on a makeshift straw mattress for a week because you committed some sort of sin. They think Pentecostals are batshit insane lunatics who scream and dance during church (sounds a hell of a lot more fun than a Baptist church service!) They also don't appear to know anything at all about Methodists but still don't like them anyway. To be fair, the Methodists don't appear to know anything about Baptists and don't like them either. Dunno if this is a Baptist thing, a fundie-lite thing, or what.

It's not unheard of for people to go to each other's church services, however, though there are no synagogues or mosques in my rural town. It is however considered strange to go to a Catholic or Pentecostal service if you are neither.

Catholics don't seem to be 'despised' here, though most Christians are only 'religious' enough to show up to church every once in a while and hate gays. There's a lot of ignorance about Catholic practices and Catholicism is considered a bit odd here, but there's no real hatred, mostly everyone gets along. Even with the handful of Jews and secular thinkers.

[Justme]

Am I the only one here who grew up in a community that happily went to each other's worship services, who experienced no Protestant vs Catholic turf wars, and had loads of Jewish friends too? I went to Catholic services with my Catholic friends if we had a sleepover at their place, and they came to my Lutheran church if they slept over at my place. And as part of confirmation classes we had field trips to every denomination and religion in the area (no mosques to go to at the time, so this just meant a lot of different Christians and a reformed Jewish synagogue). The first time I heard "Catholics are going to hell!" was on this forum...

Maybe that was why we were one of the areas that hosted Irish students to help show them that the other one (either Catholics or Protestants) wasn't evil, but in fact had the same core beliefs. (Catholic teens were placed in Protestant families and vice versa...)

Nope, I grew up in a small town w/ 3 churches, Catholic, Lutheran, & "Heinz 57". We all got along very well. On special days, the 3 churches would have services together.

[BloodyIbiza]

I was born and raised in a traditionally catholic country. However , in the last two decades, a lot of 'evangelical' protestant churches have become very very popular.

I first became interested in Fundies(well, north american ones!) because a lot of it reminds me of some aspects of Opus Dei (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus_Dei). For example: Huge patriarchal families, fundamentalist/traditional views of christianity(less emphasis on saints and purgatory, for example), modesty rules, gender roles, mortification ( even though, in different degrees), among other things.

Anyway, there is a lot of diversity within the catholic church(and protestant churches as well), so a lot of the arguments of Catholicism vs. Protestantism are moot points at this day and age.

Obviously, the RCC has a more rigid structure/hierarchy.Priests go to seminaries(plus the chastity vote), and (I imagine) there is even more studying involved when you climb up the hierarchy. Same thing with some protestant denominations. I can't imagine fundie men being too happy about all this work/time, and all the studying involved into rising to power/recognition within their religious communities. Not to mention the clash of egos between their own interpretations and the vatican-approved ones.