Why do protestants deny their catholic heritage?

I dunno, as I come from the catholic line into the nonce.

Thou art Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church (best pun in the Bible). What other lineage is possible?

Well, I was always taught that "the rock" was the message of Jesus, so, I never thought Peter was the first pope as I have heard it's been told. But, that's just my take on it.

Re: Why do protestants deny their catholic heritage?

Well, by the same token, some people would say:

Protestantism:Catholicism::Catholicism:Orthodoxy

Now, I was raised to be one of those people, but I don't know if I actually am one of them. Anyway, that's not the point.

Protestants note Catholicism, I'm sure, but think that all of the aspects of Catholicism they saw as being bad or wrong were enough to justify a break, to continue with the true church. Catholics and Orthodox both trace their roots back to the Apostles directly, each trying to claim that it is the true church. (Their more modern names were introduced, I believe, after the Great Schism, making it even harder to analyze their claims.) Orthodoxy claims that Catholicism was misguided and made a foolish decision to leave the true church; Catholicism says that a break from Orthodoxy was the only way to keep the true church from falling apart. The source of authority for all three churches, then, is a claim to the lineage of Christ and the Apostles, to state that they are the ones who are continuing the real faith amidst the weakness or inaccuracies of the others.

**Let me say now that this post is entirely speculation, based on my knowledge of only a handful of ideas, which might only be described as "facts" by a fraction of the world's Christians. My overall point will probably be able to stand anyway, even if all of the smaller parts of my post are incorrect. I do admit that I am possibly--in fact, even likely--wrong about, well, pretty much everything. But now that I have all of this typed, I don't want to waste it. So it's time to post!**

There is an obsessional fear and hatred of Catholicism by Protestants--puts Oediups to shame . . .

Maybe I read too much into this, but Peter's Greek name was Petro - meaning rock.

Re: Why do protestants deny their catholic heritage?


I've always wondered this myself.
And the 2 answers attempted so far make no sense.

The first christian relegion and chuch wasn't methodist, baptist, evangelical, it was catholic, meaning "all inclusive, wide ranging" etc.

Albeit, it isn't the exact same relegion it is today, but it was the first.
What's the contention?

On a serious note; I actually went to a catholic mass while in NY. It was really great, the ritual, good homily, and I really lucked out because it was the beginning of the month and there were actually two first-borns to be sacrified. They were both girls unfortunately, but still....

Because you Catholics are too uptight!!!

I can only assume the The sacrament of the Eucharist received by the congregation was a perky understated wine with a moderate bouquet.

And some really bland, pasty unleavened "bread" . . .

Re: Why do protestants deny their catholic heritage?


I choked on my mocha. Nice to see you back, Chai Tea!


I think MommaAngel has it right... they are misled by their leaders and given poor information that leads these protestants to wrong ideas.

Piffka,

Well, I'm not 100% sure I am right, but I do know someday we will all know what is the 100% truth.

I do believe, however, that whether Peter was or was not the first pope of the Catholic church is not the important thing.

I don't hate Catholics. I don't hate Catholicism. I agree with some of their teachings and I disagree with others. I don't know for sure about everyone, but for me I think the thing I don't like about Catholicism the most is it seems to be more concerned with the Catholic Church than it does with Christ. I just think there is more focus on the church itself is probably a better way to state that. I realize that is not true for all Catholics nor all Catholic churches.

Many Catholics and Orthodox alike focus so much on the structure of the church because they see it as descending directly from the practices of Christ and his Apostles. These Christians see themselves as trying to venerate Christ by following both His teachings and His actions. Not all of His actions, of course, and not in a way that tries to be Christ. I mean to say that those Christians aren't focusing on the church because they've lost their focus on the overall faith, but rather because in a way it adds something they might not otherwise get, some sort of physical connection passed down through generations of people.

Likely because the Protestants protested--and generations hence feel only a minimal commonality with Catholics.

The deep disagreement + hundreds of years of living out those disagreements = not feeling much in common.

But, who could deny the facts of the origin? Are they MLuther deniers?

MA, I have the same feelings about redheads as you do about catholics, they're probably not all bad. Remember what Peter said "everybody must get stoned" or maybe it was "rock on"

dys,

Well, I hope I'm one of those redheads you don't find all bad.

I heard something once awhile back, was wondering if anyone could verify this for me, as I'm currently too lazy to google it.

I was once told that protestantism came about because one of Englands kings wanted to divorce his wife, which was expressly forbidden by the Catholic papacy. So he either founded, or mainstreamed? the protestant doctrine so that he could do so.

Any other info on that?

Questioner,

I have heard the same thing, but can't tell you from where or when or if it is the truth.

That was the Church of England (or Anglican Church), the American branch of which is called the Episcopal Church. That was of course not the only cause of the formation of the Church of England, but it was the straw that broke the camel's back, as they say, and it's a juicy enough story that it's the one most people remember.

Church of England