"Are you Catholic or Christian?"

I get asked this a lot...and it confuzzles me. I mean, no, I'm not Catholic (Lutheran, actually), but the question is still pointless. If you're Catholic, you're Christian. So why ask this and not "What denomination are you?"

2497617 Same same but different?

2497617 Catholic my friend

2497617 Catholics are christian. Anyways, i'm protestant, so christian I guess!

2497617
I think the question is intended as "Catholic or Protestant?" True that this still leaves out a few Christian groups, such as non-denominationals, Mormons, etc.

2497617 The fellows hath little knowledge of religion, methinks.

2497617 In the middle of Christian and non, I see the arguments and wars waged and tongues lashed. all for the sake of someone that may or may not be there, and a book that may or may not be true. There are Zealots on all sides, and I've been on the chopping block of all of them, My Faith is losing ground fast but I'm still holding on by a thread.

TL:DR Protestant Methodologist. A Protestant that finds the Hows and Whys of Worship more fascinating than as far as the actual Worship is concerned.

2497721

I base my faith on God and his teachings, not on those who claim to follow him.

It is a firmer foundation.

2497782 As Gandhi said

I like your Christ, but not your Christians, so much unlike your Christ.

And Harsh words don't even phase you at all, I doubt that. After years of being told, you begin to believe. I don't want to be associated with anyone who would throw a book at you metaphorical or otherwise. There are shining examples, of humility and respect, but in my life they are few and far between. I don't know about yourself but I think God's children should act like a family. A little dysfunctional but can put aside the almost non existent dissimilarities and remember that whether Hebrew, Catholic, Protestant SOSF all come from the same little book. I know how radical that notion may seem.

Most people believe that Christians and Catholics are different for some reason. I'm Roman Catholic

Here's the trope:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ChristianityIsCatholic

2497890

I agree that Christians should be more like a family, and be more willing to agree to disagree and work together to love others and bring God glory.

I call that goal Christian unity, and John 17: 20-23 shows how Jesus calls for it.

20 My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Tragically, I think some Christians forgot about that goal awhile back, but I am hopeful that the churches can be brought closer together.

2497747

The Pope Chief Pastor of the Church

2497747

No, they don't

Catholic beliefs are different enough from the beliefs of some Protestants that what Protestants may view as absolutely essential to Christianity, Catholics may downplay or even reject.

When this is the case, it is not an insult for such a Protestant to claim that Catholics are not Christian. It is simply an attempt at accurate categorization, based on a particular understanding of what a "Christian" is.

To answer the question of whether Catholics are Christians, one must first define what a Christian is. But neither an affirmative nor a negative response, if it is honestly given, should be something to take offense at.