Catholic, Christian

Cept Catholics don't think she is a whore

 

Sometimes facts are ignored, huh.

 

yea they do, or at least, thats what my moms church says

 

Well I take Vatican II over your "mom's church". Sorry.

Three decades ago, the Roman Catholic Church quietly admitted what critics had been saying for centuries: Magdalene's standard image as a reformed prostitute is not supported by the text of the Bible.
http://www.danbrown.com/media/morenews/time.html

 

The answer lies in your own hands - it's pretty easy these days to get basic info on all religions - if you rely on other people in your vicinity, then very likely you'll end up mis-informed, as has happened with the confusion of Mary Magdelene and Mary the mother of God.

 

& mary, the sister of martha & lazarus, eh?

~

hey, my lutheran church (ELCA) lets visiting RC folk share communion at OUR table, heh...
(anyone who is baptised & believes that christ is truly present in the elements (eucharist = body & blood of savior = bread & wine (or grape juice, okay)...), OR is permitted to recieve the lord's supper in their home congregation, is invited to join in...

(if only the RC church across the way would return the invite,eh?)


ELCA is sharing with ummmm episcopal, reform, UCC & prolly a couple others, i dunno...

namaste
blessed be
shanti om
a salaam aleekuum
shalom aleichem
peace be with you
toward the one, my friends...

 

Mary Magdalene and Mary Mother of Jesus were two different women.

Jesus said "I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me."

(exact book chap and verse escapes me will get back with that info later).

 

The best thing I can contribute to this thread is my experience of Protestants and Catholics co-existing on Christian forums. In all the ones I've been on, they all get along for the most part except when it comes to theological or basis issues. For example, many times in the Protestant's eyes, a Catholic starts harping too much on Jesus's mother, seeming to completely blow off Jesus and God. That irritates protestants to no end, because Mary was a great woman because she obeyed God in the direst of circumstances, but she did not sacrifice her life to save the rest of us. Jesus did that.

Now I don't know enough specifics about the Catholic beliefs to know whether or not too much emphasis is given to Mary, but I can say from my forum experience, 4 out of 5 Catholics get into this "Mary mary mary" rut and I have seen one or two actually worship HER, not Jesus. That's not the only difference between Catholic and Protestant, but one of the more obvious ones on a Christian forum. Most of the conflict arises from those who practice Catholicism, not so much the doctrine itself. Just like, if you will really look at things... all the things people are so annoyed with about Protestants, come from those who practice it rather than the doctrine itself. Not always, but usually. However, there are still many large doctrinal differences in a lot of areas between catholic and protestant, so when those come up, it isn't pretty. This is probably why so many people like to keep them "separate".

There is also lots of conflict over Catholics who believe that the only way to salvation is to be sure you've confessed all your sins to your church leader, that they aren't forgiven until that church leader has said so and tells you what you must do to gain forgiveness for your sins. Protestants believe that Jesus died for their sins and that is all that is necessary, and get irked when Catholics give human beings who are prone to err too much power over a person's spirituality. They believe that no human being has the right to deal with man's eternal life. That's a major doctrinal difference.

It's mostly doctrinal differences, I think, that causes people to view Catholics and Protestants as completely different religions. While I am protestant, I believe catholics are Christians too, but not the same as protestants. It's not so much about a concrete definition of "Christian" as it is just what people mean in our society in America when they say the word "Christian". Not everyone wants to go to the trouble to be politically correct and ask "Are you Roman Catholic or Episcopalian or Baptist or Methodist.... It's just that there are sooooo many different branches of protestants and very few of catholics... So when someone says "Are you Christian or Catholic" they aren't really asking "Are you Christian"... What they are asking is "Do you practice one of the protestant branches (Christian) or do you practice a catholic branch? (Catholic)... Make sense? I don't think they mean what they say when they say Catholics aren't Christians. Believe it or not, many many people are not well versed enough to know to ask "Protestant or Catholic" rather than "Christian or Catholic". Hope that makes sense.

And when either protestant or catholic followers put their doctrine into practice, they butt heads not just because of themselves and that they may be going about things the wrong way, but also because their religions DO differ greatly in some basic areas.

I saw a quote on another forum that is wise - "Never judge a philosophy by it's abuse".