why do people ask if "you are catholic or christian", as if the two are diffeent? i 've seen lots of questions (and conversations) with this phrase. i just want to know where it is coming from. or is it just me??? leaving doctrinal views aside....this phrase is nothing short of ignorance.
129136
Ok I have been reading these catholic questions for the past few days. Funny ppl who are not catholic seem to know everything on the faith. I am a catholic , no I don't know everything about my faith. Think about it . It's over 2000 yrs old. To answer your question. Yes we are CHRISTAINS. We belive GOD comes first before anyone else. We DO NOT worship mary or the saints. We DO Not pray to statues.We DO NOT worship the POPE either. He is the churchs leader. You know how others faiths have rev,minsters etc.  \n\n  Yes we have had some bad popes, priest etc. But if you research it theres other faiths out there that have had some rather questionable leaders. \n\n  Also I have never heard any priest, decon in the catholic church say that ppl from other faiths are going to hell. My own personal opionon is this, you must belive in Jesus Christ that he is our savior and died on the cross. Do your best during your life time to be a good person and follow the 10 commandments. ( if you break them then ask for forgivness ) and do good works charitys, helping those who have less then you and so on. \n\n  I'm not saying the Catholic church is perfect. But really think about it what faith is? We are all human beings. We are NOT perfect. \n\n  So before anyone feels the need to pass judgement on the catholic church . Remember we are not here to judge one another thats GODS job. Before anyone pass's judgement on the catholic faith. Take a good look in the mirror and ask yourself  am i perfect? , is my church perfect? Do sin against God ? \n\n Sorry not trying to come off nasty or mean. Just makes me ill when i see so many pass judgememt on something the really have no clue about. \n\n  God Bless ......
149408
YES.  According to the good ol' American Heritage Dictionary, a Christian is one who professes "belief in Jesus as Christ or following the religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus."  I'm a Catholic, and I know this describes me, as I'm sure it describes you as well.\n\nI have come to understand a bit more about why sometimes Protestants say Catholics aren't Chritistian, however.  Hopefully, these will help you understand your friends' logic:\n\n1. The Saints.  It's thought that by praying to saints, Catholics are worshiping them.  This isn't true, of course, for reasons I won't get into here - I'm sure you know them - but you can see how people might think you're not Christian if they thought this was true.\n2. The Bible.  Because Protestants don't have a Church structure the way Catholics do, Protestants often end up paying a lot more attention to the Bible, memorizing passages etc.  It seems to them that Catholics ignore the Scriptures and so the word of Christ.  This isn't true either, but it's a not-infrequent misconception.\n3.  The Eucharist.  Catholics say that the Eucharist is the essence of Christ, present with us.  We worship Christ in and through the Eucharist.  If you're Protestant, you (generally) think the Eucharist is bread, symbolic of Christ, but not actually Christ.  So if they see us worshiping God in the Eucharist, they think we're bowing down to a piece of bread.  You can see how this would seem sacriligious?\n4. Salvation.  Generally, Protestants believe that salvation can only come from accepting Christ as your savior.  Essentially, no matter how good a person is on their own, because they're not perfect, they wouldn't be able to make it to heaven if it weren't for Chirst's sacrifice.    Catholics believe this is true, but that you also have to 'walk the walk, not just talk the talk.'  Salvation is based on the acceptance of Christ as savior combined with good works.  The reason some Protestants have a problem with this is because they're thinking we're discounting the importance of Christ's sacrifice and that we think we could get into heaven on our own. \n\nSo you see, the concept of Catholics not being Christian is generally based on misconceptions.  Try explaining these concepts to your friends (without proselytizing) and try to find out why they think Catholics don't count as Christians.  We all believe in Christ as the source of eternal life.  Maybe you can help them see this.
578511
That is a wonderful observation...in my experience with religious questions, it seems people often ask questions to discredit religion.\nI agree, if you are not approaching the qustion with an open heart and mind, then it will always seem like nonesense.  In other words, if you are an atheist or non-believer and are looking to discredit what Christians believe, save yourself time dnd just don't ask.  You will never get me to believe otherwise.  I'm sure I speak for all true Christians when I say this.
64533
The amount of friggen judgemental people on this question and answer thing.."Oh, If your not a Christian?"...or "Oh ,Why are gay people?"... or "Oh, Why are black people?" ....My question is how are we ever going to get past all this stupid judgment of people and start embracing each other's differences? I LOVE that my children live in a word of diversety. I am just so sick of people that think that there is only ONE way to believe, be, or act!!! Thanks for the space to let me vent!!!!
181030
The word "christian" means literally "disciple of christ" or "christ-like"... look at the right-wing republican fundamentalists in this country who call themselves christian, then look at what Jesus actually taught. there is very little similarity....I consider myself a christian, but because of people like pat robertson, jerry falwell, fred phelps, etc. etc. etc., I'm embarrased to call myself a christian.
367573
That's quite a generalization. I have friends of many different faiths, including plenty of non-Christians. Lots of atheists, too. I don't win friends by behaving like a condescending jerk. I don't force my Catholic faith on anyone. If they choose to believe, that's great; if they don't, that's their business. At any rate, I'm not quite sure how that warrants a charge of being condescending. And people from many different groups can be condescending. It's not confined to Christians alone.
190277
This seems to be typical again. You are asking a question about a specific topic about the Christian believe but you want to shut up the very people involved in this believe to shed some light on this. That shows me that you are not really searching for the truth but just want people to tickle your itching ears to speak out against Christianity in order to quiet your conscience.\nIf Christians would ask a question and mention that non-Christians are not to be involved in the discussion, they immediately would be called names and bashed and perceived as biased, close minded and hateful, wanting to brain wash people and shut down free speech.\nYou can see this over and over in these question/answer situations, really eye opening!\nI am not attacking you with this, just in case some people start wondering again, just uncovering some truth and exercising free speech. Have a nice day ;) May the Holy Spirit bring you some enlightenment in this matter...
159532
A Christian is one who believes in Jesus as God and accepts Jesus as his/her personal saviour. As such, Catholics ARE Christians. The Roman Catholic church is said to have started with Peter, to whom Jesus said,\n\nMatthew 16:18-19\nAnd I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.\n\nRoman Catholics say they have a direct line of Popes starting from Peter, to the Pope of today.\n\nThen along came King Henry VIII, who liked to chop and change, as it were. He took issue with the Christian doctrine of not being allowed to divorce and remarry, so started his own church: the Church of England - the first form of Protestantism. "Protestant" comes from "protest" as they were protesting against the rules of the existing Church. According to my year eight history teacher (oh so long ago!) any Christian denomination that isn't Roman Catholic, *is* Protestant by definition due to the origins of the term "Protestant." And on the story goes, with different sects popping up along the way.\n\nCatholicism does tend to be a bit more "flowery" and ornate than other denominations of Christianity. I grew up in the Roman Catholic church and changed to Pentecostal fundamentalism later on. I did the rounds and tried nearly every denomination out there to see what felt right for me. My experience has been that while basically the same overall, the Catholic church tends to be far more formal where other churches are a little more laid back. Catholics have a set hierarchy, where many modern Christian denominations have lay people participating at higher levels than in the past, and women being more involved in church leadership. I'm not saying this is either good or bad; this is just an observation. Other than that, there aren't many differences in core beliefs. \n\nSome people do argue that Roman Catholics "aren't really Christians" because of different rituals and practices, such as confession and penance. However, it's not about receiving forgiveness from a Priest instead of God. It's about confessing your sins as the bible instructs Christians to do - it's about the act of confession and the Priest affirming forgiveness from God. Some people find this helpful; others don't. Certainly, praying specific prayers as a form of atonement may seem strange - but think for just a minute: who are the prayers really for? God can't benefit from anything we do. The prayers are for the benefit of the person who is praying, and no one else. There are reasons behind things that people who have never been Catholic won't understand. It may seem strange - but *anything* that isn't understood seems strange, whether that be religious ritual or otherwise. Scripture to support this is:\n\nJames 5:16\nConfess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.\n\n1 John 1:9\nIf we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.\n\nAnother thing that can be seen as strange by non-Catholics is the fact that priests and nuns don't marry. The explanation for that is quite simple: they used to. Way back when, when priests had families and they died, they left everything to their families. Unfortunately, the Church at the time didn't like this. Priests usually lived on the church property, causing a problem for the Church. It was a question of financial gain, rather than anything religious, and so the church banned priests from marrying. This way, even if they had a child, it would be out of wedlock - making the child illegitimate (by their standards) and consequently the chil
561331
Why? Can a Pagan not follow Christ's teachings? Seems to me they can if they want to do so. Lots of people consider themselves 'christian' and probably are not. Who are we to judge?
405337
all this is of no use. there is only one true answer. half must be right. \n\nand you cant classify this situation on christians only. i mean everyday people disagree on topics. why cant there be a single response as well? does that mean our whole world is a contridiction?
254274
I can't tell you exactly why that is. I am a Christian, and when I say Christian I mean I am a born again believer in Christ, and I see it in my church a lot. I don't think i do it tho. Most of us are taught to deffend our religion. I guess some of us just take it too far. Others just don't know how to handle it. If you want to ask some questions I would like to answer them. I don't get deffensive real easily like a lot of others do. I have a lot of friends that have different beliefs than me so I'm used to being around different religions and lifestyles. But like I said if you have questions and want answers I can't promise u that I would know all of them but I could answer as many as possible from a biblical standpoint.
516396
Why would the asker lie about his religion? I also noticed a few  people couldn't answer the question referring him to scholars and yet others were offended because he asked.On the day of judgement I suppose the scholars would answer for you.
639342
I agree. Just like if you want to know about baking a cake, don't ask your local plumber, as a baker of a bakery that makes cakes. But don't just ask someone in the church that may not have a perfect understanding of their religion, not everyone thats catholic are scholar on Catholism. Ask someone who are in authority. Like a bishop or a missionary, or whoever else who should know alot.
370372
There is nothing wrong with the question, in my opinion, but I have also been censored by Yahoo.\n\nMy questions had to do with another religion.  There was really no reason behind my question except that I was angry at recent news of more fatalities in Iraq and asked a stupid question.\n\nNobody here is going to be able to answer your question though, so maybe it was just a waste of time to ask.  If your point is you don't  believe in the Bible or God or Mary or anything having to do with Christianity then you made your point.
594982
Those who chose to ignore it are not following the Christian faith.  And most of us do not ignore it.\n\nhttp://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/
371681
I never said Catholics aren't Christian, i said Roman Catholicism is not christian.\n\nhere's why: the "Pope" means "father", priests are called "father"\nJesus said "call no man father"\n\nThe bible says over and over and over "you shall have no graven images before me". Yet that church has idols EVERYWHERE.\n\nThe bible says to pray to God, that church says pray to saints.\n\nI could go on and on, but the point is, if you confess Jesus as Lord, and believe God raised him from the dead, you are a christian (romans 10:9)\n\nIf you forbid your priests to marry and command people to abstain from certain foods, your are preaching "doctrines of demons" (1st Timothy 4:1-3)\n\npeace\n\nEDIT: I forgot a biggie - that church teaches the Pope is the head of the body of believers - the bible says Jesus is the head of the church\n\nEDIT2: Nice language in your question by the way. I don't think you are gullible idiots, I think most of you were raised Catholic, and the fear of being excommunicated (another UNbiblical term) keeps some of you from leaving or even questioning. is it bigoted to say, "Your church does not teach what I believe is the truth about my religion, therefore it is not my religion?" No way.\n\nI will ask this: how can you support a church that allowed, even covered up the pedophile priest scandal? How can you support a church that sanctioned the crusades and the Inquisition? I like Catholics, and I think most of them ARE Christians, it's their church leadership and doctrine that I have a problem with.\n\nYOU asked the question, are you interested in my answer? By the thumbs down I have gotten, I think not.
168906
This is actually a very trying question. I commend you on putting something on this Q & A, that actually makes me think. Very nice indeed.\n---------------\nIt sounds kind of like a play on words. I mean it could lead to a bunch of different things. Something like the two high beings of importance, be it the priest and doctor, take the logical way to their own way of life and easily say here is an answer now be gone with you. The doctor thinks a drug will always be the answer. The priest always thinks that a prayer and maybe a hail mary will be the answer, but in the end does that really help us out? Does it answer the question we trully asked?\n\nNow the gentleman that has been in that hole has been there before him. Basically like the saying, " ive been down that road before" So this guy knows what he is going through, and instead of just giving a quick answer he allows him to see what he did to solve his problem. Maybe something like a alcoholic that has been reformed, and then helps his friend knowing that he has been in his shoes so he knows how he can help him out of his "hole" as well.\n\n-------\nI have to agree this is not really a joke, but a story of learning or a moral, none the less it made us all think. Thanks again.. I enjoy these types of things. Seperates the adults from the kids on here.