Do you consider Catholics as Christians?
347486
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.
728408
christian? no, I wouldn't say that; more like a miragian.....Why? are you writing a thesis?
847022
Catholicism is a branch of Christianity.  Not believing in the Bible defeats the purpose of Christianity.  You can't claim to be a Christian yet not believe in the one book that Christianity is all about.
795533
Then you aren't a Christian, are you.  \nSilly person.
425621
They can not rightly call themselves Christian if they dont feel the need to be 'saved'. Afterall that was the purpose of Christ. Christians are those who believe that Christ is Lord and Savior. He paid our sin debt with His blood.
593482
Christians would be pretty much those people that believe in Jesus "Christ". So yes they would be "christ"ian.
1137416
not only christian, catholic too!!!
614784
I am a Catholic.  Catholicism is the oldest Christian religion.  All other Christian religions came from Catholicism.  We do not worship statues and rosaries or even the Virgin Mary.  We worship God alone.  God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  3 persons in one God.  Just as 3 leaves make up one clover.  We ask Mary and other saints for intersession to Jesus.  It's no different than you asking someone to pray for you before a test or surgery.  We venerate certain statues or crucifixes.  This is not worship.  It is a sign of respect to the actual person or act that is being depicted.  Please do not think we worship anyone other than God Almighty Himself.
1094808
Not exactly a true statement; The Catholic church as it exists today has only existed since the eighth century or so.  It started to form with the emperor Constantine.  So therefore, we should probably all be Jews in your mind as they were here first.  The original Christians were Jews!  Read the Bible and find out.
791088
As far as I know, Jesus never referred to His Church as Catholic or Protestant.  He said "Follow me."\nI am a protestant, but I really don't like to identify myself as a Christian, because of all of the False churches that are teaching anything but what He taught; so if someone asks me what my religion is I say "I follow the teachings of Jesus."
362844
Christians are people that believe in and worship God the Father and his son Jesus Christ. \n\nI look at this way, if you want to call yourself a Christian go right ahead my friend, that is your right. Call yourself whatever it is you want to call yourself. :)
987011
Guardian Angel, what the hell are you talking about?  Catholics are Christians.  By definition Chrsitian is a follower of Christ.  DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3608
I think you are a Christian if you think you are.  I guess I could ask: do you believe in God?  Do you believe Jesus Christ to be God's only Son and the Savior of the world, who died that the sins of the world could be forgiven?  If you do, you're a Christian as far as I'm concerned.\n\nThere is much more you could do, I'm sure.  But I think believing and having faith are really what matters.
626392
I am Protestant, but I prefer to just think of myself as Christian - there are many denominations of Protestants that I do not agree with. I don't think that all Catholics are going to hell, and I can't say that all Catholics think I'm going to hell. \n\nIt's difficult to classify Catholics vs. Protestants today, owing to the fact that there are so many Protestant denominations with so many different doctrines and practices. I can therefore only offer the difference between myself and the Catholics (Roman) as I knew them at the school I went to. \n\nCatholics pray to Mary and the saints, I do not. \n\nCatholics christen infants (some Protestants do this too), I don't think that a person should be baptized until they are saved.\n\nCatholics have celibate priests and nuns, I find no basis for that. \n\nCatholics confess to priests/fathers, I do not believe I have to confess to anyone but God in order to be forgiven.\n\nCatholics believe in mortal sins and other kinds of sin (in other words, they "rank" sin), I do not believe that God ranks sin. I believe that they affect us differently on earth, but that the wages of all sin is death.\n\nCatholics have texts such as the Maccabbees that I do not follow. \n\nCatholics believe that the communion wine and bread really become the blood and body of Jesus Christ, I do not. I simply believe it to be a memorial practice. \n\nCatholics believe that Mary remained a virgin her whoe life and had no children other than Jesus. I believe she was a virgin only until Jesus was born, and that she had other children.\n\nCatholics have worship practices that differ from my own - they cross themselves, use holy water, pray the rosary, etc. Their masses, or church services, are often scripted - the priest will say something, then the congregation will reply (see the link). I disagree with the concept of holy water and praying the rosary. I don't disagree with crossig oneself, but I don't do it. Same with the statement/reply format. I worship in a different style and according to some different beliefs. \n\nThere are several more points of difference...\n\nNone of these differences takes away from the fact that both Catholics and myself believe Jesus to be the Savior and the Son of God (part of the Trinity) - and this is the most important and central belief of Christianity.
717312
Yes it is!!!!!!!!!!!\nIf they are Christian because of Jesus the Christ, they must be all sinners, because Jesus preached and talked about non violence (among many other things), and lived according to that as well...\nOf course , what do we know about it?, since ever since Constantine "embraced" Catholic Religion, they´ve been chopping off the Bible to make it more "convenient" to their interests.....\nThey don´t even care about what they call the "Gnostic Gospels" that have so much info about the real thing instead.\nJesus teachings were about Love, forgiveness, understanding, loving your neigbors as you love yourself.If you loved your neigbors just as you love yourself,you wouldn´t wish dead penalty for them, because that would make absolutely no sense.\n(Would you wish death penalty for yourself or your family?)\nPeople should remember every day which one is the True Jesus , take a look inside and listen to their own hearts and sould isntead of letting Governments and huge Multinational Corporations brainwash their brains.\nUnconditional Love, folks! Practise some more!\n(Gosh, what a great discussion/ conversation we would have if you were here!)
421196
All TRUE Christians worship God.  You can't really call someone a Christian unless that person is REALLY a Christian.  Besides, it's between the person and God.  Only God knows who among us are TRUE Christians.
956936
Many Christians DO NOT acknowledge that Catholicism is a division of Christianity but in fact it is. There once was a time when Catholics practiced the oneness of God.... later adding the trinity to its doctrine created a separation in the church. Out of that division came Protestant, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist,  Pentecostal, Apostolic, Seventh Day Adventist, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormon etc...All are Christian nonetheless. \n\nTo say, "I'm Christian" is a unbiased, unprejudiced title; or general and safe to say. \n\nHowever, to say, "I am Catholic" is like saying United Kingdom is NOT a part of Europe because they want to be different from the rest of Europe, and they think they are better than everybody else. They look like the oddball in the group (out-casted). \n\nChristianity has dissected into so many entities over the past  centuries, one would have to be a true religious scholar in order to define all the various types of Christianity.