following up on the Catholic thing

[hermionesviolin]

You're only allowed to rag on groups you're actually a part of. I know this.

Yes, Allie, your status as Catholic Avenger is amusing, but i totally understand defending stuff you aren't actually a part of, particularly when you think the attacker is factually wrong. I do it all the time.

"Bashing Catholicism is an attack on Catholics who feel that their religion is an important part of their identity, just as gay-bashing is an attack on individual homo/bi/polysexuals. You can't draw distinctions like that."

You're exactly right, and i need to remember that.

Reading the comments i was thinking about group identity/affiliation, and i wonder if part of my visceral reaction against Catholicism is because i interpret it as an attack on Protestantism. Although they have the same roots, they've ended up as very different things, and so there's a sense (for some people anyway) that one is the "right" way to be Christian. Of course this is ridiculous since both are very different from the original "church" of Christ and his followers, and i definitely don't think any one entity has a monopoly on The Truth. Although i believe in the existence of Truth, i think of it as being surrounded by different colored windows and we only ever see but as through a glass darkly (though i think "glass" means "mirror" in that quote, but whatever).

At Radical Catholics tonight i said something about not feeling connected to a particular faith tradition (because my faith/spirituality is very much between me, my God, and the texts i seek out on my own time -- sk8eeyore and i often talk about our different approaches to Christianity and tradition and community and how we see ourselves fitting into that) and then realized how totally wrong that was because of course i'm very connected to the Protestant tradition. If i truly weren't connected to a specific faith tradition i would be investigating all the living religions instead of just Christianity, and i absolutely know that if i do decide i really am a Christian i will very definitely be a Protestant and not a Catholic.

Okay, back to work on my presentation.

P.S. Allie you need to meet Anna.

[Fun with icons from here.]

Comments

[sk8eeyore.livejournal.com]

Of course this is ridiculous since both are very different from the original "church" of Christ and his followers, and i definitely don't think any one entity has a monopoly on The Truth. Although i believe in the existence of Truth, i think of it as being surrounded by different colored windows and we only ever see but as through a glass darkly (though i think "glass" means "mirror" in that quote, but whatever).

I like that. That's helpful.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

I'm glad. I've found it very helpful.

The credit goes to a quote i found years ago.

"Religion is a candle inside a multicolored lantern. Everyone looks through a particular color, but the candle is always there."
-Mohammed Neguib

[lilithchilde.livejournal.com]

See, this is what I like to see. Elizabeth's Redeeming Rationality. ;) I get the group loyalty thing, but considering that Catholics aren't attacking Protestantism by existing, the best thing is to stick to what you belong to and try to get along with everyone else. Interrogating various traditions is all well and good, but we needn't open up hostilities. :) (Unless of course we're bitter exmembers . . . I cut them some slack, probably in a rather biased way, as I used to be one. :p But there's a statute of limitations on even that, I think.)

Not that I'm claiming that I myself never make unfair attacks/generalizations/etc, mind you. (Or silly jokes. *points at icon* ;)) Obligatory qualification, as always.

Of course, I have to point out that if anything, Protestantism would technically be an attack on Catholicism, considering. But I don't believe it either way: they're just different ways to the same eventual end, based around the same set of source texts and most of the same values.

Also, what on earth is that an icon of?

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

See, this is what I like to see. Elizabeth's Redeeming Rationality.

*grins*

It was something of an epiphany that my visceral reaction was likely related to group loyalty type stuff. Rationally of course i know the two can co-exist harmoniously and there should be no attacking. Easier to deal with the visceral reaction now that i have a better idea of where it comes from.

As i was writing it i was actually thinking of how odd it is to call Catholicism an attack on Protestantism since Protestantism branched off from Catholicism. (*coughs* Protestantism is of course an improvement upon Catholicism. *winks*)

I actually thought the house elf joke was mine. But maybe it was just that you made it in a conversation with me.

"they're just different ways to the same eventual end, based around the same set of source texts and most of the same values."

Exactly.

The icons are technically dragons, though they don't particularly look like them. Would you rather be something different?

I wouldn't call Protestantism an attack on Catholicism,

[(Anonymous)]

more like a protest :)

Re: I wouldn't call Protestantism an attack on Catholicism,

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

But of course :)

[oatmilk.livejournal.com]

You're only allowed to rag on groups you're actually a part of

really?

Well, then. Dykes have no style.

ah ha!!

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

And bisexuals are just greedy and can't settle down :)