[Catholics have] been Christians since the beginning. The claim of the evangelicals to a monopoly on the term is little more than a century old. It excludes Mormons, secularists and Catholics. We don't like being excluded, and we might just begin to make trouble about it. We invented Christianity, guys, and your claim to sole rights is historical nonsense -- and bigotry, too.Too bad he doesn't include the peace churches, the Orthodox church, and, for crying out loud, mainline Protestants in his list of those wronged by evangelicals who think "Christian" refers only to their particular brand of the faith. I'm not just being defensive here--I've found over the years that those evangelicals I know who tend toward this particularist stance are not anti-Catholic so much as they are anti- anyone who defines faith primarily in terms of church membership rather than evangelical tenets of faith.
Here's one I've heard a lot: "It's not that Catholics can't be real Christians; it's that being Catholic doesn't MAKE them Christian. Anyone who has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, believes the Bible is true, and knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that only Christ's blood can save him/her from hell can be a Christian..."
A frustrating attitude, for sure. But it's not the SAME attitude that provoked convent burnings in the 19th century. Substitute "Lutheran" or even "Baptist" for "Catholic" and you'd get largely the same group of people to endorse the above statement--because it isn't about bigotry against a certain group, and it isn't even just about sectarian particularism. It's about a general disregard for the denominational structures that used to dominate U.S. religious identity.
(Also, on the Greeley piece: I'm not sure how he's using the word "secularists" in the quote above. People, including Christians, who support the separation of church and state? Okay, I'm one of those. Though if he intends it as a blanket label for non-theocratic Protestants--which, in caricature-your-enemies land might be seen as a synonym for "mainline"--then I take the rest of this post back and will instead write about how confusing and stupid it is to use the word that way.)
I agree with you that Evangelicals claim the sole rights (or is it soul rights?) to "Christianity," but I don't think it's fair to equate the experience of Catholics with that of mainline Protestants.
ReplyDeleteI recall leading a small group discussion at a mainline Lutheran church (CELC) and being informed by a handful of the community that they had been raised as Catholics but were now Christians.
Even my mainline Methodist in-laws feel the need to qualify me as "a true Christian" in contrast to most Catholics (I believe the words my mother in-law used to describe me to a friend were "Meghan's Catholic, but she's a real Christian"). That "Evangelical" mentality has permeated even mainline churches.
I do agree with you that Greeley shouldn't have claimed that Catholics invented Christianity. What that reflects is a total ignorance to the Eastern traditions (both Catholic and Orthodox) that is a major problem among Roman Catholics. We have this tendency to equate the universal church with the Roman (read Latin/Western) brand of it.
That "Evangelical" mentality has permeated even mainline churches.
ReplyDeleteExactly right--because the mainline/evangelical split is not a clean one, nor is it easily defined. Many Lutheran and Methodist churches include a theologically diverse group of people (as, in a different way, do many Catholic churches). Theoretically, this is a positive thing.
I've no doubt that there are still some Protestants of various stripes who are bigoted against Catholics as such. But there are also evangelicals (some--far from all of them!) in all kinds of denominational churches who would question MY faith, too, because I think that communal faith identity is more important than Personal Relationship With Jesus or because I'm not a biblicist or whatever. In their minds, even if I don't conjure up scary visions of a Vatican-based one-world government or freaky Mary worship, my faith just isn't good enough.
That "Evangelical" mentality has permeated even mainline churches.
ReplyDeleteOh it's worse than that. It has permeated Roman Catholic Churches. At least it had 30 years ago it wasn't unusual when asked if they were a Christian for a Catholic to respond, "No, I'm a Catholic." This is still a common distinction in Latin American countries, so maybe it's not just an Evangelical mentality. Maybe you're just wrong, again.
Well, evangelicalism HAS permeated U.S. Catholic churches to some extent, and obviously it's permeated Latin American culture, if more as a competitor with the Church than a segment of it (though I've heard that it's both).
ReplyDeleteOf course, the fact that some members of a minority group absorb the majority's language and even some of its views doesn't really prove anything. This is a common phenomenon--just look at the history of U.S. racial relations.
Also: Yes, as recently as when I was in high school, Catholic kids in my hometown--which, like many places in the midwest, is historically Catholic and Lutheran but more and more low-church evangelical--would ask me whether I was Catholic or Christian. Which confused me, as I was already rebelling against evangelical particularism.