As I said in my original post I didn’t have time to make a well crafted post, so you should not read so much into a word or two out of phrase.
If you see the main point in my post is a distinction between a religion and a relationship. Many Catholics and Protestants have that relationship, other Christians do not
Well no, it’s not the crafting of the post. It’s quite clear that the distinction is yours. There can’t be distinctions between Catholic and Christian theology, for instance if Catholicism is a branch of Christianity.
I really don’t put much stock in claims of a “relationship with Jesus”.
The friends I was thinking about when writing that sentence call themselves Catholic. In casual conversation most people don’t go around calling themselves Protestant, nor did my friends at that time
My post wasn’t about your relationship or your faith. I’d be happy to hear more about that
If regular (e.g. weekly) church attendance is one of the measures of a Christian, as opposed to an ‘atheist/agnostic’, cultural norm, it is not clear that any of the US states meet this standard. Depending on which survey you take only one state, Utah (Gallup), or three states (Pew) even have a bare majority of adults attending church weekly.
I would expect how openly people share their religion, particularly with casual acquaintances, would vary significantly depending on their denomination’s traditions on the subject – with some denominations being more outward looking and proselytising, and others inwards looking and contemplative.
I would also question the degree to which either regular church attendance, or talking regularly about religion, are necessarily indicative of the “genuine faith” you speak of. I can see a number of reasons why it might engender false positives – somebody outwardly emphasising their faith in an attempt to shout down their inner doubts, somebody wanting to believe and trying to ‘fake it until they make it’, somebody trying to fit into a more devout (than the average American) subculture, etc, etc.
Also, what might be mistaken for a Christian versus an ‘Atheist/Agnostic’ dichotomy in cultural norms, may in fact be rather a dichotomy between Pluralism (and making room for differences) versus Christian Nationalism (seeking to impose one’s beliefs on the wider population).
No, they would likely call themselves, Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, etc (which are denominations) rather than ‘Protestant’-- which is a group of denominations, rather than a denomination itself. Catholicism however is a denomination, so Catholics are more likely to self-identify as such. Likewise neither Catholics nor Protestants are likely to spontaneously self-identify as being ‘Trinitarians’ – but that does not mean they reject the label. I would be highly surprised if anybody identifying as ‘Catholic’ wouldn’t assume that that label also included the label of ‘Christian’ implicitly.
I agree
Which does not in any way imply that they do not think of themselves as Christian. And I very much think that whether one uses other labels depends on the social context. I certainly get the impression that people do identify as Protestant in Northern Ireland or parts of Scotland,
In terms of self identification of friends or acquaintances, this does align with what I have encountered at least here in Canada. Of course, Catholics also embrace the broader label of Christian, but to my memory generally lead with Catholic.
With Mennonites, Baptists, Alliance, Reformed, and the lot, it is more mixed, but there is a conscious megatrend over the past couple of decades to downplay denomination heritage and systematic theology in favor of relationship and community. Church services, worship, and messaging has become essentially identical between denominations. People commit to a particular local church based more on how they resonate with the worship and pulpit style rather than loyalty to denominational affiliation. Thus, they are more inclined to just identify as Christian (never Protestant). I cannot speak for other locations and regions.
I’m not disagreeing with anyone’s statements about Catholics being Christian. Don’t think it’s worth harping on that so much. That was not something I was saying in my first post, and is really off topic from that post entirely
I never said Catholics don’t think they are Christians and I never said they are not Christians. You seem to be trying to twist my words. This was not the topic of my first post at all
I agree. In fact, there was a time (perhaps there still is) in this part of the world when being a “Catholic” wasn’t sufficient. One was a Roman Catholic (“RC”).
I guess the purpose of this was to distinguish oneself from the Orthodox churches (Greek, Russian, etc). More recently, Maronite Catholics are a big thing Down Under.
When you list Catholics separately from Christians and then keep trying to justify yourself by arguing that they consider themselves Catholics rather than Christians it seems rather obvious that you are assuming that Catholics are not Christians.
This might be a thing in New England, but certainly not Nigeria.
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