Christian Beliefs

I just wanted to point out that not all Christians keep holidays that they consider pagan in origin (Christmas, Easter, etc.) nor do all Christians hold the cross to be their "symbol".

Although some of these parts of Christianity are considered "sects", some are called that simply because they're not part of the larger Christian groups (Catholics, Protestants, etc.).

I thought all Christian religions that weren't Catholic or Eastern Orthodox were automatically "Protestant" by definition.

Well, if you define "Protestant" as anyone who isn't Catholic, then yes. But I'm not sure that's the right way of defining Protestant.

"Protestant - Of or pertaining to the faith and practice of those Christians who reject the authority of the Roman Catholic Church." - Websters.

I suppose you could say that all churches that are not part of the Catholic Church reject its authority. However, in my opinion, it refers more to those churches that broke off from the Cathoic Church because of differing beliefs... and their offshoots.

Other churches that existed at the same time as the Catholic Church and continue to this day, I would not call Protestant. Also, churches that did not come about because of rejecting Catholicism (i.e. kind of a clean slate startup) I do not think should be termed Protestant.

It gets complicated. Technically, only Lutherans are real Protestants, but the term quickly became applied to most of the non-Roman western sects. It even became attached to Anglicanism, though many Anglicans today would prefer that it not be.

In any case, it still most definitely is not a general term for non-RC, non-EO. At a minimum, it does not include the Old Catholics and the ante-Chacedonian churches.

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John W. Kennedy
"Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays."
-- Charles Williams

Hey, look, that line about the pagan origins of the Christian holidays and symbols was tossed in there because we knew we'd get a bunch of holier-than-thou people chattering about how the crescent was a pre-Islamic and probably pagan-in-origin symbol. Just wanted to say that every religion adapts and adopts from the prior religions, and that Christianity isn't an exception. No one said anything about "all Christians", just about the religion in general. OK, Skott? That clear it up?

And don't forget that my particular brand of Christianity abhors the use of the cross as a symbol.

CKDextHavn, I picked no bone with the wording or the content of the mailbag reply. I didn't say anything was wrong with it, nor did I take offense. I just wanted to point out an additional *fact*. It's not wrong do that yet, is it??

Everything was clear to me from the original mailbag reply. I hope that clears things up.

No prob at all, Skott. I was (mis)reading your original post as being critical, and I didn't understand where you were coming from. If you're just adding facts, that's fine, then we're on the same wavelength and I apologize for any misunderstanding on my part.

S'okay :}