Protestants: What are you guys all about?

Factual Questions
1

I am just your average roman catholic and the other day, when discussing religion with a Jewish friend of mine, he asked me what protestants where all about. Now I live in Venezuela, so neither of us have much contact with the protestant church and all I told mi friend were some historical facts about the reformation and Martin Luther and such but nothing concrete about protestant faith except that they don’t believe in the pope. He asked me what the differences were between our churches but in reality I didn’t’ know.

My questions are: What are the differences in beliefs (besides the obvious one of not following the pope) between the catholic and protestant church? If I were to go to a protestant mass, what would I see different in the line of rituals and such? Are there universal views in the protestant church as there are in the catholic (such as our stance against contraceptive measures and abortion)? What is the hierarchy of the protestant church (is the queen of England still the head of the British church?, Who is the head of the American protestant church?)

Any other interesting info I could tell my Jewish friend would be very much welcomed.

2

The most important point is that there is no “protestant church.” There are quite literally hundreds of seperate churches that fall under the “protestant” label, all of them with slightly differing belief systems. this page has a lot of information about various protestant beliefs.

3

well, which are the most important, or the one whith most followers?

4

Presbyterians, Lutherans and Anglicans should cover the it in broad strokes.

5

Don’t forget the Baptists – their large number and some of their core beliefs make them important, too.

Hey, we protestants believe in the Pope – I can’t imagine that every time I see him on TV that it’s a computer generated image. (Just making fun, I know what was meant was that we don’t have any credence in the Pope).

Some noticable differences are our view on cannibalism. Lots of us don’t eat the body of Christ or drink his blood. I guess that goes for beliefs in respect, too. If you have to be a cannibal, for the love of God at least don’t eat the saviour!

Baptism is another biggie. First, you gotta be willing. You can’t baptize a baby – the baby can’t choose to accept Christ. Plus the mode is a lot cooler. That sprinkling the water baptism is too much like the old Chinese water torture. Full submersion is just a lot more fun, and you get a free bath.

In all cases, even the different protestant branches are different. Some do communion. Some do the sissy sprinkling baptism. Some don’t consume alcohol.

6

Do some readong on Martin Luther (not Martin Luther King, Jr. He’s a different guy). AFAIK (from growing up Lutheran), he was a Catholic monk that had some issues with the way the Catholics were doing things. He made a list of suggested changes (95 of them - his “95 Theses”) and posted them on the church’s door (some church…er…gosh I suck).

Some other folks agreed with these changes but the Catholic church did not. So the other folks decided to start their own religion (or would it be a sect?) based on these 95 theses. This isn’t what Luther wanted, really. He wanted to be a Catholic still but with these changes made to the church. These other folks were “protesting” the Catholic church and were considered “Protestants.” They called themselves Lutherans after Martin Luther. I don’t think he fancied that much…

Here’s a link to a page that lists the 95 Theses If i’m not mistaken, that’s a really rough guide to how the Protestants (most protestants, certainlly not all) differ from the Catholics.

Please excuse my really abridged 8th Grade Confirmation Class roundup of the history of Martin Luther. It’s the best I can do off the top of my head…

7

Don’t forget Baptists - they’re the biggest Protestant denomination, at least in the USA.

One big difference between Protestant and Catholic Sunday morning services is the focus. In most Protestant churches, the “centerpiece” of the Sunday morning service (which we don’t call “Mass”) is the sermon. The service usally begins with praise and worship, usually musical in form. Lots of singing, though the style of music varies greatly from one church to another. following the music, the preacher delivers the lesson, usually lasting between 30-45 minutes; sometimes it’s shorter, sometimes it’s longer.

As I understand it, the Catholic Mass (as well as other “high church” services, like Orthodox, Episcopal and Anglican) focuses on the sacraments (taking communion, or The Lord’s Supper, for the Protestants reading this). Rather than a “sermon”, the priest delivers a brief “homily” on one topic or another. The homily is usually much shorter than a Protestant sermon.

Simply put, Catholic services focus on Communion, Protestant services focus on praise and teaching.

I frequent a site called “Ship of Fools - The Online Magazine of Christian Unrest”: link The site is British, and tends to lean more toward Anglicans, Episcopalians and Catholics.

One feature of the site is “The Mystery Worshipper”, where “agents” visit churches around the world and then submit “reviews” of those churches. One of the questions they answer is, “Exactly how long was the sermon?” Most of the reviews are, again of Catholic, Anglican, Episcopal and Orthodox churches. I was surprised when most of the sermon lengths mentioned were between 6 and 15 minutes. Having been raised a Protestant, I couldn’t believe that a preacher would preach such a short sermon. So I posted a question about it on their forum, and got the answer I gave above.

One woman, who I believe was Catholic, described the first time she visited a Protestant church and was surprised to discover that “…the entire service consisted of a concert followed by a lecture.”

Also, most non-high-church Prostestant churches observe Communion only about one Sunday each month, rather than every single week. We also shun elaborate ritual for the most part. Aside from The Lord’s Prayer, most Protestant churches favor impromptu, off-the-cuff prayers over standardized pre-written prayers.

8

Episcopalians (Anglicans, essentially, although that’s somewhat up in the air right now), and, I think Lutherans are also “cannibals.” Presbyterians are not, that I recall.

9

Partly, it’s a difference in procedure. All Christians get forgiven for their sins. Under the Catholic software, the sinner confesses to a priest, who assigns penance (say, a group of prayers) and absolves the sinner. In the protestant software, the sinner prays right to Jesus, who (we are told) forgives. In Catholicism, some prayers are offered to Saints, who act as a sort of agent for God. Protestants don’t really understand that middleman stuff. Some protestants get downright huffy about prayers through the Saints, claiming that Catholics won’t go to heaven on account of that.

I’m going to stop right there.

10

Being Baptist, I can fill you in on some of the our beliefs; although Baptists are not technically Protestants, most people would lump them in together. Keep in mind that all of these things are from the Southern Baptist perspective (that’s just a subset of Baptists mainly active in the southern U.S.).

Priesthood of the believer: There are no priests, bishops, etc. as such. Each person is accountable directly to God and needs no human intermediary. The Holy Spirit fills that role, and Jesus is considered our high priest. There is no such thing as confession to a priest, and there is no such thing as assigned penance.

Sanctification by grace: It is not possible to earn salvation – it can only be received as a gift from God through faith.

We don’t believe in transubstantiation: Communion – or the “Lord’s Supper” as we call it – is a symbolic act and is one of only two Baptist ordinances, the other being . . .

Baptism: As Balthisar says, infant baptism is not practiced; baptism is only for those who have chosen to follow Christ. (Our church does have “baby dedication” services, but that is really a misnomer; the point of the service is actually to impress upon the family and the congregation the duty to be good role models and to bring up the baby in a Christlike manner.)

No doctrine of Immaculate Conception: Mary was conceived and brought into the world no less sinful than you and me.

No church hierarchy: We have no real church polity. It is up to each church to decide its own rules and regulations; it is answerable to no outside church authority. We do cooperate and form associations, but those associations have no authority over the individual church body.
Outside of those few things and maybe a few others, we believe many of the same things as other Christians: we believe in the Trinity and that Jesus was the Son of God, that He lived a perfect life and was the sacrificial atonement for our sins, etc.

The largest Protestant denominations here in the U.S. are probably the Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, and Episcopalians.
I hope this helps anwer your question,
RR

11

. . . and Phase42 gave a most excellent description of our worship services. That was a good post, Phase.
RR

12

As was said above, the “protestant church” isn’t a monolith… “protestant” is an adjective that (at a very broad, and by no means universally accepted, definition) refers to Christian churches that aren’t Catholic or Orthodox.

And it isn’t that we don’t believe in the Pope. It’s more that we have a difference of opinion as to nature and quantity of his authority.

“Service” not “mass” for most protestant churches. Depending on the church you attended, it could range from nearly none - it would remind you very much of mass - to a near complete abandonment of ritual altogether that which would not resemble a mass at all.

Among protestants as a whole? Nope.
Among specific protestant denominations? Possibly, but they vary from denomination to denomination. (And often, they very within churches within the denomination).

Well, there’s the smarmy answer “Christ is the head of the Church.”
Again, since it isn’t monolithic, it depends on the church. There are some denominations with Catholic-like structure that do have such a hierarchy. There are some churches that completely reject heirarchy and the church is run entirely by the people who attend church in that particular building with no influence from the outside. There are a lot that are somewhere in between.

13

This might be way off, but my take is that in general Protestants believe that God’s Word is available to all who can read the Bible. Particular translation immaterial although some English language speakers insist on the King James. In other words, the ordinary person can be in direct link with God through the Bible.

The Roman Catholic Church doesn’t encourage Bible study by the laity because of the high probability of misunderstanding. My Catholic friends tell me that the Priest will tell you all you need to know. In other words, the Church and not the Bible is a required transition between ordinary people and God.

14

All I can say is that AFAIK Finnish Lutherans (who are not exactly the same as IE. American Lutherans) only have communion once at usually age of 15 (or at any time when one wishes to become a Christian). I never did, I’m an atheist. I can’t even say much of the beliefs, I haven’t been to a service in a long time (I had to go a few times when in school). Last time I went, some guy became angry because I didn’t stand up and confess my faith in God.
Oh yeah, I remember something about Henry the Eigth changing the English church from Catholic to Protestant and becoming the head of the church?

15

According to the World Almanac, there are about 40 Protestant denominations with over one million members each in the United States alone.

I would bet that there aren’t two people in the entire U.S. who could explain the exact and complete doctrinal differences among them all.

16

I was raised Methodist. I was Baptised as a baby. We do “confirmation” when we are in the eighth grade so that the kids who haven’t yet been baptised have an explicit opportunity to get baptised, and those who were christened have an opportunity to public approve of what already happened.

17

I’m always amazed that so many Catholics hang on to this belief when there have been so many statements from popes and bishops proclaiming the need to read the bible. Personal *interpretation[/i[ is seriously frowned upon, but actual reading and studying has been encouraged for years.

18

mmm from what I can gather, I guess that we Catholics are the right-wing type, conservative and less open to new ideas while you protestants are more liberal in your relationship to god.
The reason we baptize babies so quickly is because we believe that if someone dies with the original sin still on their souls, they go to hell or limbo, so we are quick to get rid of that possibility, then later like around age 15, we confirm our faith to Jesus and the church.
I find it interesting that what we Catholics believe to be the most important part of mass, the communion, is not worshiped by some protestants. If we both come from the same origins, why was this most important part of our faith not passed down to protestants?

That’s just a thought… I’m still wondering about the role of the queen with regards to the British church, traditionally the monarch was always the head of the church of England, does this still hold true???

19

Odd, isn’t it, how some Christian groups that INSIST that Genesis must be literally true likewise INSIST that the very words of Christ must be taken metaphorically.

This is not necessarily true. Anglicans practice infant baptism. Those Protestants who refuse infant baptism do so on the basis that they consider salvation to require informed consent. Unfortunately, they also insist that everybody who doesn’t give such consent is damned. This leads either to utter heartlessness or all sorts of exceptions made for people of deficient mental capacity, for children who die before adulthood, etc.

20

And the Orthodox believe that God’s Word is Christ alone. Scripture is words about God and words from God but not the Word of God.

More or less an Orthodox belief, except that we see it more as Scripture can be a direct message from God to each of us.

That isn’t what I’ve seen recently in some Roman Catholic circles. I know among the Orthodox the matter can very frequently be more on the matter of the priest desperately trying to get the laity to engage in more Bible study, be that formal or simply regularly reading it.

As my catechizing priest once said: “The Bible is the most Orthodox document you can get.”