Catholicism vs. Protestantism

Growing up in protestant church, I was always made to think (not by my parents, who have a mesh of beliefs that strays between Catholic and protestant) that Catholics were messed-up, weird, even occultic in ways. They were wrong.

The more I visit the closest Catholic church, the more I realize we have in common. Having just come from a discussion with Pastor Krell, something he said comes to mind. He drew a Venn diagram on the wall with his finger as we were talking, and illustrated that the two circles, yes, are Catholic versus protestant, while the stuff in the middle is both - rather, the stuff in the middle is simply Christianity.

There are differences, yes, but the majority of the two denominations is the same! We both believe that Christ died for our sins, and that we must follow him with all that we are. This is the most important, the most fundamental of all Christian beliefs! Yet there are protestant who claim that Catholics are not Christians, and Catholics who claim that protestants are not Christian. There are those, yes, who are not Christians - Sunday-morning Christians, pew-warmers. These people exist in both the Catholic and protestant churches. It is not something that is individual to one church or another.

Christ is crucial. He is the only reason to live, whether you live as a Catholic or a protestant. And he loves each and every one of us, whether we are practicing Catholics or protestants. And there will come a day when it doesn't matter whether we were Catholic or protestant. There will be one church, one people of God. It will not matter whether we practice open or closed communion. It will not matter what we wear to church, it will not matter how or where we pray. Someday that time will come, and when it does, those who truly love God and want nothing more than Christ's sovereignty in their lives will go with him, and it will not matter what they practiced here on earth, denomination-wise.

Just a few brief notes on common Catholic misconceptions. Many protestants have misconstrued ideas of Catholicism, thanks to our prejudices and fears of anything that is different. My father once commented that we saw things that were wrong with the catholic church, and so good ol' Martin Luther tried to fix them... and threw the baby out with the bathwater. And now we've messed up the truth of Catholicism and Christianity so that many protestants are brain-washed to think that one or the other party is wrong, sinful, etc.

So, just two or three common protestant misconceptions:

• Catholics pray to the Virgin Mary, and believe they can only get to God through her. Not true. Catholics do pray to Mary, but they pray out of reverence, thanking her for what she did by being the mother of the Christ. They do believe that she can "put a good word in" for us, but what is so hard to believe about that? We ask our fellow Christians to pray for us when we fall on difficult times... if we can ask our fellow humans, why is it wrong to ask someone who is up there with God now? They can certainly get the message to him just as well as our fellow humans!
• Catholics pray to the saints, and have a patron saint for everything. They do have a lot of saints, but, like above, why not pray through them as well? We can pray to God, and that is the most important prayer, but is it not good to spend double the time on our knees, showing our sincerity and fervency in our prayers by asking the saints to help us? God gave them special places... that's why they're saints!
• Catholics think they're better than protestants, that's why protestants cannot take Catholic communion. Not true. Catholics believe that, rather than communion being symbolic, the bread and wine actually becomes the blood and body of Christ. They believe that you should be completely immersed in Christianity (and therefore, Catholicism) in order to partake of the sacred elements.

I know there are many more misconceptions of Christianity, because I remember I was so afraid and had so many questions when I first went to Catholic mass. But truly, Catholics are Christians just as protestants are, and someday, Christ will bring us together again in one great, everlasting, final communion... one that everyone will be able to partake of.