’rome Phobia’

[JustaServant]

Phobia is an excessive and irrational fear that is usually based on some trauma in the past. Because of that trauma, anytime the person meets anything or anybody that is remotely associated with that trauma, there is an immediate knee-jerk response. The thing or person is out of proportion to the reality that it is. They are terrified of it and flee from it just at the mention of the name.
Many Protestants have ’Rome phobia’. Anything that remotely smells of Catholic, no matter how minute, they go berserk. The reactions of people who, at first talk of Christ and being a Christian, suddenly transform into something ugly and horrible. Love becomes hate, peace becomes war, families are torn apart in revolt (renamed ‘Reformation’), joy becomes misery, mercy is replace by venom.
ANY enemy of Catholics becomes their friend. A root of bitterness is born that becomes a stench in the nostrils of God.
Watching people react to anything Catholic, the word Christian is the last word you would use to describe it.
Many times it is passed down from generation to generation. They have no clue as to WHY they hate Catholics….they just do. Their identity is found in what they are against, not what they are for.
The history of the Catholic Church is re-written to show what a monster she is. Even her future is determined by ‘Bible prophecy’ which destines the monster to Hell. So there is no way out for the Catholic Church. Born a monster, die a monster. We teach our children to fear this ugly monster who will devour us on a whim. When asked about her they say, ‘she’s a horrible monster disfigured at birth and is destined for Hell and damnation.
When anyone DARES to face that phobia, remove the mask that has been put over her, he discovers that the Catholic Church is not the evil institution responsible for every evil imaginable. But she is instead the most beautiful Lady Christ purchased, fear is replaced by love. She captures the heart and you fall in love with her.
Perfect love casts out fear.
[url="http://thetrailhome.blogspot.com/"]http://thetrailhome.blogspot.com/[/url]

Edited February 29, 2008 by JustaServant

[Archaeology cat]

I'd agree with that observation. I knew many people who simply hated anything associated with the Catholic Church, though none of them really knew why.

[MC IMaGiNaZUN]

I think there are loads of folks in the western world, who just have institution-phobia as well. Or there are people who have structure-phobia. Another one i think that is big for Rome-phobes is fear of human failure. Its like they expect the Catholic Church to be perfect, and since its not, it should be rejected. Its, umm, well pathological.

I know I prefer spontaneity and creativity personally, but those are my gifts, organization is not one of my gifts, but I am glad to be part of a church that can clarify, and spell out theology and truth for me with precision, so i dont have to make it all up as i go along.

SHALOM
Bro Mark

[Catholic777]

[quote]Their identity is found in what they are against, not what they are for.[/quote]

This is not just a problem for the protestants (whose very name "protestant" defines them in terms of us), but also I fear is a major obstacle for reunion with the Orthodox. In both cases it is often associated with nationalism...

One reason I've always felt the Catholic Church is true, is because we define ourselves in terms of what we are, not what we're not.

Maybe it's just because we have the benefit of being by far the largest single denomination. But Orthodox and protestant apologetics and propoganda seem to spend more time refuting what we believe than explaining what they believe.

As if a negative could ever be a dogma. The Orthodox may not believe in the Pope, but it seems they also positively "believe in no pope". It's like the difference between strong/positive atheism vs. weak/negative atheism, between belief that there is no god, as opposed to non-belief in a god. Many seem to act is if non-Catholicism is not merely implicit in their religion, but as if it is an explicit revealed truth to be positively held. Not merely non-believing it, but positively rejecting us specifically seems to be a major feature of their whole faith culture. Not all that appealing, to me at least, to act bitter like that...

[blovedwolfofgod]

servant, i love how your post reads like a movie trailer. I can totally imagine the deep voice now. and then the website at the bottom is totally like the movie website. Im just excpecting to hear:

They went to far.
They believed too hard.
Now, its time for reckoning.

From the Producers of Diehard
Bruce Willis
Jean Claude Van Dam
In
The Trail (of blood) Home

Edited March 3, 2008 by blovedwolfofgod

[CatherineM]

I think some of it is passed down culturally. My mom's family is protestant, and they came to this side of the pond because they lost their lands when they became protestant. My dad's family is from Ireland. They don't like the British much. My dad didn't like the French because they shot at him in North Africa during WWII. There was so much unpleasantness on both sides during the Reformation, that animosity is inevitable. I'm taking a graduate ecclesiology course at a Catholic seminary, and one of the students is Lutheran. I've been jumped on several times for not being politically correct/ecumenical enough. I swear sometimes I think the instructor would rather have me deny church teachings rather than upset the lone protestant in the class. It drives me nuts, so I guess I have some of it too.

[LouisvilleFan]

[quote name='JustaServant' post='1471376' date='Feb 29 2008, 05:30 PM']Many Protestants have ’Rome phobia’. Anything that remotely smells of Catholic, no matter how minute, they go berserk.[/quote]

Even among the two or three "anti-Catholic" Protestants I've known, they never reacted like this to Catholicism. Many Protestants (especially younger generations) are actually drawn these days to traditions that "smell" of Catholicism. We as Catholics shouldn't characterize Protestants as being all anti-Catholic haters or anything else, really. There are some who are like this, but they are more accurately counted as "a few" rather than "many."

[quote name='Catholic777' post='1472899' date='Mar 3 2008, 02:08 PM']Maybe it's just because we have the benefit of being by far the largest single denomination. But Orthodox and protestant apologetics and propoganda seem to spend more time refuting what we believe than explaining what they believe.[/quote]

This isn't true. Just someone's perception who pays far more attention to Protestant arguments against Catholicism and apparently hasn't sought out all the Protestant apologetics in favor of Christianity. Look up Ravi Zacharias and Lee Stobel.

[quote name='Catholic777' post='1472899' date='Mar 3 2008, 02:08 PM']As if a negative could ever be a dogma. The Orthodox may not believe in the Pope, but it seems they also positively "believe in no pope".[/quote]

The Orthodox do believe in the Pope, whom they agree is the Bishop of Rome, currently Benedict XVI. Our disagreement is how the Pope's authority is understood and exercised in relation to other bishops/metropolitans, specifically what the phrase "first among equals" really means.

But the main reason I replied to this thread was to find out why we have to keep spreading these largely false and misleading stories about other Christians? What good is this doing to promote unity? I understand many of our parents had their issues, but they were raised in a different time, when the days of Irish and Italian immigration and the world wars were fresher memories. We can make the choice to actually build relationships across those boundaries and find out that these perceptions usually aren't true.

Edited March 19, 2008 by LouisvilleFan

[Didacus]

[quote]The modern girl with the lipstick and the cocktail is as much a rebel against the Woman's rights movement of the [18]80's, with her stiff stick-up collars and strict teetolism, as the later was a rebel agains the early Victorian lady of the languid waltz tunes and the album full of quotations from Byron: or as the last, and again, was a rebel against a Puriton mother to whom the waltz was a wild orgy and Byron the Bolshevist of his age. Trace even the Puriton mother back through history and she represents a rebellion againt the Cavalier laxity of the English Church, which was at first a rebel against the Catholic civilisation, which had been a rebel against the Pagan Civilisation. Nobody but a lunatic could pretend that these things were a progress for they obviously go first one way and then the other. But whichever is right, one thing is certainly wrong; and that is the modern habit of looking at them solely from the modern era. For that is to see only the end of the tale; [u][b]they rebel against they know not what, because it arose they know not when; intent on its ending, they are ignorant of its beginning; and therefore of its very being.[/b][/u][/quote]
[b]G.K. Chesterton[/b]

emphasis my own



I love chesterton. that quote is also a great explanation of how people fall into the trap of hating something for the sake of hating it without knowing why.

Edited March 19, 2008 by Didacus