I have been called both explicitly and implicitly by a number of people "Catholic" in various places, and it is getting annoying.. The weird thing is, it wasn't ever meant as a complement. I mean those dirty papist Catholics are no good right?
Well, actually, most(if not all Catholics I have met) are well groomed and quite clean.
The trouble is, not only is calling insulting to me, it is demeaning to actual Catholics. You see, I don't agree with them, and there is a vast difference between my position and theirs. So, to lump them in with me, or me in with them is unfair.
This being said, I don't believe I have a monopoly on truth. Consider a trivial example; who amoung you gentle readers affirms the trinity: I see you there Mr Calvinist, you there Mr Lutheran and even you there Mr Catholic. We all agree on that, hey, what d'ya know. Just because the Catholic in the corner over there has a position, doesn't mean it is always wrong. If that were so, on that logic, we'd have to deny the trinity, since Catholics affirm it.
Guilt by association is plain silly. If we're gonna go the route of 'demonizing' whole groups and everything they believe in, we forget that all truth is God's truth, regardless of source. How we discern truth is another story(by the standard of God's word interpreted in context), but a position held by someone we disagree with isn't automatically wrong, just because we disagree with them.
Realization of this simple fact should go long way to smoothing relations between Christians. Even them dirty papal scum... uh... the brainwashing. I blame the brainwashing, ok?
So, the first rule is, don't assign a position to someone that they won't own. If you want to think of me as Roman Catholic and refute me based on that, well, straw men burn easy, and you'll never change my mind, because you have never addressed my position. So you're basically just adding to and sowing division. Also you don't care enough about me to understand my position. I'll totally call you out on that, because that isn't Christian behavior by any biblical standard. If that upsets you there's not much I can do about that, but quit doing the devil's job for him, a'right?
Get that right and we're one step closer to either convincing one of us to change position, or agreeing to disagree like actual brothers in Christ, not the pagans in the marketplace screaming at each other over the price of chicken or the politics of the day.
(I'm not knocking Catholicism here, I just disagree with some of the positions they hold, but I can do so with respect. Raise your hand if you can too.)
