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Originally Posted by FragrantFlora
Thanks for the quick answers everyone 
Sorry if my question seemed to offend you. I think I'm pretty sane thank you  I guess it really depends on what you use you to define "Christian." I'm not saying you're wrong nor am I saying that the people/sources that made me ponder were wrong. They seemed to explain their side pretty well. |
Its not an "offending" thing... its a bit of a jaw-dropper when some assert Catholics are not part of the Christian faith. Catholicism is the OLDEST form of organized Christianity that exists as it was originally instituted when Peter the Apostle supposedly took the position as the "first bishop" (in the First Century AD). The word "Catholic" is first documented around the year 110 or so though the first two hundred years are somewhat fragmentary and apocryphal records. The Roman Empire took the Christian Catholic faith as its religion around the year 313AD and then proceeded to drive it across the world even after the Empire itself broke up into a dozen little kingdoms.
Now why the confusion on Christianity? Protestants sometimes argue that the Catholic faith spiraled away from the "original intent of Christianity" both from state corruption and because the faith tended to take on the cultural artifacts (pagan beliefs) of conquered nations. Evangelicals are particularly intense about Catholicism, sometimes even claiming the Catholic Church is the Beast or anti-Christ, setting up false gods in the form of the saints or even the way they venerate Mary as a "goddess" (often she ascends to more importance than Christ in some parts of the world). So I can see why there might be some confusion -- but Catholicism is what "Protestantism" (1521AD) derived from (and in Protestantism it fractured into Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal, and dozens of other splintering sects). They're all "Christian" in the sense that their central tenet is that Jesus Christ was the son of God, he died for humanity's sins to create a new pact with God. After that, they all start disagreeing on the details.