Posted on 12/30/2008 4:47:26 PM PST by SeekAndFind
While Catholics and Protestants both fall under the broad umbrella of Christianity, they practice their faith in different ways.
A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of regular churchgoers found that 25% of Evangelical Christians read the Bible on a daily basis along with 20% of other Protestants. Just seven percent (7%) of Catholics do the same. At the other extreme, 44% of Catholics rarely or never read the Bible along with only seven percent (7%) of Evangelical Christians and 13% of other Protestants.
Consider the divergence among the faiths in other areas, too. (All the figures that follow are based upon those who attend church at least twice a month.)
Ninety-one percent (91%) of Evangelical Christians consider themselves to be born again. Sixty-three percent (63%) of other Protestants have been born again along with 25% of Catholics.
Forty-four percent (44%) of Evangelical Christians reflect at least daily on the meaning of Scripture in their lives. Thirty-six percent (36%) of other Protestants and 22% of Catholics do the same.
Fifty-two percent (52%) of Evangelical Christians have had a meaningful discussion about their faith with a non-Christian during the past month. Twenty-eight percent (28%) of other Protestants and 18% of Catholics also have held such a discussion.
Sixty-eight percent (68%) of Evangelical Christians attend a regular Bible Study or participate in some other small-group activity. Forty-seven percent (47%) of other Protestants take part in small groups related to their faith, along with 24% of Catholics.
Seventy-one percent (71%) of Evangelical Christians say their Church does an excellent job helping them understand the Bible. Fifty-seven percent (57%) of other Protestants and 52% of Catholics say the same.
Despite these differences, the overwhelming majority of all Christians believe that the God of the Bible is the one true God. Ninety-eight percent (98%) of churchgoing Evangelical Christians hold that view along with 94% of other Protestants and 92% of Catholics.
Forty-four percent (44%) of American adults attend Christian church services at least twice a month, and 92% of these regular churchgoers believe the God of the Bible is the one true God.
Sixty-one percent (61%) of adults also say life in the United States would be better if more Americans lived as Christians.
But do you study what this really means? You can hear the scripture but you do need to spend time reflecting on it personally for it to mean anything to you.
I think yours is likely a common protestant understanding of the term.
It’s quite different from the one in the long history of the Church, as she listed in the creeds.
This difference is at the root of much of our differences in theology, as it developed in protestantism after the reformation, as well.
I have no need to worship “The Word of God”. Wearing a Bible like an accessory as I see many of my Protestant family members do .
I can however reflect on the Passion of Christ every single day in the five Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary. So, please if you feel that immersing yourself in English words translated by some King is good enough, more power to you.
>>Hopefully, in his next survey, Rasmussen will take things like Rosaries and Sorrowful Mysteries into account ( in which case, Protestants and Evangelicals will get close to 0% ).<<
Actually, if you understand WHAT a Rosary is, you will find that that Protestants and Evangelicals are reflecting on just what the Catholics are. Only the Catholics don’t need the written words in front of them to see the Passion.
That’s the silly thing about this. We do the same things yet the MSM seeks to divide us.
“If you go to Mass every day, you will hear the entire Bible read in two years — three years if you go just on Sunday — along with a homily on those readings.”
Or you could (I know this might be a stretch) sit down and read and study the Bible at home as well as going to church. Invite some friends, someone bake something. Serve a little coffee and next thing you know, you have a nice Bible study group going on.
“For us Catholics, the Eucharist is what brings us to church. The readings from the Bible are OK, but we’ve heard the same stories over and over and over.”
Well I don’t pretend to speaking for all Protestants but what brings me to church is the fellowship with other believers and with Christ. These things that you call “readings from the Bible” are what we call sermons. Yes, we all know what the Bible says but it is nice to hear the Pastor read from a passage and then maybe explain how it might affect our lives in a personal way. Our Pastor has even been known to take questions from time to time DURING a sermon. On top of that, at my church we have a mens Bible Study Group, and a Womens Bible Study Group on alternating Teusdays and of course the usual Wednesday evening Prayer meeting.
How many times can you hear the same message about loving your neighbor as yourself? I guess until the world listens.
Starting with those of us that CLAIM (self included) to follow Jesus Christ.
>>Or you could (I know this might be a stretch) sit down and read and study the Bible at home as well as going to church. Invite some friends, someone bake something. Serve a little coffee and next thing you know, you have a nice Bible study group going on.<<
Why?
I’d much rather go to Holy Mass and receive Jesus himself.
Or even Adoration. Which would you prefer? To be with your Father or to read a letter from your Father. I’d rather be with Jesus than just read His Words.
I didn’t explain properly. What was left behind was not the term “Communion of Saints” nor a definition of it. But in that new definition, well over two-thirds of the Saints were ‘left behind’.
>>These things that you call “readings from the Bible” are what we call sermons.<<
Nooooo, those things you call “Sermons” we call Homilies.
Readings from the Bible are just that, readings from the Bible.
We get one Old Testament, one New Testament and a Gospel reading at each Holy Mass then the Priest talks. We even use the Psalms as responses to prayers!
Amazing isn’t it?
“Why?
I’d much rather go to Holy Mass and receive Jesus himself.”
Well this is where one of the differences lies between Catholics and other Christians. You seem to believe that you have to receive Christ into your life more than once.
Or do I misunderstand?
Sounds very different in some ways and in others...not so different at all.
You wrote:
“Or you could (I know this might be a stretch) sit down and read and study the Bible at home as well as going to church.”
True. Protestants - generally - spend more time studying the Bible. I don’t assume that means they know it better than all Catholics, or that they learn it in depth, but many Protestants, of all ages and walks of life, are more than willing to show up on Wednesday night for scripture study.
I’m Catholic, have studied the Bible, and own far TOO MANY lexicons, Bible handbooks, etc. I can’t get enough. I just bought three more such books two days ago and am trying to get ahold of a used book dealer about another book (a book of scripture passages about salvation set up for study and meditation). I wish more of my fellow Catholics in my area were as interested. I do, however, have the chance every Sunday to drive to the next town over and do Lectio Divina every Sunday with some great, Bible-loving Catholics.
(I also can’t wait until the Ignatius Study Bible-New Testament comes out in 2009! More than ten years in the making!)
>>You mean to say that the Old Testament, Psalms, The Acts and the Epistles have the Rosary in them ? I didn’t know that. <<
Nope, just the opposite.
Why don’t you tell me what you think “Praying the Rosary” entails and we can go from there.
many protestant friends of mine harp on the importance of reading the bible daily, as the catholic church recommends, but with one admonition...
studying the bible alone or in groups, without the guidance of the church as the keeper of the whole deposit of the faith, you tend to have a lot of personal interpretaton that leads down the wrong road....and you could end up with many different churches all claiming the their interpretations are correct.....
oh wait.....if im not mistaken, something like that happened a few centuries back.....hmmmm
“Protestants - generally - spend more time studying the Bible. I don’t assume that means they know it better than all Catholics”
Agreed on both counts.
“I’m Catholic, have studied the Bible, and own far TOO MANY lexicons, Bible handbooks, etc. I can’t get enough. I just bought three more such books two days ago and am trying to get ahold of a used book dealer about another book (a book of scripture passages about salvation set up for study and meditation).”
You would be a real treasure at ANY Bible Study, Catholic OR Protestant. I admire your thirst for the Word.
That statement makes me sad. I teach an adult Sunday School and am very strong on meat over milk. I love it when someone suddenly realizes the significance of a passage she never noticed before, or never understood before. There is so much in there, a life time of study cannot grasp it all.
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