Trent and Luther Are the Same To Me. A Shocking Survey on Catholics and Protestants

It is happening more and more that Protestant schoolchildren from northern Europe who are visting Rome are brought by their teachers to attend a Catholic Mass, to see what it is like, and placidly go to receive communion.

This too is the effect of an increasing race to the bottom between the two faiths, in the mentality of many Protestants and Catholics of Europe and America, as confirmed by an extensive survey conducted in fifteen countries by the Washington-based Pew Research Center:

> After 500 Years, Reformation-Era Divisions Have Lost Much of Their Potency

So 500 years after posting his 95 theses in Wittenberg, Martin Luther is no longer that fomentor of discord which he was for centuries.

In the United States, 65 percent of Catholics and 57 percent of Protestants say they are convinced that between their respective faiths the similarities far outweigh the differences.

And in western Europe too, more than half of Protestants and Catholics think the same way. With spikes of 78 percent among the Protestants of Germany, of 67 percent among the Catholics of Holland, and of 64 percent among the Catholics of Austria.

But even among the Catholics of Italy there are more for whom the resemblances prevail: 47 percent against 41 pecent.

Among the Catholics who continue to feel more different than the same, bringing up the rear are those of Belgium and Spain, with 28 percent. While among the diehard Protestants the last are those of Sweden, with 18 percent.

The survey also permitted the identification of a substantial segment of the population that does not identify itself as Catholic or Protestant, but says it has no religion.

In western Europe, the highest level of atheists or agnostics is found in Holland, with 48 percent. It is followed by Norway with 43 percent, Sweden with 41, Belgium with 37, Denmark and Spain with 30.

There are interesting figures from Germany, the homeland of Luther. Here the traditional balance between Catholics and Protestants has been broken. Protestants have dropped to 28 percent, Catholics make up 42 percent, and atheists or agnostics are now a fourth of the population, 24 percent.

In Italy too, atheists or agnostics have risen to 15 percent, against 78 percent Catholic and 1 percent Protestant.

As for religious practice, among European Protestants those who go to church once a week are now reduced to a flicker. They are 3 percent in Denmark, 7 percent in Germany, and in any case below 10 percent almost everywhere. The only exception is Holland, where among the few Protestants who have remained such - 18 percent of the population - 43 percent go to church on a weekly basis.

Vice-versa, still in Holland, Catholics are in freefall: only 5 percent of them, who make up 20 percent of the population, go to church once a week. Paltry numbers also in Belgium, with 8 percent, in the United Kingdom with 9, in Austria with 11, in France with 13, in Germany with 14. Above 20 percent are Italy, Portugal, Spain, Ireland.

Curiously, in what was for centuries one of the strongest factors of division, the Protestant conviction that salvation is obtained “sola fide” while for Catholics faith must be accompanied by works, the pendulum has swung in favor of the latter. Almost everywhere, that is, even among Protestants the majority think that faith and works are both necessary. The only exception is the Norwegian Protestants, among whom “sola fide” prevails with 51 percent against 30.

It must be noted, however, that the Lutheran “sola fide” also finds a good number of supporters among Catholics: in Italy and Germany a fourth of Catholics espouse it, while in the United Kingdom, France, and Switzerland it is a third.

As for communion by Protestants at Catholic Masses - and vice-versa by Catholics at evangelical worship - the survey of the Pew Resarch Center says nothing. But it is well known that this is an increasingly widespread behavior, one that is certainly not restrained but rather encouraged by what has been said in this regard by Pope Francis and Cardinal Walter Kasper.

“I remain absolutely staggered by the huge percentages of non-believers. Christianity as a whole appears to be failing “

I was talking to a Gold’s employee. The college is practically next door so the students cycle through the gym’s jobs. He was a former alter boy, a good Catholic. But when I talked to him he was spitting mad at Catholics, his former faith, the Pope and the “whole religion scam.” Further exploration indicated he’d taken a college course on religion and it completely turned him off. He was so angry there was no possibility of bringing him back. Oh, and he hated his parents now for inflicting this illness on him. That anger is characteristic of the Left and they can infect young minds with ease. They are the Dale Carnegie of selling Leftism.

I don’t see a real answer to how this can be stopped. It’s certainly easier to sell, for example, free love over celibacy. At least to kids, who are hedonistic by nature.

Sickening is bait and switch tactics some of these churches use. There was one outside of Nashville that did traditional values (meaning actual Christian values) and it got very popular. And then one day, the minister decided that the congregation could stand to be “accepting” of the gay lifestyle. That went over like a lead balloon. People started leaving the congregation in droves when Mr. Minister refused to see the error in his ways. Last I read, he was pulling up stakes in the “uptight” ‘burbs and taking his false doctrine right into the city of Nashville where it would be “more accepting” (of the lies).

It may be this guy was preaching proper doctrine and somehow got “converted” to the NuDoctrine of worshipping the High Holy Anus, or that he was lying all along and thought by sheer force of charisma, he could charm the congregation into his twisted agenda.

By no means, mind you, should a church reject a “gay” member, but that means that they’re going to hear the truth on what God says on the subject. It’s far more insidious to lie to them and tell them God accepts them AND their sin and that it’s not only OK but equal to a married couple to be engaged in the lifestyle. But if said gay members demand their sinful behavior be accepted, a Christian church cannot be expected to accommodate them in that regard.

” I have to suspect that the kid didn’t have a lot of faith”

He was a really nice kid, so long as you stayed off the topic of religion. He was however, not the brightest bulb on the porch and would have been much better off in a trade, as he was obviously willing to work hard, judging by his musculature. One day, as I walked past his desk I asked, “Why the long face?”

With a thousand yard stare he said, as if to the wall behind me, “Did you know gasoline floats?” He was on the verge of tears. I skidded to a stop.

“What happened?”

He was staying at a room in an expensive house with a pool. They’d lit a grill with charcoal, but the fire wasn’t going. So he poured gasoline on it. The flame traveled up to the can, which ignited. He threw it into the pool. The plastic liner was destroyed. He said, “Do you know what those cost?”

“Three thousand dollars?”

“Three thousand, three hundred.”

So, not the brightest bulb. But I’d have been happy to hire him as a plumber or electrician once he’d had the training. Instead he had an AA which gave him zero job prospects beyond working in a gym.

College is over sold. His life was negatively impacted in numerous ways and he’d wasted a lot of time and money.

Faith isn’t like muscle. It isn’t weak or strong. It’s the character of the faithful that gives faith its form and structure. About half of today’s youth have little character as our participation trophy world doesn’t develop character. I really felt sorry for the young man. Following the popular path to college, simply because it was popular, had led him a long way away from any good path for him.

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