A question about what my (college) students are saying - help would be appreciated.

[okasha]

15. Oi. Been there, done that, got several t-shirts.

I used to run into this fairly regularly in the Brit Lit survey course. I taught the Scottish Play for Billy Shakes because I'm permanently burned out on Hamlet, and invariably when I was doing the historical background--Henry VIII and his break with Rome, portions of the play meant to flatter the Protestant James VI/I, Lady M's wickedness as a reference to his Catholic mother, etc.--someone would pop up with "Catholics aren't Christian." The students making this "contribution" were always, no exceptions, young members of independent evangelical and usually fundamentalist congregations. They were convinced that Catholics pray to images, indulge in unspeakable practices in the confessional, and will be Left Behind when all the righteous are hoovered up to heaven at the second coming, which was scheduled for no later than the following Wednesday.

Whereupon the second half of the period would be devoted to explaining, with appropriate Biblical and other references, how Christianity developed after the destruction of the Jerusalem church leadership in CE 70, and how Catholicism Roman and Orthodox was the only Christianity before the Reformation. (Glancing mention of the Cathars and other exceptions.) It was such a frequent thing that I considered actually putting the discussion in my syllabus. Fortunately, and especially in evening classes, there were usually one or two older Catholic students who could help explain not only what Catholics do but why they do it. The kicker in all this was that there was I, a pagan, teaching remedial catechism to Christian kids.

I think what we've got here in the mega- and independent-church movement is a sort of Reformation of the Reformation. The leaders of such congregations have in many cases not only not done the M.Div. at a seminary, but have not had any kind of formal training in Bible, church or other history, or scriptural languages. Most of them come from either fundamentalist or Pentecostal traditions that use only the KJV, whose 17th. Century English they don't fully understand--or worse, the so-called "Living Bible"--and are riding their own particular doctrinal hobby-horses. And as you say, one of those poor nags is anti-Catholicism.

*Self deleted following post because it was an accidental duplicate.