How do Protestants view the pope?

[jo]

[tangent]

[jo]

[Karen]

[Carly]

*sings*

Don't mock the Pope
Don't mock the Pope, baby!
Don't mock the Pope
Don't tip the Pope over!

[A#minor]

Personally, I think he's an idiot; even more so than John Paul. While probably not consciously bent on world-wide deception, that's basically what he achieves. Pretty sad really.

I'm speaking as a person who has fought against strong (Hispanic) Roman Catholicism all my life. I've seen the beliefs of Catholics tear people apart and keep them in spiritual darkness. Keep in mind that Catholicism in Hispanic countries is much different, much darker than the watered-down version in primarily-Protestant countries like the USA.

I've seen people walk hundreds of miles carrying the 7-foot statue of a saint, b/c they believe that will give them eternal life. I've seen people crawl on their knees for miles on cobblestones to a church until their knees are bloody and torn and scarred for life.

They don't trust Christ to save them as the Bible teaches; they pray to Mary instead. I could go on and on about the outrages I've seen in the name of the Catholic "religion". I could just cry for those people in their darkness. Many of the native superstitious beliefs and the Indian gods are added into the Catholic faith in Mexico, where I grew up.

I don't mean to be offensive to anyone. I'm just stating my opinion from my personal experiences and beliefs. You are welcome to have a different opinion. I'm sorry if I seem to come on too hard here, but it's an issue that I feel very strongly about.

[tangent]

[Leslie]

I have a very high regard for John Paul II, but, like Karen, I don't know enough about Benedict to give an opinion. You just had to look at John Paul II to see the love radiating from him. At the last World Youth Day in Toronto in 2002, there was such a spirit of love and excitement surrounding the Pope's visit that it was hard not to be positively affected by it. And I believe the Youth Days were very much John Paul II's baby.

Yes, there are pockets of superstition in the Catholic church, and doctrine that I cannot agree with, but there is also a tremendous love of Christ. The practising Catholics that I know and do volunteer work with and have worshipped with are an inspiration to me. And they don't seem at all watery here, either.

Wherever the Church goes (and here I speak of the whole Church, not just the RC church) it will be coloured by the culture of those who embrace it; the Church cannot be free of culture, and I think this one of the Church's glories.

[A#minor]

[Leslie]

[rusmeister]

I was raised a (fundamental) Baptist. We were taught to hate and fear the Pope and see him as a prototype for the Antichrist.
I was also taught that praying to Mary and the saints meant worshipping them and that they counted on their own good works to save them INSTEAD of faith.

I later found out that all of those teachings were wrong and sprang from ignorance (this was also one of the [minor] reasons not to return to the Baptists). I now have a lot of respect for Catholics. If I hadn't learned about Orthodoxy, I would have probably become Catholic myself.

[Kolbitar]

::I've seen people crawl on their knees for miles on cobblestones to a church until their knees are bloody and torn and scarred for life.

There are many "watered down" United States Catholics together with their peer pressuring Protestant brothers who would do well to walk home from church on bloodied knees rather than comfortably drive home, flop on the couch and turn on the Playboy channel!

[tangent]

I wonder if we could all read and see if we're contributing to the ill feeling that is tearing apart the Wardrobe.

[Adam]

[A#minor]