amy: Protestant and Catholic Relations

Recently, my interest in Catholicism has grown. I have been raised within a family that would be labeled perhaps as “Protestant,” but it was more than simply going to church on Sunday. Both my parents stressed the importance of living faith. Faith was not an idea that one merely occasioned on Sundays to “become pure.” It is a lifestyle that is lived out every day. There was never any separation between the sanctity in a church building versus our own home. In fact, the denomination in which I was raised never called church “church.” It was always called meeting due to the idea that the church is made up of the believers and not the building.
Needless to say, the ideas of Catholicism have always bewildered me. I never understood why certain practices would be taken so seriously if it was not explicated in the Bible. Events kept happening in my life that made me more and more curious as to the nature of Catholicism. A friend converted to Catholicism from a Protestant church and that fueled the fire; my brother spoke to me about how Catholic monks spend their lives dedicated to interpreting the Scripture. Now, as we study the Protestant Reformation and the Medieval era, I begin to get a collective picture of the Catholic church. I think I become very torn with the idea of Catholicism. Some of the traditions within Catholicism are beautifully orchestrated, almost art within themselves, yet without the reality of true faith and devotion to Christ are hollow and meaningless. I have also struggled with the mandate of the religion. These traditions are traditions. To me, this means that they should not be required for the person to be a true believer in Christ. I think I am still working out how to think of Catholicism as a labeled “Protestant.”