They definitely do not follow the pope and used to be much more vocally anti-catholic. They’ve become less anti-catholic in recent years (at least publicly) due to it being politically expedient, but take a look at some Chick tracts on Catholicism if you want to know how evangelicals really feel about them.
me: expecting something coherent about how the Roman Catholic church was a marriage of Christian doctrine with Pagan traditions, how it’s all centralized in a way Jesus wouldn’t have wanted, how the Bible should be the main arbiter of the Christian worldview
jack chick: eating wafers and drinking wine is equivalent to animal sacrifice.
I study pagan religion and practice Catholicism, it is not a fusion of the two at all. There’s some trappings but it’s a completely different thing, and it honestly, I shit you not, has more to do with roman law and greek philosophy
They’re referring to confession, not the sacraments (not that I’d expect them to be clear or coherent) - source: I was raised in the evangelical church.
It’s not very openly discussed, but it’s taught in private that Jews and Catholics go to hell. But basically we’re supposed to be nice to them, especially the Jews because they’re “God’s chosen people”. The idea is that criticizing Jews as a nation of people will call down God’s wrath on you… Because God has a thing for people who he’s apparently sending to hell…
Also, the protestant Appostle’s Creed states “we believe in the holy catholic church”. Though they say it’s a lower case “c” to signify the Greek term that means all Christian churches… Which includes the Roman Catholic Church, who are also going to hell. Protestantism is a hell of a drug.
Only Catholics and Episcopalians (to a lesser extent) care about what the Pope says. Well, he’s obviously still an important spiritual leader for all Christians, but no other denominations actually are required to abide by what the Church says. Even then, the people saying the Pope are infallible so Catholics have to agree with this are wrong. A lot of Popes before Francis said the exact opposite of what he said here, that Catholics should beware of Marxism and Socialism. If they were always infallible, the statements would be contradictory and something would be seriously wrong. The Pope is only infallible when speaking Ex Catedra, which AFAIK has only happened twice (declaring the Assumption of the Virgin Mary unto Heaven and the Immaculate Conception, i.e. two fairly specific doctrines, not social mandates).
TLDR: What the Pope said is not exactly binding for anybody, much less the most reactionary Christians in the US. It’s a step in the right direction, though, so still welcome.
Do US evangelicals follow the pope or are they protestants?
They definitely do not follow the pope and used to be much more vocally anti-catholic. They’ve become less anti-catholic in recent years (at least publicly) due to it being politically expedient, but take a look at some Chick tracts on Catholicism if you want to know how evangelicals really feel about them.
EDIT: Here’s a good example:
me: expecting something coherent about how the Roman Catholic church was a marriage of Christian doctrine with Pagan traditions, how it’s all centralized in a way Jesus wouldn’t have wanted, how the Bible should be the main arbiter of the Christian worldview
jack chick: eating wafers and drinking wine is equivalent to animal sacrifice.
I study pagan religion and practice Catholicism, it is not a fusion of the two at all. There’s some trappings but it’s a completely different thing, and it honestly, I shit you not, has more to do with roman law and greek philosophy
Justin Martyr is A Time, gotta say.
I meant how the Catholic hierarchy was designed to be similar to the Roman State, since it was replacing the previous state religion.
They’re referring to confession, not the sacraments (not that I’d expect them to be clear or coherent) - source: I was raised in the evangelical church. It’s not very openly discussed, but it’s taught in private that Jews and Catholics go to hell. But basically we’re supposed to be nice to them, especially the Jews because they’re “God’s chosen people”. The idea is that criticizing Jews as a nation of people will call down God’s wrath on you… Because God has a thing for people who he’s apparently sending to hell…
Also, the protestant Appostle’s Creed states “we believe in the holy catholic church”. Though they say it’s a lower case “c” to signify the Greek term that means all Christian churches… Which includes the Roman Catholic Church, who are also going to hell. Protestantism is a hell of a drug.
Devout evangelicals not be frothing at the mouth lunatics challenge. Difficulty: impossible
Evangelicals rely on a certain few catholic judges specifically.
Only Catholics and Episcopalians (to a lesser extent) care about what the Pope says. Well, he’s obviously still an important spiritual leader for all Christians, but no other denominations actually are required to abide by what the Church says. Even then, the people saying the Pope are infallible so Catholics have to agree with this are wrong. A lot of Popes before Francis said the exact opposite of what he said here, that Catholics should beware of Marxism and Socialism. If they were always infallible, the statements would be contradictory and something would be seriously wrong. The Pope is only infallible when speaking Ex Catedra, which AFAIK has only happened twice (declaring the Assumption of the Virgin Mary unto Heaven and the Immaculate Conception, i.e. two fairly specific doctrines, not social mandates).
TLDR: What the Pope said is not exactly binding for anybody, much less the most reactionary Christians in the US. It’s a step in the right direction, though, so still welcome.
protestant. they don’t even have a governing body most of the time