Can someone try help me understand the mind of anti-Catholic fundies?

Shoot you could make a whole psychology book on this subject. Me personally, I've never been a big psych fan, but I can tell you one thing! They are really really really delusional. Fundy disorder needs to be added to the book of psych disorders (forgot what that is called).

The only thing Constantine did was convert to Christianity, and proclaim tolerance for all religions. It was Theodosius I who made Christianity the state religion. I might add that the Roman empire split soon after this.

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250103.htm

Church history by Eusebius is very clear where he wrote about St Peter being the first bishop of rome, and his successors.

The Parts of the World in which the Apostles preached Christ.

1. ...... Meanwhile the holy apostles and disciples of our Saviour were dispersed throughout the world. Parthia, according to tradition, was allotted to Thomas as his field of labor,

Scythia to Andrew, and Asia to John, who, after he had lived some time there, died at Ephesus.

2. Peter appears to have preached in Pontus, Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and Asia to the Jews of the dispersion. And at last, having come to Rome, he was crucified head-downwards; for he had requested that he might suffer in this way.

What do we need to say concerning Paul, who preached the Gospel of Christ from Jerusalem to Illyricum, and afterwards suffered martyrdom in Rome under Nero? These facts are related by Origen in the third volume of his Commentary on Genesis.

Chapter 2. The First Successor to St. Peter in Rome.

1. After the martyrdom of Paul and of Peter, Linus was the first to obtain the episcopate of the church at Rome. Paul mentions him, when writing to Timothy from Rome, in the salutation at the end of the epistle.

Thus we gather the churches founded in Rome/Peter, Jerusalem/James, antioch/ignatius, Byzantine/ Constantiniple and Alexandria/Mark.. and called the One Holy Catholic and apostolic church. When we say catholic church we refer to OHCAC. With the Pope of Rome, the super leader.

Thus it is preposterous to think that the facts and work of Eusebius, accdg to the anticatholics does not exist at all. Guys, read the work and try again.

First of all, you have to have a 2 digit I.Q. in mind.

Some fundies are capable of more, but when it comes to their faith, they all have an I.Q. of around 75.

-They think the Bible was magically zapped out of the sky by God Himself. They think the Jews in Jesus' time went around with the Old Testament as they know it, and that it's the exact same book as the KJV.

In other words, they are ignorant, proud of it and cultivate.

And no, they doN't realize that early Christianity was actually a ragtag of diverse and strange beliefs until the Catholic Church came around to give it an official, unified doctrine. They think they were the early Christians, which is just another instance of wilful ignorance of history.

Martin Luther introduced "sola scriptura" as a way to escape the authority of the Church; a futile enterprise of course, since scripture existed only insofar as it had the Church's seal of approval. Wilful amnesia is another important characteristic of fundamentalism.

You are absolutely correct if all you ever reference is documents prepared and manipulated by the Roman Universal Catholic Church. If you go to secular documents those not burned by the Pope during the late AD 300-Early AD 400 even the Alexandria Library, you will find most of what you have been taught about Catholic history is fabricated. But for the sake of conversation---assuming you are correct how do you account for the Roman Universal Catholic Church having force millions into the church under threat of death and those refusing being burned at the stake or hung or just outright murdered as heretics. Now if you can answer that--then where in the bible did God ever instruct his believers, or Jesus and his followers to ever force anyone into the church. Just what authority did the church of Rome have from God to kill over 50 million true Christians? And another Question--who gave the Roman Universal Catholic Church the authority to never practice the teachings of Jesus--no where in its history has it done so---fact.

Now I go back to disagreeing with you---yes, from Peter on through the first thirty popes as you refer to them, not one was true---including Peter who was never a pope except in the eyes of the catholic, not in the eyes of Jesus nor God nor Christians.

"WE" had over 30 popes by then ... So are you an ancient Italian?

I can assure you there were more than 30 popes, because they date

back long before Christianity began. Julius Caesar was Pontiff in 63BC.

Pontifex Maximus ~ "god on earth" ~ was a favourite Roman made-up

position they loved so much, that they forced it on the local surviving

Christians within the Roman regime. They knew what would happen

if they didn't go along with it ... the same fate as earlier Christians who

were slaughtered in the arenas for the entertainment of Pontiff lovers.

What you don't understand ~ is that the church was established over

in Jerusalem, Israel. The Roman church was just one of many places

where the missionaries started branches of the Christian church, and

some were never polluted by the add-ons that happened in Rome.

God is in charge of His church ... not Caesars, popes or Inquisitors.

most people are historically confused. rather than understanding that constantine made christianity the legal religion of rome, thus ending the majority of persacution, they think he started the catholic church.

however, catholics are often historically confused as well, since peter, who is said to be the first roman pope, was most likely never even in rome and if he was it was for only a matter of a few days. he could not have been the first roman pope since he spent little or no time in rome. there is no historical proof or scriptural proof of peter ever having been the head of the church, although we do know that scripture says he was present and a member of the counsel in jerusalem, however, scripture indicates that james, the brother of Jesus, was the head of that counsel, not peter.

I am fast getting sick of being told they believe this and they believe that.... who are these imaginary people... who made them up so other people could make up stories about them? For me faith is personal and religion is second at most.

Why anti Roman Catholic... for the same reasons every Roman Catholic I know says they personally don't completely follow what their church says.. they pick and choose what works for them. Sure they would happily die a martyr for the church, they go weak at the knees at the sight of his holiness the funny hatted man and feel thoroughly guilty that they are not better Catholics... but they have reservations.

Why would we reject the Jewish faith... Christ was raised a Jew, lived and preached and taught as a Jew and was crucified king of the Jews.... they didn't even think up the name Christian until after He was gone. The Jews were the chosen people of God, the one true church, and have a better claim than anything that has followed.

The RC's may feel their line of decent makes them unique but it certainly doesn't excuse of explain the horrific atrocities committed by their church... and I don't mean the inquisition hundreds of years ago... I mean the systematic physical and sexual abuse of children and the official churches attempts to pervert the course of justice, deny the crimes and enable the abusers to continue elsewhere. For that alone, in my mind... the roman catholic church stands convicted of a crime it has yet to be judged and sentenced for. .

Sure. The implied intercessory deity of Mary, praying to the Saints, infallibility of the Pope, the directing most biblical truths through the clergy instead of daily self study and a personal relationship with God. Fundamentalist Christians are "by the book" and consider some of Catholicism as false or errant doctrine.

Mix some willful ignorance, a little narcissism, a dash of superiority complex, and a fear of knowledge, and boom! You've got a fundie.