I grew up in a Catholic family, but changed to a more fundamentalist brand of Christianity as a young adult and have since changed to a non-Christian brand of faith. I continue to be fascinated by religious belief and the "why" of faith. Where do these various beliefs come from?
It is not a misconception that some people do not view Catholics as Christians, it is an opinion. This opinion is based on an interpretation of what makes a Christian a Christian that excludes Catholic doctrine. There are many overlapping and interlocking definitions of what makes a Christian a Christian. Some of these definitions hinge on behavior, while other are based on belief. I have heard on several occasions people who have been raised in a Christian church talk about when they "became a Christian", referring to some decision or life changing event that set them apart even from their fellow church-goers. Of course there is no objective, unchanging set of qualifications defining who is a Christians and what denominations can be referred to as Christian. Some of you may have read this last sentence and said to yourself: "Of course there is - it's The Bible!" The problem with this assertion is that there are many, many interpretations of the bible by innumerable people and groups which cast doubt upon its reliability as an objective measurement of "Christian-ness", without even getting into the contradictions, additions and scribal errors that make up the many versions of the bible.
On the other hand, the blog gives the Catholic refutation, which in short is that the Catholics are the original followers of Jesus, while everybody else is an offshoot of some kind. This true as far as it goes. Various denominations and doctrinal families of Christianity can be traced back eventually to the Catholic Church, in fact, the ones that you are likely to have heard of can be traced quite easily to some split with either the Catholic Church or some other church that had split from the Catholic Church. However there is ample evidence that there was much disagreement about who Jesus was, what he accomplished and what he said during his lifetime. Competing groups had their own scriptures, congregations and hierarchies and fought for supremacy - to become the established church. All of them claimed to be the true successors to Jesus and his teachings. Eventually, for a variety of reasons, one group emerged as the true church and labelled its rivals as heretics. Even then, outposts of some the unofficial sects survived in areas not under the control of Rome.
As a side note, one thing that many Protestants criticize the Catholics for is the reliance on tradition and apostolic succession to frame what is true doctrine and what is not. In the early days of Christianity when the competing groups each sought ascendancy, here was no "Bible" that could be referred to to settle arguments. In fact, each group produced its own literature to bolster its own position. Most of these gospels or letters carried the name of an apostle or some other big name in the early church. Even the books that are now included in the bible have the names of authors affixed to them with little or no evidence to support that authorship. Modern scholarship suggests that several books of the New Testament were not written by the putative author. With so many epistles and gospels flying around with contradictory information, a way had to be found to determine which were authentic and which were not. Apostolic succession, whereby a leader could trace his lineage all the way back to the apostles and thence to Jesus. The reasoning being that an uninterupted chain of teachers were more likely to maintain the true, correct teachings of Jesus than writing that could have come from anywhere.
So, is it a myth that Catholics are not Christians? Well, from a Catholic point of view it is certainly incorrect, but from the point of view of some other Christians they're not. It's a difference of opinion, plain and simple. (Well, maybe not plain and simple - nothing ever is truly plain and simple; but it's the way I see it anyway!)
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