The difference between Christianity and Catholicism

[Maxmars]

Youlost me here dude....

Sorry for that.  It wasn't my intention to be cryptic, or confusing.  If I was, it was purely accidental.

From my readings of the lost/secret/discarded gospels, the early Christian faith had many different branches or sects, all disagreeing on many facets of the emerging religion and to this day it remains so.

It would be 'recorded so' though, wouldn't it?  "Early" Christian faiths will always identify as "one among many disagreeing sects."  Yet, the history reflected in scripture is that there was one church of Christ... not many.  As I stated before, the numbers don't lie.  And I risk appearing pretentious when I say that Christ could not have come to establish a "whole slew of tangentially related subsects of Christianity."  I think most 'separatists' are such because of one of two reasons... they simply can't "tolerate" being part of the whole community, or they reject the "whole" utterly.  How much of that is "human baggage" or "transcendental philosophy" is for better people than I to discern.
 

I'm not sure what the point of this thread is.  I've read it through twice and don't get it.   While not understanding the point, I will say that I have two comments.

Again, I'm sorry about the confusion.  The short of it is that I wanted to discuss the source articles' assertions that distinction had to be drawn regarding the Catholic Church and Christianity.

1 - There is no 'catholic vs christian'.  Catholics ARE Christians. 

2 - The quote from your opening post that I have above .. saying that the 'reformation' came about because of corruption in the Catholic church ... I disagree.  

1 - I agree.  The author of the article seems to be in agreement as well... but not without first establishing the 'except that' idea.

2 - I admit that Luther was as human as any other, filled with stereotypical human baggage and personal drives and afflictions.  But the church was corrupted by people who were clearly of a "classist" bent (as occurs in all hierarchies established within cultural tradition.)
 

Sticky?  more a naive statement
catholicism is not a religion, it’s a word
...
On its own, that simple statement overturns your whole position
...
blind faith is a poison

My first effort in the opening post is to establish the "word" aspect of the argument (perhaps we think alike.)  My "position" was not necessarily the subject of discussion.

What makes the discussion "sticky" (in my perception) is the fact that many approach this subject "feeling" their response rather than "constructing it."  As a result of that many must "dictate" or "announce" an absolute answer rather than "rationalize" one for the remainder of us participating.  It is a danger in the discussion, which we here can easily circumvent with courtesy and respect... in other virtual places courtesy and respect are weaknesses... not here.

Blind hatred of anything is doubly a weakness. Firstly, because it is "blind," and secondly because it is "hatred."

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I must thank you all for jumping into the discussion....  And I apologize for the uncertainty which I seem to have engendered with this thread...

Maybe I should seek to be more "uncertain" in the future....