Originally Posted by Amazing Grace

Stephen, my point is that if Daniel has not experienced the choice, then he cannot faithfully give a personal opinion. Yes he can parrot Knox and Calvin and any other polemical writer of that time, but until you are confronted with one whom you dearly love who is an rc, and are invited to such and such occasion, you cannot honestly feel the tension.

Daniel responded with :I apologise if I sound dogmatic in my opposition, but it is difficult for someone from an Ulster Evangelical background to grasp why some Christians do not see that going to a mass is wrong. This is because the main enemy we have been fighting is Popery

There is deep hatred in the blood of Daniel from centuries of conflict. A hatred that cannot be overlooked in a discussion as this. The protties in Ireland have been at war with everyone. The english, the irish catholics, and even irish protties of a different flavor. TO have a history of being picked on for centuries cannot be overcome easily. Its a perfect example of religious/denominational segregation which we do not experience in the USA. We have NEVER had religious wars as western europe has experienced. So when you are weaned on the bottle of blood, it defines your existence. You have lived in some sort of christian jihad. Where I have not. Its kinda like Judah vs the samaratins.

Also, I do not believe anyone who goes to a mass on this board is denying the disgusting practice of the sacrafice. Yet, I know for a fact, that 90% of teh catholics I know, some who are in my family, have no clue on what the church teaches. They have 100% faith by proxy. So for most rc's who invite a protty to a wedding or funeral mass, they have no intention of making that person choose to go or not. Let me also state that frequency definately plays a part in this. Noone here is espousing that we find a mass every week to attend becasue you know the people getting married. So there is no way that a handful of times to go is going to contaminate that person. We also have to remember the bible only speaks of 2 peoples. Believers or unbelievers. Not flavor of believers vs flavor of believers. Therefore we error when speaking of denomination vs denomination. I mean can I go to a wedding in an assembly of God building? Can a presby attend a funeral for a friend in a free will batpist/arminian to the core church? Can a padeo attend the baptism of a credo friend? I say yes to all of the above.