s1m0n wrote:This isn't entirely so. What Protestants don't generally believe in is invocation of saints and veneration of icons.
It goes beyond that. In a protestant church there is no body capable of recognising or conferring sainthood. You might see specific biblical characters (ie Joseph, Mary & the evangelists, or the "national" saints Andrew, George, etc) referred to as saints, but that no official doctrinal or theological significance to it. And the list is closed; there are no new saints. Even pre-reformation figures like St Francis do not count as saints in a protestant church.
Again, however, it depends on who you ask.
If you ask the Roman Catholic Church, I am a Protestant. I belong to a church that repudiated Roman authority at the time of the Reformation, and was declared excommunicate. My church is, sadly, not in communion with Rome (though, oddly enough, we seem to have found ourselves in communion with at least one branch of Lutheranism).
On the other hand, the church of which I am a member has bishops (in fact, our very name -- Episcopal -- means "governed by bishops"), recognizes saints and, yes, declares new ones. We have the entire Roman Catholic calendar, as well as a few of our own. We also recognize apostolic succession, and seven sacraments (which can only be validly consecrated by a priest).
To the Protestant side, however, our individual parishes are self-governing and yes, we decide when to hire and to fire a priest. Oh yes...and we celebrate Reformation Day. Perhaps it would help to note that the branch of this church in the U.S. is officially known as "The Protestant Episcopal Church of the U.S.A."
As far as whether we consider ourselves Catholic or Protestant, probaby the majority of our membership would call themselves "Protestants." Certainly we tend to get ourselves listed under "Protestant Churches" in the Yellow Pages. A few would call themselves "Catholics" (myself included), but would generally preface that with "Anglo." We refer to the Pope, respectfully, as the Western Patriarch and the Bishop of Rome, but look to the Archbishop of Canterbury as our "first among equals."
So you see, it's not nearly as clear-cut as you might think.
As far as the Mormons go, they can call themselves whatever they like. No one's stopping them. They are, however, as different, theologically, from historical Christianity (both Protestant and Catholic) as Muslims are different from Jews (or, for that matter, as Christians are different from both Muslims and Jews), and I say we have the same right to stand up and say "hey, wait a minute. This is NOT Christian doctrine!". My point was that the Protestants at that convention weren't excluding them because they didn't consider them "Protestant," but because they didn't consider them Christian in any way, shape or form (and, in that respect, they are in line with what Christians have believed for close to 2000 years)...and they have as much right to do so as the Mormons have to insist on the title.
Redwolf
