3 ms·

well, ~21% of americans are catholic

embedding-shape 6mo ago
"are Catholic" is so fuzzy though. "identify as" and "practices" are wildly different experiences, at least on the receiving end. I'm sure that percentage is mostly consisting of "identify as" rather than "practicing".
- water_badger 6mo ago
  100,000 people joined the catholic church in america this week. At this point I don't think anything other than the church retains the ability to present a coherent moral or metaphysical intellectual framework to people who care about that kind of thing. I would be very surprised if the united states is not majority catholic in ~100 years
- empath75 6mo ago
  There is nothing more catholic than not practicing catholicism.
- bluGill 6mo ago
  For this purpose identify is enough - as anyone who identifies will be horrified even if they otherwise don't care about the church. Many non-Catholics (including non-Christians) are also horrified even though they otherwise don't care about what the pope says at all.
  - ImPostingOnHN 6mo ago
    I don't think supporters of the current US president would be horrified. They already support his anti-christian behavior, and seem more interested in being part of that group than they are in the religion itself. More likely he would just assert that the Pope isn't actually the Pope, and thus any excommunications are void, and his supporters would roll with it. Some of them already believe this. Any words, true or false, which make them feel better to believe. That's religion, right? He is their true religion.
    - bluGill 6mo ago
      Sure, but that is at most 25% of Americans. The rest are conditional in some way if they even support him at all.
- alistairSH 6mo ago
  There's likely a large group in the middle - IDs as, but not regular practitioners of, who would absolutely not like being excommunicated despite their lack of practice.
- bean469 6mo ago
  People can identify as Christians without being "practicing" Christians. It's a very loose concept that varies heavily based on countries, denominations of Christianity and many other factors

"are Catholic" is so fuzzy though. "identify as" and "practices" are wildly different experiences, at least on the receiving end. I'm sure that percentage is mostly consisting of "identify as" rather than "practicing".

water_badger 6mo ago
100,000 people joined the catholic church in america this week. At this point I don't think anything other than the church retains the ability to present a coherent moral or metaphysical intellectual framework to people who care about that kind of thing. I would be very surprised if the united states is not majority catholic in ~100 years
empath75 6mo ago
There is nothing more catholic than not practicing catholicism.
bluGill 6mo ago
For this purpose identify is enough - as anyone who identifies will be horrified even if they otherwise don't care about the church. Many non-Catholics (including non-Christians) are also horrified even though they otherwise don't care about what the pope says at all.
- ImPostingOnHN 6mo ago
  I don't think supporters of the current US president would be horrified. They already support his anti-christian behavior, and seem more interested in being part of that group than they are in the religion itself. More likely he would just assert that the Pope isn't actually the Pope, and thus any excommunications are void, and his supporters would roll with it. Some of them already believe this. Any words, true or false, which make them feel better to believe. That's religion, right? He is their true religion.
  - bluGill 6mo ago
    Sure, but that is at most 25% of Americans. The rest are conditional in some way if they even support him at all.
alistairSH 6mo ago
There's likely a large group in the middle - IDs as, but not regular practitioners of, who would absolutely not like being excommunicated despite their lack of practice.
bean469 6mo ago
People can identify as Christians without being "practicing" Christians. It's a very loose concept that varies heavily based on countries, denominations of Christianity and many other factors