Asklemmy @lemmy.ml

9mo ago

Why do people say "Catholics and Christians" in (USA) when Catholics are also Christians, as if they refer to it as a different religion.

Is this some sort of remnant of evangelical puritan protestant ideology?

I don't understaun this.

If you ask me, it'd make as much sense as Orthodox and Christians.... or Shia and Muslim...

I know not all Christians are Catholics but for feck's sake...

They're all Christians to me....

Edit:

It's a U.S thing but this is the sort of things I hear...

https://www.gotquestions.org/Catholic-Christian.html

I am a Catholic. Why should I consider becoming a Christian?

I now know more distinctions (apparently Catholicism requires duty and salvation is process, unlike Protestantism?) but I still think they're of a similar branch (Christianity) so I just wonder the social factor

176 comments

Growing up in a "non-denominational", independent fundamental Baptist house I was always taught that Catholics weren't Christians because they worship idols. Now that I've left the faith I would easily classify them as being Christian.
While I think many people actually do classify them as Christians they do have some significant differences in their beliefs and practices than most Protestant denominations; and being themselves the largest Christian denomination by far it can be useful in some analysis to treat them as a distinct entity (the answer to "percentage of global population that subscribe to a particular religion" is much more interesting when broken into "Christian Catholic: %" and "Christian Other: %").
- If anything Catholicism is much more traditionally Christian, as it's the stablished status quo outside of the anglosphere.
  
  That’s seen as a negative. “Holy tradition” is seen as an extreme departure, although most Protestants wouldn’t even know the term because opening the catechism is nearly as bad as the satanic bible (especially among evangelicals).
- Oh shit! Independent Fundamental Baptist! I had to deal with living with that shit, too. At the end of the day, if the king james bible was good enough for Peter and Paul, it's good enough for me. Also, rock music is the devil.
  
  I went to Bob Jones. There was a kid there got in trouble playing the guitar cause what he was strumming had "that sound." No lyrics, just him strumming it wrong was sinful. Ain't no way that kinda teaching gonna fuck someone up for life.
- What does "non-denominational" mean? Isn't Baptist the denomination?
  
  In this context it was meant as a joke. Several Baptist institutions incorrectly label themselves as being "non-denominational" even though they are completely ideologically aligned with the independent Baptist movement.

There's plenty of great commentary here about why Christianity is divided up into different sects, but I think you're primarily interested in the narcissism of small differences. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism_of_small_differences)
Basically, if you've read about Dr. Suess' Starbellied Sneeches, you get the idea. Human brains are exceptional pattern recognition machines, and when a society is so homogenously Christian then those small differences become the cleavages along which identities form. That leads to things like Catholic / Christian divisions and the formation of the best joke in The Guardian history:
Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!" He said, "Nobody loves me." I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?"
He said, "Yes." I said, "Are you a Christian or a Jew?" He said, "A Christian." I said, "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me, too! What franchise?" He said, "Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?" He said, "Northern Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?"
He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region." I said, "Me, too!"
Northern Conservative†Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912." I said, "Die, heretic!" And I pushed him over.
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2005/sep/29/comedy.religion
- All the big (and probably small) schisms happened primarily for political reasons (i.e. material interests, power struggles). It's just that lots of other issues (including small differences) tend to align themselves along the same lines, because I guess that helps with the polarization. Doesn't mean this "narcissism of small differences" doesn't exist, just that it's not the cause, but rather part of the dynamic.
  
  With all due respect, this is not reflective of the protestant revival movement in the US in the 1800s. The second awakening was absolutely a bunch of rival interpretations of the word claiming they were right b/c (insert reason here).
  I probably should have been more specific in my original reply but when we're taking about US "Catholics aren't Christians" that's 100 percent the origin of the trope. I can't speak to the Irish version but I'd challenge anyone about it in the US. That's why we needed an Ecumenism movement in the first place after all.
- There may be an earlier version, but I know this as an old Emo Phillips joke

If you are curious look up the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther and his 99 Theses.
I'm paraphrasing and my thoughts on what I experienced this but it came down more to the idea that Catholics worship the pope and the saints more than god and jesus. If you were the leader of a nation that called themselves Catholic you could find the Pope telling you what to do when it came to war and if you declared war on another Catholic country the Pope could tell you to stop or to declare peace. To not do so was in danger of having all other Catholic nations declare war.
Not to mention the many saints you are required to pray to, Purgatory and praying for the dead, all of the rituals, services in Latin, worship of the virgin mother, the schism that split the church between two Popes who excommunicated each other, etc.
Protestantism did away with all of that. No single leader, the ability to create different sects that didn't make you an apostate of the church, etc. Now don't get me wrong even the same sect don't always believe the exact same things and it can get pretty nit-picky, but Protestantisn can change with the times more easily than Catholicism can.
The goal was to make less of a ritual cult like Catholicism had become, and more of a focus on the meaning of the the actions of jesus, being able to actually get to heaven without all of the pomp and circumstance that really meant nothing, and all that crap.
The worry is the President would be more loyal to the other Catholics than the rest of the nation and would be bound by cult rules than the will of the people.
Ironically enough right now it's the Catholic President trying to stop rights from being taken away while there are both Protestants and Catholics in the Supreme Court and other facets of the government that are working so hard to do the opposite.
- And yet what a actually happened is that Catholics ended up generally more liberal and Protestants ended up becoming evangelicals and causing a lot of the problems currently faced in, for example, the US.
  Edit' Catholicism continues to try to bleed any kind of support by protecting pedophiles in case you feel like I am being too lenient toward Catholicism.
  
  Evangelicals are an almost entirely US phenomenon. In the rest of the world, Protestant countries like Germany and the UK are more liberal than Catholic countries like Ireland and Italy. For example, Italy “legalised” abortion in 1978 but the vast majority of gynaecologists refuse to perform them on religious grounds. Ireland didn’t legalise until… 2019!
  
  Ended up? Shit, Protestants started out way more strict. You'd have to worry about being beaten to death if you had any images of Mary or Jesus during the Great Iconoclasm. Most of the Protestants sects back then did not think Catholicism was strict enough.
  
  Evangelicals tend to not like mainline Protestants for being too liberal, the mainline Protestants are a lot less noisy and also traditionally better connected. Mainline Protestant conservatives have had no problem courting evangelicals historically though, which is one reason they’re in the situation they are now. Mainline Protestant conservative gives you a traditional stuffy republican politician, evangelical gives you MTG.
  
  that has more to do with evangelicals and events some catholics got conned by corporate interests in the early 30s in response to what FDR was doing with the new deal and the sweeping socialist thinking going around in churches at that time. read up on James W. Fifield Jr and NAM ( National Association of Manufacturers) you will see the destruction of US churches and the rise of the mega church and the 700 club.
  
  Huh? There have always sects of Protestantism that were more conservative, but by-and-large Catholicism is against birth control, abortion, homosexuality (maybe not this pope, with homosexuality) but trans rights, priests marrying, women worship leaders, etc. Sure not one Protestant sect is going to allow everything, but growing up Catholic and then converting to Lutheranism they didn't have a problem with birth control, pastors having families and stuff.
  And that not mentioning the more liberal small churches that didn't had exceptions to everything.
  Don't get me wrong, they all have a long way to go still. They all teach we are all god's children but then immediately backpedal

It’s because Protestantism is the dominant form of Christianity in cultures where this language convention exists, and it is a deliberate tactic to other Catholics by labeling them non-Christian. Especially in previous times, Catholics were subject to large amounts of discrimination and antagonism by Protestants, and we’re still dealing with the remnants of this ideology today. I think the only reason it has subsided is the rise of secularism and other more foreign religions that are seen as a greater threat by Christians, forcing them into an uneasy alliance with their former enemies. But remember that tons of Christians used to murder each other over which sect they belonged to.
Interestingly, in Central America, the opposite convention exists, where you are either “Cristiano”, meaning Catholic, or “Evangelico”, meaning Protestant (usually Pentecostal). This is because the dominant group is reversed in that society.
Personally, I view Christianity, Islam, and Judaism as three branches of one religion since they are clearly very similar. But that is the view of an outsider.
- I view Christianity, Islam, and Judaism as three branches of one religion since they are clearly very similar. But that is the view of an outsider.
  nah, they're grouped together under the umbrella of "Abrahamic religions", and at least muslims regard the other two as "people of the book".
  obv your mileage may vary from person to person, I'm not saying the terrorist idiots don't call people infidel left right and center don't exist, but people who are a bit better than that generally see christians and jews as peers.
  
  Don’t forget the Baha’i, the Babs, and the Druze. Don’t know if they’re considered people of the book or not. Same with the Samaritan Israelites
- Don't forget Catholicism spent centuries converting with a sword and their missionairies destroyed all remnants of native cultures history once they were converted. That's an awful lot of discrimination from Catholics.
  
  Of course. This was written from the perspective of the English-speaking world, so I primarily focused on Protestant discrimination against Catholics, because that was the norm for several centuries. But as I alluded to in the last section, in predominantly Catholic areas, the situation was about the inverse and similar campaigns were waged against Protestants.

some sort of remnant of evangelical puritan protestant ideology?
Yes. It's weird.

Because some sects of Christianity (mostly Southern Baptist) are fucking insane and spiteful.

I can maybe understand it if they're talking about UUs. Speaking as one, we're not entirely sure what the hell we are either. We're in committee trying to figure that out.

</self_deprecating_joke>

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        Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!"
    He said, "Nobody loves me."
    I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?"
    He said, "Yes."
    I said, "Are you a Christian or a Jew?"
    He said, "A Christian."
    I said, "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?"
    He said, "Protestant."
    I said, "Me, too! What franchise?"
    He said, "Baptist."
    I said, "Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?"
    He said, "Northern Baptist."
    I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?"
    He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist."
    I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?"
    He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region."
    I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?"
    He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.
    I said, "Die, heretic!" And I pushed him over.

-Emo Philips

This is actually a shortened version of the original.

Hundreds of years of infighting
- Thousands really.
  
  Protestantism hasn't even existed for a thousand years. Heck, even the Great Schism between Eastern Orthodox and Romans Catholicism churches happened less than a thousand years ago (though that should become no longer true within our lifetimes).
- It's like progressives and liberals 1000 years from now
  
  If any of this recognizably lasts 1000 years I’ll have a better opinion of it, ancient egypt is still smirking at us

This might be a regional thing. At least in Germany, where the reformation took place, the term Christian include all groups, protestans, catholics, orthodox etc.
- In Austria, when people say "Christian", I'm convinced that 90% of people only think of the Roman Catholic Church. Even though the term includes all groups.
  
  Isn't it like that 90% of christians are actually Roman Catholics there?
- It's really a US thing. That's where most of the whacky religious stuff comes from these days.
- Most Catholic people in the mid 19th century in the Americas were imagrants or Mexican and considered non-white.

Catholics see themselves as the root form of Christianity that other versions forked from. Whilst it's not technically true, as there are many versions of Christianity that pre-date Catholicism, in most countries where the term "Catholics and Christians" is used, it's accurate enough

As an ex catholic who grew up near Protestant land, it’s because they don’t think of Catholics as Christians. Some think of them as more like Mormons, others more like Satanists. The plus side is that it was a great card to pull to these people when they proselytized. They’ll tell Protestants they need a better version of jesus, but Catholics scare them.
- Growing up in west Texas, I talked to one uber-Baptist who for some unfathomable reason believed that the Catholics "worship Mary", therefore they don't follow the "there is only one God" rule and therefore aren't Christian.
  
  Yeah. The Southern Baptist sect was literally founded on the belief that chattel slavery was a good and "godly" thing, it doesn't get better from there. A woman having any deference is pretty offensive to them (the woman's "place" being purely in service of the patriarch of the family, whether husband or father). Mary being venerated as a saint is pure anathema.
- I grew up protestant, this is 100% correct haha

As an American who was raised Lutheran, who was taught a bunch of Romance-Euro-centric world history in school, I always considered Roman Catholic to be the "default" flavor of Christianity. Protestantism in all of its forms are hard forks. It's in the name, even--the Roman Catholic church is what Protestants are "protesting".
To unironically "-and Zoidberg" Catholicism out of Christianity while leaving Protestant flavors included feels completely backwards. I've never heard anyone do it.
But if I did, I could only assume it was due to some No True Scotsman bullshit. "Only we practice the correct way. Everyone else isn't just interpreting it differently, but interpreting it wrong." Sounds like an Evangelical line of thought to me.

They have the next outgroup to eliminate lined up in case they run out of minorities to discriminate against.
- Catholics are one of America's og boogeyman. They used to fear the idea of a catholic president who could be influenced by the pope. I'm not sure when that went away.
  
  There was (manufactured?) outrage when Tony Blair converted after his premiership. I don't think the topic of the current UK prime minister's religion even came up when he was appointed. I guess that's progress.
  
  "The Pope is taking over!" - oligarchs probably
- Remember when Irish and Italians were dirty whites?
  Hate... finds a way.

Catholics are Christians, but Christians are not necessarily Catholic. For example, Orthodox Christians are not Catholic. Being Catholic requires, at the bare minimum, agreement with the Holy See and implicitly the dogma he endorses. Even this "minor" difference can be used to find non-Catholic Christians.
Precisely, Catholic ⊊ Christian.
The reason why this is the case has to do with the history of Christianity, specifically the various schisms throughout the ages as the Christian faith evolved. That's an incredibly complicated topic which I'm not qualified to discuss.
- Catholics are Christians, but Christians are not necessarily Catholic. For example, Orthodox Christians are not Catholic. Being Catholic requires, at the bare minimum, agreement with the Holy See and implicitly the dogma he endorses. Even this “minor” difference can be used to find non-Catholic Christians.
  I know that, but if you ask me, it's like saying Sunni and Muslim, one kinda emphasizes, if not "otherizes" (orientalize or occidentalize) the other... usually in a not good way...
  
  One kinda emphasizes, if not "otherizes" the other... usually in a not good way...
  Yeah. People have been killed over being Catholic in a non-Catholic Christian society and people have also been killed over being a non-Catholic Christian in a Catholic society.
  But that doesn't mean that we can't or shouldn't differentiate at all between the dogmas of Catholics and the wider practice of Christianity.
  (orientalize or occidentalize)
  I mean there are lots of non-Catholic Churches with European origins, for example Lutheranism and Anglicanism. So I think it's a bit more complicated than "otherizing" with respect to that specific dichotomy.

If you believe your religion is the only correct one, you'll make sure to distance yourself from other variants even of the same faith.
America is far from Europe and if there are people believing the US is the pinnacle of creation and Trump reincarnated Jesus himself, that phrase will eventually come up and stick

Jesse, WTF are you talking about
I've never heard the phrase Catholic and Christians before. Catholic vs Protestant maybe.
- I worked with a Southern Baptist guy who legitimately thought Catholic aren't real Christians.
  I have no idea how he thought Southern Baptism is somehow more Christian than the much much older version.
- Ketchup and condiments

I've never heard someone say this.
- It's a US thing
  
  I live in the US and have never heard someone say this

Cocaine and crack are different, technically, but they come from the same shit.
- That distinction comes from racism though, which is probably not too different than Catholics and Christians.
  
  The distinction between cocaine and crack does not have anything to do with racism. It has to do with the way the drug is processed and consumed.

because historically lumping protestants and catholics together has not ended well.

Discrimination and division are like 99% of what religion is about.

Catholics do a bunch of stuff other Christians think makes them not Christina.
The biggest one is the pope, catholic lore says the pope is the literal spokesperson for God on earth all other religions he doesn't have authority.
Idolatry: other Christian religions don't have a lot of images of saints or anybody other than christ and basically think catholics are wrong for worshipping Mary and saints on the same level as Jesus. Similarly it's the difference between catholic crucifixes (has the dead guy on them) vs regular crosses
Transubstantiation: according to catholic lore when the alter boy rings the bell that is LITERALLY the body and blood of christ you're eating. Pretty sure other religions think this is a step too far.
- Christina be cray
- other Christians think makes them not Christina.
  Love this typo.
- "You should not have an image if God"
  Literally just take "his" "son" and depict him as a white man. Lol.
- Ah this makes me nostalgic for my Religious Studies. I seem to remember there being similar differences between Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism.

I was raised evangelical protestant in the USA, at some point attending both Seventh-day Adventist and Pentacostal churches. My mother did not consider my Catholic grandparents to be Christians, based on her belief that one cannot be saved by confession/prayer to a saint or clergy instead of directly to Christ. As many other have said, this is not the mainstream definition.
- Protestants came about at the same time printing and reading became more common. People came to understand the bible better. They found that their local priest or Catholic church wasn't representing the bible very well. Some priests couldn't read and were just making it up.
  Catholics practice many things that go against the teachings in the bible. They worships false profits (saints, Mary, popes, etc). They practice religion with lots of ceremony and publicity. They also acted as gatekeepers to God, despite Jesus talking about having a personal relationship with God.
  The Catholic church was caught out and many people were unhappy with it. So they left it in protest. Hence protestant being used to describe these new enlightenment era Christians.
  A protestant would not think that leaving the Catholic church is abandoning God. They would have to see it as the right path to follow God. It's not consistent for a protestant to say they follow the teachings of Christ and the Catholic church is Christian. Any protestant saying Catholics are Christian hasn't put a great deal of thought into it. However, it would be appropriate for someone studying, categorising or discussing religions to call both Catholics and Protestant's Christians.
  There is also a long history of discrimination between Catholics and Protestants. Protestants country's retained more of their own wealth and political decision making. Protestantism was more successful in places where literacy was higher. Both these factors lead to protestant countries being wealthier, more prosperous and lead to earlier and more successful industrialisation. This created the situation that many people were immigrants from Catholic countries to protestant ones. Like today, they faced discrimination. The religious difference of the incoming immigrants heightened the conflict. This also made it easier for people in both religions to see it as separate and different.

Because religion is all about dividing people into arbitrary groups. Catholicism is a specific type of dogmatic Christian theology

You won’t find me using this dichotomy—I just use the blanket term “Assholes.”

Because America is built by non-catholic faiths composed of heretics that love to burn women alive, abusers that craft abusive personality cults in hills-have-eyes country, false prophet grifters who tell you god's gonna cure your terminal ilness if you help them get a private jet for their dogs, the hate-worshiping demons that blight the south 'evangelicals' that drive modern american politics, and misogynistic polytheistic pagans wearing the Christian mask while dressed in their weird underwear and tell you you're not allowed to drink coffee but monster energy drinks are a-okay, who all want to be acknowledged as the real Christian faith instead of being labeled as schismatic protestants and chose to go with the common moniker "catholics & christians" instead of "catholics and protestants"
- I mean a lot of Christianity in the US is like that, but I don't like you implying that there's another type of Christianity (presumably the one you believe in) that's so much better.
  
  Most of the Christianity outside the USA is not like that. Still bad, but way less bad.

I have never heard anyone say that. Presumably they say it because they don’t know any better.
- I was raised Catholic in a deeply Evengelical town. The little girls were saying out of the blue that I wasn't Christian. I was like 8, they were like 6. They were absolutely parroting what their parents said, there's no way the little girls I played with daily came up with that shit on their own, and since then I've noticed that's one of the "protestant culture" things that gets passed around in those circles and occasionally escapes. That Catholics aren't Christian because saints or whatever.
  They get all wound up about the "pagan" elements of Catholicism then turn around and worship their dollar bill golden idols. Hypocrites!
  But basically, Catholics get crapped on when there's no other minority around and they are tired of talking about Jewish folks.
  I don't practice, I'm atheist, but in the USA from a culture perspective Catholics aren't in the WASP good old boy group, even if you are otherwise white. And WASP types are happy to let you know it, although its less common than it was a few decades back.
  Biden being Catholic, and JFK before him, is basically a dog whistle to certain rightwing groups to make them lose their shit, it's just less obvious than, say, Obama being black esp if you don't have a family background that would expose you to that stuff.
  
  I’m aware of the history, but didn’t know it still lingered. Maybe it’s a regional thing. I haven’t run into this in the metropolitan Northeast or metropolitan West Coast regions. But also I’ve been atheist my whole life, so the topic has seldom come up.
- I grew up going to various Christian schools as a kid. While it wasn't a common viewpoint, I did hear of it from time to time.
  The reason behind it, to my knowledge, was that Catholic practices would often be significantly different from other denominations' practices. The biggest thing I can think of is the veneration of and praying to saints.
  
  The biggest thing I can think of is the veneration of and praying to saints.
  Which, ironically, is a core part of Abrahamic religions which was abandoned by Protestantism. I.e. Catholicism didn't add minor gods, Protestantism removed them.
  Fun fact: the "-el" at the end of all angel names (except Lucifer and Satan, I guess) means "god". Not as in "from god", but as in "the god of-".
- Me neither. Literally never seen or heard anyone say that.
  It sounds super weird.
  
  I'm guessing from the other comments in this thread that it's just a USA thing. Super weird.

We're talking about "orthodoxy" here. Wikipedia
In Christianity, one of the first creeds established was the Trinity; God is the one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. How that works is a mystery unlike anything existing, although we try to illustrate and make parallels.
This is a sharp dividing line for calling anything "Christianity."
Muslims honor Jesus as a prophet, but that does not make them christian, because they deny his deity. Mormons do not believe in only one god (ultimately), or in the Trinity as one, but instead separate see this link.
Both Catholics and Protestants believe in a true Trinity.
- Mormons think we are all going to be gods, and that God was once a man on some planet like we were, and therefore there are literally billions of gods out there. Our God just happens to be the one relevant to us.
  Source - Grew up Mormon, am not anymore
  
  Whoa. I need to talk to some Mormons
  
  Congrats on getting out!
- As a former Mormon, the Trinity issue always seemed like a bogus distinction. I'm sure you can find plenty of sects you would label "Christian" that also believe God the Father and Jesus are separate, distinct entities

The same can be asked about the Mormons. It’s Christians who have a weird obsession with deciding who gets to be Christian.
For me, if they believe in the divinity of Christ, they’re Christian.
- Yes, but no true ~~Scotsman~~ Christian...

Every US president has been Christian but only one has been Catholic. It is considered as a clear distinction in the US imo
- JFK and Biden makes 2
- Two now

I have to say, the conversations in this thread are both fascinating and informative, while being emblematic of the confusion division the question posed.
I find religion very interesting because it's intertwined with history, but in terms of living, atheism is so much easier.

just about every christian I know sees other sects and offshoots as a separate religion. it's very sneech-like.

Schism was the very first thing the Christian church learned to do.
- Christian was the case that they gave me

Because the Anglosphere was so xenophobic that even the Irish and Italians were too culturally exotic to them and thus demonized their entire belief system.

Catholics and Christians
The Orthodox:
- I've heard of them as just lumped in with Christian crowd so what gives?

Catholics believe in a religious hierarchy, Cardinals, bishops, Pope e.t.c.
Christians USUALLY think hierarchy in religion is almost blasphemous. But really it's just so they can kinda just do whatever the fuck they want and not worry about the Pope excommunicating them.

same shit different pile?

as someone that grew up in the South and was surrounded by evangelicals, Catholics were seen as weird/possibly satanic, depending on the person, and not really Christians because of the saints and Mary worship. They're polytheistic since they don't just focus on Jesus Christ.

Think of it as two different tribes
- Catholics and Protestants are two different tribes. They're all Christians.
  
  Yeah, but protestants in this country have such a historied animosity that catholics kind of ceded the term in certain contexts

I've heard "Protestants and Christians" too. It hasn't been that long really since some of them openly hated the other.

The Christians are just whiny Catholics. Protesting all day.

Platypuses and mammals.
Platypuses are mammals, but they're weird enough that you can't usefully generalise from them to anything else, to the point that lumping them in together could be actively misleading.
Same deal.
- Wait do you randomly drop "and platypuses" when you're talking about mammals??
  
  Kind Sir, please never drop a platypus. I thank you kindly.
  (Insert smirk for my dumb joke)
- Platypuses are mammals, but they’re weird enough
  We probably wouldn't consider them nearly as weird if they were more numerous than any other mammal species and lived all over the world. So their comparison to catholicism is weird.
- Platypuses are mammals, but they’re weird enough that you can’t usefully generalise from them to anything else, to the point that lumping them in together could be actively misleading
  I would argue that they're "lumpable" with other monotremes :)
  
  Sure. But monotremes are a subclass of mammal.

Catholic my nuts

You are correct, Catholics are a subset of Christianity... But similarly how people assume a "doctor" is a medical practitioner, Christians has become the informal name for "Protestant" or "evangelicals"
Basically "Christians" tend to mean, anything not "Catholic" (which is old school, visibly indistinguible from others in the Christendom)
- Basically "Christians" tend to mean, anything not "Catholic"
  This is insanity. This is a purely American thing.
- But if Eastern Orthodox counts as "Christian" while Catholicism doesn't, that destroys the reasoning. If Eastern Orthodox doesn't count, then you're just referring to Protestants.
  I don't think there's any explanation other than anti-Catholic bias, Protestants just want to claim their way of doing Christianity is the only way.
  
  I don't really know all the details dude... My answer was just based on observations I have made in America (north and south)
  I do not think Eastern Orthodox counts as "Christians" either btw
  In any case, there may be no logical reason as I believe it is just a matter of misuse of the terms... Exactly how an "American" is interpreted as "from the USA" and not "from any country in the American continent" which is actually the meaning
- Wow. Zero information.

Probably because depending on the context "Christians" is likely referring to "Protestants." There are some very significant differences between Catholic and Protestant Christianity, moreso than between Protestant denominations, whose differences tend to be a bit more trivial. Other comments make some good points, but it is not too far of a stretch to say that Catholicism may be different enough to be considered a separate religion (I don't know who gets to draw these lines). But in the most technical sense, yes, Catholics are a subset of Christians.
- Catholicism may be different enough to be considered a separate religion
  I believe what you mean to say is that Protestant sects would be considered a separate religion, as Catholicism far predates other sects.
  
  All Catholics are Christians, but not all Christians are Catholics. They are a subset by definition.

LDS people will also consider themselves christians but protestants dont like that lol
- Protestants don't like anything. Especially sex.

They mean Catholics and Protestants but they're morons and their religious leaders have convinced them that Catholics are somehow not Christians.

Catholics aren't Christians by many definitions, it is a different religion.
- That is totally new to me.
  Can you give me one or two of those many definitions for my understanding?
  
  Many protestant churched consider themselves churches of Christ, Catholicism is the church of Paul, and isn't strictly monotheistic, trinitarianism and unitarianism aside. They pray to beings other than God as a matter of course. Anglicanism and Orthodox are the same religion as Catholicism. Most of the protestant churches are not. Then you have stuff like Mormons and Jehovahs Witnesses which are a different thing again, if you call those Christian, then Islam is Christian (Jesus is an important prophet in Islam) but no one would say that.
- Roman Catholic is the original Church, so you tell me
  
  Fucking bingo dude. The original church was Catholic*. The Christian church came later.
- I might quibble about the Catholic Church being the "original" church since Catholicism only came about after Theodosius I made Christianity the official religion of the Roman state in 380. You could argue that Catholicism started a bit earlier under Constantine I at the First Ccouncil of Nicaea in 325, which is when the Roman state started to consolidate the various early Christian beliefs under an official "catholic" orthodoxy. The word "catholic" literally means "including a wide variety of things". The point being that there was already a wide variety of Christian sects prior to the Council of Nicaea.
  The Protestant argument against Catholicism boils down to the belief that the Catholic Church is a corrupted Christianity, not that it is non-Christian. And there is some truth to that. The pre-Nicaean churches were free-wheeling spiritualists with a wide variety of beliefs, but that all changed when the Roman state decided to create an orthodox, singular religion under its control. Protestants argue that this adaptation of religious belief to the needs of maintaining state power is the original corruption of the Catholic Church.
  Now, two key facts influenced the early history of Roman Catholicism:
  The Roman state recognized the descendants of Caesar, the Emperors, as the Pontifex Maximus, or head priest, of the Roman state. They also required that everyone adhere to the cult of the Emperor. This was purely ritualistic and was meant as a bulwark to the power of the state.
  The vast majority of the Empire's citizens were pagan.
  Because of #1, the Roman Emperor became the head of the newly formed Catholic Church, which was a unification of Church and State. This is called Caesaropapism, and is also why the Catholic Church retains a hierarchical structure to this day and its seat is still located in the heart of the Western Roman Empire. The Pope is the spiritual successor of the Western Roman Emperor.
  Because of #2, Catholicism is highly ritualistic, like paganism, and early Catholicism adopted the worship of saints, which are basically small gods. Saint worship was the bridge between paganism and Christianity.
  During the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, Luther and others made the point that the union of state power with Christianity was a corruption of "original" pre-Catholic Christianity, which was more spiritually-oriented and valued personal conviction over state orthodoxy. Interestingly, the split between Protestantism and Catholicism in Europe also more or less follows the geographic outline of the Western Roman Empire, with southern Europe largely retaining Catholicism and northern Europe largely adopting Protestantism. This implies a political dimension to the schism, not just a religious one. England is the odd man out here because their response to the schism was to create the Church of England, which is basically Catholicism without the Pope, substituting the English monarch as the head of the Church and toning down the saint worship.
  The great irony of any Protestant movement that craves Christo-fascist state power is that they are advocating to become the very evil they swore to destroy back in the 1500s.
- Care to share these definitions?

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