and they'll know we are Christians by our?

This has been rolling around in my brain (nothing there to stop it, you know) since last night.

I was having a conversation with a coworker and she mentioned that she was going to a church in a neighboring town. I am familiar with this church - it is the closest thing that we have to a "mega-church" around here. Knowing that her family was Catholic, I asked her how her mom felt about this. She told me that her mom, being Catholic, did not like Christians.

Say WHAT?

I told her that Catholics are Christians - that we were the 1st Christians, you know, what with Christ starting the Church and all that. She kept saying that Christians are Christians and Catholics are Catholics. I pointed out that it is kind of like dirt - all mud is dirt but not all dirt is mud. All Catholics are Christian but not all Christians are Catholic.

So, I was talking to my husband at lunchtime and he had just had the same conversation with the burrito lady last Friday. My husband is a fairly recent convert to Catholicism and is choosing to observe the Friday fast that we all used to observe. Anyway, he asked for his burrito without meat and she asked why. He told her that he was Catholic and it was Friday. She said that she was surprised - she had always thought that he was a Christian.

Say WHAT?

So, here's what I finally figured out. Everyone I know who is Christian but not Catholic is a Protestant. I don't know when this word fell out of favor but that is what non-Catholic Christian denominations are called - Protestants. So maybe instead of identifying themselves as Christian they should identify themselves as Protestant. That way, all of us would know that they are Christian but not Catholic.

I would just like for EVERYONE to know that when I say that I am Catholic, it is a given that I am a Christian.