Kondrisack 1

Samantha Kondrisack
Professor Joseph Parot
History 364
October 12, 1996

Protestants and Catholics in America:
Historical Tensions and Efforts Toward Religious Unity

When America was being discovered, many of the people brought their beliefs over from Europe and other countries. People tried to educate the natives and have them convert. People needed to have their belief flourish so it that there would be a chance for their religion to survive. Among several different groups of people and their religions trying to gain the largest following, many ideas and people collided. This collision began many years of protests, fighting and wars. There was much tension toward many religious groups but there was a strong opposition between Protestants and Catholics.

Protestants and Catholics view many beliefs in the same light but there are beliefs that separated these two groups. There were beliefs that separated Protestants from each other, but most of them began their beliefs protesting against Catholicism. Protestants were not developed in America. For Protestants,"Europe was the original scene of operations. The opening event was a movement that today goes by the name of Protestant Reformation."(Nuesner, 1994, p37) Catholic groups have their own reformations but for Protestants this was the beginning of their journey. The Reformation began because there were many leaders who did felt, Catholics were operating in immoral ways. Actually, Protestantism was a branch of western Christianity, the branch that opposed the Pope. Many people were concerned with trying to revise the ways of teaching the Church. Many Protestants shared most of the same belief as most Catholics. Since there were many different divisions of Protestants it is difficult to refer to Protestants as a whole, who agreed or disagreed with Catholics. Therefore, when comparing