Sadly, I've found that what
we find important, like worshiping Our Lord, honoring the Holy Mother, honoring those who've set a good example before us (our cloud of witnesses), believing in prayer for "the dead" (who, even by
their edited Catholic Scriptures are in fact not "dead", as God is not God of the dead but of the living) — the very most basic tenets of the Holy Faith — is in fact what turns off most Protestants from the One and Only Faith.
They can clamor and whine about statue worship all they want (they have uninspired "pictures" of Jesus "hanging out" with cartoon kids, or featured in black velvet hanging in their living rooms, or on their t-shirts) — it's not "image worship", or that we "buy our way into Heaven", and all their other excuses they say that makes them think we're going to Hell. Mostly, what
truly turns them off is the actual Faith. The cross with a corpus on it
disgusts them (which is why I wear at least a crucifix always).
I hate to say it, but
they don't read the edited Catholic Scriptures that they thump. (Or they cherry pick.) They thump, but where is their priest to whom they confess? Where is that priest's holy oil for healing? Where are their entreaties for intervention for their dearly departed brethren (even the Anglicans had that at one point)? They respond to John 6
just as +Jesus prophesied that unbelievers would (that it's "gross", silly, or
worse). So what kind of excuse will they have on that day of their Judgement, when they claim to believe their edited Catholic Scriptures, but don't even know, much less follow, their edited Scriptures? (Much less would they have a priest to answer for them, as mentioned in St. Paul's epistle to the Hebrews!)
I find it very distressing. I don't argue with them, but I say something and move on (I'm a real "dust off the feet" sort): "Here's YOUR edited Catholic Scriptures: why doesn't your religion follow even that?!" (It used to be simply female leaders; now it's the Sodomite "marriage" evil they claim to disagree with, but still curse the Church for "archaic beliefs" or whatnot.)
Very distressing. I don't get it. Yes, a lot of people think I'm going to Hell for wearing a crucifix, or wearing my hair covered, or genuflecting as I pass a Church, because I don't have "faith" and charismatic experiences. Not to be cold, but their opinions about my eternal fate don't bother me. That they can't see what's right before them,
that bothers me.