If they are only nominally Christian how is it they have many Catholic values and beliefs? Most of my faith is based on what Protestants taught me.I know they are wrong about being saved but I mean the other stuff, like how to live, prayer, morals, things like that.
I didn't say they are only nominally Christian. Maybe I'm using the wrong word. I don't mean to say that they are Christian in name only, because they often have Baptism and other beliefs and practices that are Christian.
What I mean to say is that they take the name Christian, but because they are not (visibly) members of the Church, they are not true Christians.
It is a problem of semantics and degrees. There are two approaches, the exclusive approach (no benefit of the doubt, which is safe but not useful outside Trad circles) and the inclusive approach (benefit of the doubt). Which is right? When I need to make the distinction, it's solved by using the term Catholic as opposed to Christian, but even now we have to say Traditional Catholic because of the mess of the NO Church.
It is recognized that a valid Baptism confers the possibility of salvation and provides partiality of membership to the Catholic Church, at least at its first moment. But Jesus and the Popes have taught that there is more than that required to have eternal life.
I don't like saying that Protestants aren't Christians because it closes the door in most cases to being a useful apologist with them. They are heretics, so the path their soul is on is pretty clear cut. Do we need to worry about this distinction? After all, we don't formally call ourselves Christian but Catholic, since we know that the word Christian lacks precision.
We aren't calling them Saints, after all!