I had a friend in High School who was what I would call “nominally Catholic.“ He went to mass primarily because that’s what his family did. He wasn’t anti-Catholic by any means, but neither was he zealously devoted. I haven’t seen him in over forty years.
Occasionally we would discuss religious topics. I was Southern Baptist and he teased me - as good teenaged buddies are so prone to do - about being a rebel (because I was a Protestant, at the time.) When he did, I’d raucously whistle Dixie and, sometimes, dance a jig. We would both laugh hysterically and then move on to something else. (Teenage immaturity on full display.)
He reserved his best shot for the non-denominational, quipping that they “rebelled against the rebellers.” (Sounds to the teenage ear like something akin to Samson’s riddle.)
So what’s the point of me sharing that old teenage tragicomedy?
In the view of my young Catholic friend, Protestants were dechurched (having departed from the Catholic Church) and non-denominationals were dechurched (having departed from the Protestant Church).
I thought it was brilliant, at the time. But consider this, if the non-denominational person retains Protestant doctrine when he / she leaves a denominational Protestant church wouldn’t the person still in fact be Protestant? Just a further splintering of an already splintered body and another step in that long tradition.
Protestants are dechurched? I bought into that idea when I was a teen, and sometimes - late at night or early in the morning - it vexed me. It doesn’t any longer, and hasn’t since I was a teen.
I’m neither Catholic nor Protestant (nor non-denominational, for those who might embrace that old teenage tomfoolery). Dechurched? I don’t think so but, if I were a betting man, I would wager the farm that it wouldn’t be difficult to locate Catholics and Protestants (and non-denominationals, for those who embrace that old teenage tomfoolery) who wouldn’t hesitate to place me in that category.
Echos of the Anabaptist movement, of which my [Christian] faith is easily traced on the road leading back to Jerusalem.