1. Why do those terms offend you?
They do not offend just me - they are considered offensive by the vast majority of all Catholics. Just like the "n" word is offensive to the vast majority of people of color (as it is to me too). Words mean things.
2. As a Catholic who is so easily offended,
I am not easily offended at all. I am actually very thick-skinned. But that doesn't mean we should not be civil with each other. If a person of color objects to the use of a racial slur, would you also accuse them of being "easily offended"? Why do you attempt to defend the indefensible?
who asserts that a particular group of people should not converse with Catholics,
What I am saying is that if you can't play nice with others, then you should not play at all. Using an offensive slur is not playing nice. And if you don't know that it is a slur in the first place, then you run the risk of hurting others (unintentionally) like a bull in a china shop. It is better to learn something about the people you are trying to converse with first before you put your foot in your mouth.
what business do you have in this forum conversing with a group of people your faith has anathematized,
Anathematizations apply to very few people on this board. First of all, you have to already be a Catholic in communion with the Church, and you have to knowingly, willfully, and obstinantly disobey the Church before any level of culpability is applied. Is that you? I highly doubt it. Who is being easily offended now?
and at best refers to us as "separated bretheren?"
That is not a negative term. It acknowledges a reality: we are not in full communion, but we are still brethren who are imperfectly joined due to our shared union with the grace of Christ. But if you don't want to be called that - fine. I wouldn't hold it against you or presume to tell you what you should find offensive or not.
And, I'm sure you wouldn't understand why a person not of your faith would be offended by being labeled "Protestant" instead of their particular faith like Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran.
Actually I do understand. I spent over 40 years of my life as a Methodist...with a very large extended family of "Bible Christian" Evangelicals. I get it. And whenever someone says they don't like the term Protestant - I am more than happy to accomodate their request and I don't try to make them feel badly for it.
I have my beliefs and opinions as do you, sorry if you find them offensive.
I am not offended by your beliefs or opinions. But I am offended when people use religious slurs...words that are commonly known to be slurs...and I should not be forced to permit others to use them in my presence - especially at a place with a stated mission of Christian ecumenism.
Oh, and BTW, I've done my homework, lot's and lot's of it.
If you have done your homework, then why are you unaware that those words are offensive to Catholics???
You know, if that's where we wanted to be, that's where we'd be. If that was the type of conversing we wanted to participate in, that's where we'd be.
I wasn't suggesting that anyone go to those places to participate...I suggested that if you go there you will see that "frothing-at-the-mouth" sort of anti-Catholics use those words all the time - and they use them as weapons because they know how hateful those words are...just like people in the KKK will intentionally use racial slurs in public.
Have you ever visited OBOB?
What do you think? Of course I have. I spent a year as the Catholic Affairs Director when Erwin owned this board.
Because, we are often mocked and scoffed at there. (Or there was a day. Don't know about now. I quit visiting the forum when my blood pressure started shooting up.)
OBOB members are supposed to be held to the same standards as any other Congregational Forum. If they use a slur against another group of people, then report it. And, btw, there are plenty of hateful things said against Catholicism in almost every other forum at CF. Intentional use of slurs should be stopped across-the-board.
Why? 
Why are words like "Romish" considered a slur by Catholics? I thought you did your homework. If you did - you would know the answer to that question. The short answer is that it is commonly intended as an insult by the very people who most often use it. Why is the "n" word considered a slur? Because it is commonly intended as an insult by the very people who most often use it. When people who are known rabid bigots (of any variety, whether it be racial or religious or whatever) use certain terms when referring to those they despise...and when the people who are objects of that derision never ever use those terms when speaking of themselves...it's a pretty good clue that the bigotted person is using terms that are, objectively speaking, offensive slurs. And just to be clear here...I am just speaking IN GENERAL - I am
NOT calling anyone in this thread a bigot.
So, then have you completely stopped using the term Protestant?
That depends on who I am talking to. There are plenty of people who PREFER to be called Protestant. To most people in the Reformed category the word is considered perfectly fine. If that is what they want to be called - I will call them that. If someone dislikes the term - I will never call them that. I have ZERO problem with people telling me what they prefer to be called. In fact, I prefer it when they tell me how best to address them in a way that they will find respectful. Why should I presume to tell others what they should or should not find offensive or what they should or should not call themselves?
If one is offended, then by your logic as you assert about yourself and the rest of the Catholic Church, all are most likely offended.
Not at all. Catholics are one group - so it is natural that "all" Catholics would be offended by terms that are COMMONLY known to be religious slurs used as weapons by rabid anti-Catholics.
But non-Catholic Christians (whether you call them Protestant or not) are not one group...they are diverse and distinct. So what is offensive to one group may be acceptable to another group. And if I know that one group has a preference for what they want to be called - then I will gladly accept their wishes without problem.
What is so wrong with being respectful?
And, why in the world is the word "popish" offensive?
Why is the "n" word offensive?
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