True enough. I've been in Protestant churches where people would have fits about anthems with a Latin text - too Catholic, you know - and where any kind of artwork in the sanctuary was considered offensive. I've been in Protestant churches where it was actively taught that the Anti-Christ would appear in the form of a Catholic Pope. I've also been in Protestant churches where it became a real hot button topic whether it was okay to put a Christmas tree in the sanctuary and where a pastor could get in real trouble voicing any environmental concerns because environmentalism is synonymous with paganism.The thing about Protestantism is that it is frequently dictated by a reactionary attitude towards Catholocism. So anything that smacks of the Catholic church is immediately removed, since it was presumed that the "pagan" element is what led the the first church to corruption. So, incense... that's too pagan for the protestants, so it's got to go.
It's that simple. That's where all these paganesque things in the bible actually went from the Protestant perspective.
I've also attended a church, though, where live greenery and Christmas trees were always put up in a rather ceremonial manner on the winter solstice and where the All Saints service could have doubled as a Samhain service with just a slight adjustment of wording. In that church, a mainline denomination BTW, I was fairly certain that the female pastor was a practicing Christian witch. Like I said, it's hard to make any sweeping statements about Christianity because there's such a huge difference among churches.
