To repeat, all Protestants and Anabaptists have Catholic roots.
The inadvertant P+A founders didn’t want to leave Catholicism. They wanted to correct errors.
Questioning the Catholic Church, mostly by studied, literate Catholic monks+priests wasn’t at all new to the mid-1500’s.
The Gutenberg Press was new. It was the vehicle that made the greatest impact.
Laurell:
I think that it really depends on the degree of catabolism you were raised with.
I ask every single patient about religious affiliation, and I get a lot of people who described being raised Catholic but then identify as non-practicing.
If I prod further, a lot of them describe the Catholic faith being formative to them in many ways.
In these cases, I don't think it necessarily shapes their faith, but it's more like growing up in a house with 1 parent vs 2, growing up in the city vs the suburbs... it's just a descriptor that shapes you in own way or another,
and people use the fabric patches of their life to explain the quilt they are today.
This is a good description. It paints a picture of what you see IRL.
i see all of this, and a bit more.
my dear sil works in a very hep industry in So Cal. very hep.
“cool” is a very important word in these young men’s/people’s lives, altho they are in their advancing 40’s, a lot of U.S. culture swims in age/maturity denial. (has anyone noticed?) sometimes i’m tempted to suggest he’s used his lifetime supply of the word, he needs to find an alternate. i restrain myself. [sorry. my view of “cool” is a bunny trail.] where was i? .. .. Catholicism.
he was raised Catholic. he insisted on Catholicism for (their) child. we complied.
not easy for me. i was raised in a family staunchly against Catholicism, without explanation. of anything.
i’ve more recently learned my family history is mostly Protestant, with Quakers, Huguenots, Anabaptist, fringe Mormons, some Catholics, going back far enough, Charlemagne. i’ve read, probably most Western Europeans could find a connection to Charlemagne, including members here. 2 or 3 others here have found their link to him. Which may mean “most” here.
i was definitely raised with some Anabaptist beliefs, not stated as such. probably Quakers, too.
no infant baptism. adult baptism. reject politics, political bandwagons. military was a sober topic. value all stages life.
there were so many unspoken messages, i suspected Anabaptist roots, but only recently confirmed them.
i wish my parents+grandparents were here; boy, would i have questions for them!
(i think) unspoken messages are handed down through generations, like batons in relay races. some are intentional, not all.
i hold to the belief men should be leaders in their families. so. when my dear sil chose Catholicism, i thot it best for my daughter to comply. she was less hesitant than i. she didn’t have the direct messages i did from her grandmothers. in our family’s case, her husband made the decision - yet, doesn’t live by it! my daughter is fairly ambivalent, maybe resentful. my granddaughter is happy in her faith, altho public school has her questioning plenty now.
i’m a grateful visitor, grateful my granddaughter has a chance to hear Truth, in an utterly fallen pagan world.
i believe men are leaders in their families, whether they choose to be/want to be or not, or whether they are good leaders or not.
i believe it’s a God-designed phenomena, whether recognized, chosen, or not. [yet another topic.]
he uses Catholicism now+then as part of his identity? i honestly can’t detect much of a pattern. he once told my daughter he likes Catholicism because, “it’s like a club not everyone can get into.” (she picked him, i didn’t.)
i admire him in many ways. he’s a moral person, loyal, he supports his family, so many good qualities. truly.
from what i can tell, his friends at work are much the same. many good qualities. likely most came from Christian homes.
they unite in rejection of Catholicism, for sure! but Christianity, in general, too. for all the lib “national narrative” reasons, homosexuality, abortions, feminism, et al. they’re cool, definitely “with it.” i.e., with the (one lib) national narrative.
i’m bothered they do not give credit where credit is due.
they are certain they are good moral beings - in+of themselves.
i believe this boils down to worship of self as god. today’s rampant paganism. i must be patient.
i believe they deceive themselves and there will be a price. i pray for eyes to be opened.
i have spent my life listening to people who were raised in Christian homes deny it affected them, while taking full credit for whatever goodness may be in them as “their personal choice” springing up in them just because they’re so intrinsically awesome.
no one “just sprang out of nowhere,” just because they don’t know where.
I've heard the bicycle story from several people, although I am not quite sure if it was your family or one of our ministry's families. One might say it's a good account, if only for the epicness of it. 
I think my favorite verified account is about a certain cousin of yours who was pulling his sister's pigtail giggling, and his sister cried, telling the teacher that he was saying, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might!" 
