Catholic/Protestant differences

In a post on January 10, Tom gives the doctrine of purgatory as something that divides Catholics from Protestants. I wonder if it might depend on how purgatory is understood. Hans Kung in Eternal Life argues that purgatory is best understood not as a place or a length of time, but an aspect of the final judgment. That is, everyone (virtually everyone?) comes before God in less than a pure state. Purgatory according to Kung is an aspect of the encounter with God after death. Such an encounter with God will be humiliating and painful, but the encounter "judges and purifies, but also liberates and enlightens, heals and completes man." Kung refers to the "wrath of God's grace" as the essence of purgatory. I wonder if this conception of purgatory is acceptable to Protestants? To Catholics? I also wonder about another purported difference between Catholics and Protestants put forth by writers who eloquently discuss the Catholic imagination. The argument is that Catholics are predisposed to see God's grace operating  in the world while Protestants are more pessimistic, seeing a sinful world. I wonder if this is overinclusive and underinclusive on both sides.  But I do think it is a strong part of Christianity to see the workings of God in the world though Christians can, of course, disagree.

In this connection, I do not see the absence of Christian themes in the recent wave of Hollywood movies. The film about Capote is less about a jet setter going to the heartland than it is about the profound evil of among other things withdrawing financial support for a capital defendant in order to further a book project. Or more generally, even great artistic endeavors do not justify treating a human being as an object. In Brokeback Mountain, I agree that I would be in the minority (of millions) in seeing love between men (expressed sexually) as a Christian theme, but the film also shows the harm of adultery flowing from that relationship. Moreover, it exposes the ugly side of prejudice. Exposing the complexity of the human relationships in that film is a testimony to the value of truth. So, of course, more directly is the film about Edward R. Murrow which testifies in favor of truth against corporate greed. I could go on, but I will say this. I do worry that American television glorifies violence and promotes a materialist, hedonistic, sexist, consumer culture; many American movies can also be condemned. But there are often important themes consistent with the Christian tradition that are promoted by Hollywood, and, from that perspective, I think this has been an outstanding year.