Posted on 03/01/2013 11:10:24 AM PST by RobertSouthwell
As the papal helicopter left the Vatican as Pope Benedict XVI’s tenure came to an end Thursday, the chattering heads on the news channels focused on the sex scandals as a challenge for the next pope. Sex sells, clearly, but chatterers are missing a huge (not sexy) story: The growth of Protestantism in South America.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibtimes.com ...
Any thing more or less than Jesus is adulterated.
I’m glad somebody has picked up on this topic. I hear about it frequently from a friend in Brazil. Protestant Evangelical churches are making HUGE inroads amongst the young populations of South America. Mainly because they preach the Good News in a joyful manner and in simple language that can be understood and which the people relate and respond to.
By contrast Benedict’s wish for a smaller, more insular church expressing itself with arcane pre-Vatican II language
would have a very difficult time keeping up.
The problem is that the Catholic Church adopted the mainline Protestant model (ricebowl Christianity, with varying degrees of Marxism) combined with a bit of Pentecostalist Protestantism. This meant that these “Christians” would hang out until they got disenchanted with their latest pastor and then were approached by Muslims.
I read several years ago (sorry, I don’t remember where) that the largest Muslim convert group in Latin America is former Evangelical Christians. They are very personally oriented, much more so than Catholics, and if they suddenly decide they don’t like that person or if there is a change in leadership, they abandon the whole project.
And the Muslims are waiting.
I'm surprised to hear that. There's a distaste for Islam verging on hatred among evangelicals. Moving to Islam would be a real flip-flop. Unlike Catholics, evangelical Christians don't want to co-exist with Islam - they want to replace it.
That’s hot, blame non-Catholics for problems within the Catholic church.
The problem with the Catholic church is that it has lost credibility due in-part to its prolific pedophile problem and unwillingness to acknowledge or do anything about it.
Many of the same Cardinals who protected pedophiles will be electing the next pope.
I have read what Benedict/Ratinger wrote years ago about the Churhc being stripped of every worldly benefit and conducting itself as it did before it had any earthly power. Smaller, simpler, closer to the ground, purer.
This was not a call to "arcane pre-Vatican II language." It was a call to the Gospels.
I have read what Benedict/Ratinger wrote years ago about the Churhc being stripped of every worldly benefit and conducting itself as it did before it had any earthly power. Smaller, simpler, closer to the ground, purer.
This was not a call to "arcane pre-Vatican II language." It was a call to the Gospels.
I see that the mainstream media liars have done their work well. You are just as likely to have been molested by your neighbor at large as by a priest. Much more likely to have been molested by a public school teacher. What I say is well documented. You do yourself a disservice parroting the rants of a bunch of anti-Catholic bigots. I hope you are better than that.
“Don’t blame Catholics, everyone rapes children!” - Typical Catholic apologist response
Neither my neighbor or public school teacher have proclaimed to be the light of the world, or the one universal church.
actually, the problem is that too many in south American clergy preached liberation theology and marxism...and so folks preferred to find jesus elsewhere.
This is similar to the drought in many American Catholic diocese: dryness from lack of faith among the clergy, and indeed often a low grade persecution of “renewal” groups that were not PC (One diocese where I lived discouraged the Marian prayer groups and the charismatic fellowships in the church, whitewashed beautiful murals and threw out statues, while ignoring the gay friendly priests and new age nuns who preached liberation theology and enneagrams to our children.)
Another reason is that it is a “folk” religion, i.e. grass roots outreach in the slums and among business folk, who want rules on how to cope with modern life. Catholicism in many countries still is embedded in village traditions which no longer exist in our cities.
Actually, going back to a church that emphasizes Jesus will be the answer. Benedict stressed emphasis on the worship of God at mass, not “celebrating ourselves”...
I love the Pentecostals, but too often they have a shallow theology, and often give easy answers to the hard questions of life.
And when you grow up, you need something stronger than spiritual milk...
did it ever occur to you that the sins were partly because “wolves” seeking out coverage of being a sheep (sexual predators often seek jobs as teachers, clergy, boyscout leaders etc. and often “marry” to cover up their predelections and divert suspicion)...and for some men struggling with same sex attraction, the devil attacked men in their weakness to seduce older teens (and if you check, most of the “abuse” cases were of older boys, not children).
A lot of this has it’s roots in the 1980’s: Since ten percent of psychiatrists have sex with their patients (usually but not always heterosexual) they were part of the establishment that encouraged “treatment” not arrest. Heck, Newsweek even had an article saying that “experts” said incestuous pedophiles of their daughters should not be arrested, because it would break up the family, and California “pioneered” outpatient treatment of these “non violent sexual offenders”...
as for pedophilia: A recent CDC survey of teenagers show 5 percent of heterosexual and 20 percent of “homosexual” teenagers said they “had intercourse” below age 13.
There is a lot more going on than you think, but it’s more common among minority and poor teens. When I worked on the Indian reservations, many of our guys in AA had been molested: True, some were molested in “residential schools” but most of them attended the local high school, and commuted,(i.e. abused by family members or friends of the parents)...
Later, when one of our students shot a couple of his fellow students, and it made me wonder who molested him before his grandfather took him from his dysfunctional home to raise...
Again, “Don’t blame Catholics, everyone rapes children!” - Typical Catholic apologist response
no, everybody doesn’t rape children.
But there are a lot of sick people out there, and making the church the scapegoat ignores the scope of the problem.
As the only female doc in town, I’ve seen a lot of abuse cases, but most of them were obviously in girls. But I do remember when California became “progressive” enough to treat their “non violent” abusers as outpatients: the perverts from California would drive up the interstate and try to seduce our children.
The sexual revolution and the psychologists who “encouraged” sex in young teens and trained psychologists and social workers not to report the cases are one of the major part of the problem, but has gotten a pass from the media.
Maybe you should ask yourself why you hate one billion plus catholics so much. I’ll pray for you.
I don’t hate Catholics.
I hate pedophiles and the leaders and organizations that protect them.
It’s the church that is ignoring the problem.
By the way, where is Cardinal Law? Cardinal Mahony? Cardinal Bertone?
All of the protected pedophiles, how many will cast votes to elect the new pope?
Good. Three out of a hundred Cardinals. Hate the rest of them, including those who in the last 50 years died for their faith.
So I think Cardinal Law is an A———? Yes, but I also think several of the bishops who have been killed for opposing criminals/human rights abuses etc. are part of the church too.
The last year I worked in one African country, we lost 32 missionaries of various churches to attacks: including one doctor, six nuns, five priests, one bishop...most of whom I knew.
so do I judge the church on a few people I read about in the press, or do I judge it from people I actually know?
What’s a few pedophiles among friends?
You really don’t get it do you?
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