Mrs. Don-o,
there is no other poster on here that I have more respect for than you. I admire your intellect and Christian patience.
you have read MM for a long time, as well as I.
did you seriously expect her to correctly state doctrine correctly?
we all know the agenda, don’t we?
let’s get real!
There's no healthy dialog, let alone debate, if the participants waste their time throwing roundhouse punches against something the other side didn't even say, doesn't teach and doesn't hold as true.
I don't mind a person raising honest points against Catholic doctrines. But what is more tiresome than a person who is regularly arguing with a cardboard cut-out or refuting a cartoon?
In terms of effectiveness, you will never make the least impression on somebody if you are critiquing a "doctrine" which they themselves do not recognize. You have to state it, first, in terms which hey can recognize, terms to which they can respond, "Yes, that's it. That's what I believe."
Without that, the whole thing is pointless.
After all these years, think of how much we could have learned, and how much better we would understand one another, if we had spent our time carefully listening to what the other person actually believes, speaking from the heart? How you could have edified me!
I regret so much wasted time ---God, forgive me! --- because time is the most precious thing God has given us: time, moments, months, years, in which to know Him, love Him, and serve Him in this world, and learn along the way to love one another.
we all know the agenda, don’t we?
let’s get real!
The best thing to do is to tell the bigots; "You are wrong", "This is not true", or something to that affect, and move on. If you give them any more than it is a spring board for more ignorant rants.
These threads quickly dissolve into "We hate Mary", "Catholics are pagans", etc.. and then go on for 2000 + posts.