Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: polemikos
As you stated in post 29:

a diverse and increasingly vocal movement called "queer theology" will create an impact on Christianity matching that of the century Protestant Reformation.

Sola Scriptura Bump.

Your implication, which several other posters stated more clearly, is that the doctrine of sola Scriptura is the prime cause of historically Protestant, but now apostate, denominations such as the Episcopal Church, USA, selecting bishops that are open, unrepentant homosexuals.

It is inaccurate to assign to apostate churches, such as the Episcopal Church, USA, the doctrines of the Reformation because they have abandoned them. The liberal churches are bereft of belief in the validity of Scripture, tradition, and, in some cases, even common sense. If you were to carry your concept to the next level, Roman Catholicism could be blamed for the problems of liberal "Protestant" churches because they derive from churches and clergymen that once recognized Papal authority. Some Eastern Orthodox theologians believe that the assertion of the Pope as supreme arbiter over Scripture and tradition led to the assertion of Luther, et. al. that every man could be his own "Pope."

The primary enemy of the Catholic Church and of all orthodox Christianity is secular humanism in all its guises. Its roots go back to the Enlightenment, which was in part a reaction to both the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-reformation. The most violent eruption of this secular humanism occurred during the French Revolution, in an historically Catholic nation from which the Protestants had been driven over a century earlier. In modern times, the worst persecutions the Catholic Church underwent were from anticlerical, leftist governments in historically Catholic nations like Mexico and Spain, as well as from the Communist regimes of the USSR and its satelites.

One can dwell on Protestant horror stories from Foxe's Book of Saints and Martyrs against Catholic ones from Butler's Lives of the Saints. One can dwell on the evils of Cromwell vs. those of Torquemada or the courage of Gustavus Adolphus vs. that of Thomas More. However, the bottom line is that these 16th and 17th Century conflicts are basically irrelevant to that of the 20th and 21st Centuries. To resurrect Old Right language, it is Christ vs. Communism.

57 posted on 11/25/2003 2:13:33 PM PST by Wallace T.
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies ]


To: Wallace T.
It is inaccurate to assign to apostate churches, such as the Episcopal Church, USA, the doctrines of the Reformation because they have abandoned them.

Really? I thought sola scriptura, being perhaps the key foundational doctrine of the Protestants, is just as important to these apostate movements. Both rely on the same foundational principle.

If you were to carry your concept to the next level, Roman Catholicism could be blamed for the problems of liberal "Protestant" churches because they derive from churches and clergymen that once recognized Papal authority

Two different and mutually exclusive principles. The argument is fallacious.

The primary enemy of the Catholic Church and of all orthodox Christianity is secular humanism in all its guises. Its roots go back to the Enlightenment, which was in part a reaction to both the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-reformation.

"The spirit of lawlessness came in with the Reformation, and Liberalism is its offspring."
- John Henry Cardinal Newman

One can dwell on Protestant horror stories...the bottom line is that these 16th and 17th Century conflicts are basically irrelevant

I agree totally. Why did you bring them up?
58 posted on 11/25/2003 2:40:07 PM PST by polemikos
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson