Does the Christian Coalition include Catholic parishes? Are any Catholic bishops involved?
As one who grew up a Catholic in a small town in Alabama, I find this story interesting but not particularly surprising.
There were several churches in our town - needless to say - and ours was not viewed any differently than the others, as far as I could tell.
Well, except when Kennedy ran for President...
As an ex-catholic, Latin-mass saying altar boy - this is good! Too many Baptists and others do not understand the history of their own faith.
I left the Catholic (universal) church because I could not match church teaching with my own reading of the bible at 16 - a la Luther (Bondage of the Will for all those who have read Erasmus and Luther - the greatest, IMHO of both mindsets).
And the more that Catholics understand the Bible, the greater the power of the silent majority. Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, Sola Deo Gloria.
"But once he visited the Roman Catholic church, he found himself in awe of its history and ritual, particularly its use of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch in each service."
Yeah "rituals" will do that and history, well lets say the history of the Catholic church is quite colorful.
My mom was a fallen away Catholic who returned to the Church when she married my step father( a Catholic)
I attended some classes about the faith out of curiosity. I was also very impressed by the history and depth of the religion- so I converted.
Hopefully this man and his wife will be able to clear up some of the misinformation that Protestants have about Catholics, and vice versa.
To anyone who would like to learn more about the Catholic Church, a good website is www.newadvent.org. They have the Catholic Encyclopedia on line.
Interesting.
Of Alabama?
Doesn't bother me.
A Catholic building a "Christian Coalition" with Protestants. Isn't that an oxymoron since the Catholic Church believes those outside the Church are heretics?
Interesting I could not find anything mentioned of John Giles Protestant denomination.
But once he visited the Roman Catholic church, he found himself in awe of its history and ritual, particularly its use of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch in each service.
Has Mr. Giles ever been to an Eastern Orthodox service? A Coptic service? An Ethiopian service? An Assyrian service? An Armenian service (which to me is still the most beautiful despite their theology and hostility to Israel)? Roman Catholicism is not the only alternative to Protestantism; in fact, though the "denominations" are fewer, the same problem of multiple claimants of the mantle of the "original church" still exists in the ancient liturgical world.
Nevertheless, as one who searched for most of his life and spent six years in the Catholic Church himself, I wish Mr. Giles well. I just hope he doesn't allow them to warp his attitude towards Israel or destroy his belief in Biblical inerrancy. In fact, when he discovers Catholic hostility to the literal truth of the Bible, I hope he makes the right decision even if it means (as it did eventually for me) leaving chr*stianity altogether. There was a Bible long before there was a chr*stianity, and one must keep one's priorities straight.
Actually, most Protestant churches today are not Protestant at all. They're actually Remonstrant churches and reject the superior Biblical theology of the Reformers in favor of the same human glorifying errors that infect Catholicism. Birds of a humanist feather flock together.
ping
I was baptized Catholic and raised Catholic. I went to Cornall University, and possibly because of the environment, my faith became luke warm.
I started attending born again Christian meetings. I met some beautiful people who had truly been saved. These people were simply happy that Christ had entered their lives and had saved them from the sins that they were engaging in. They had really turned their lives around.
However, there was also a lot of ignorance about Catholicism there as well. Probably about a fourth of the born again Christians that I met had converted that ignorance into hatred of Catholicism. There was no reasoning with the ignorant, they didn't want to know that what they'd heard about Catholics was simply not true. Many of these Protestants, in fact, based their faith on their hatred of Catholicism - not on their love of Christ.
When the leadership of the born-again ministry also engaged in this ignorance, I decided that I couldn't continue to participate in a group that was promoting lies. I returned to active participation in the Catholic church and have discovered that just as many, if not more, people that have been saved through the Catholic church.
Just getting this far with some people would be a small victory.
Personally, I don't think its important whether you're Prostestant or Catholic, they are both Christian.
And for the dogmatic people on both sides of the isle - JUST LOOK ACROSS THE OCEAN, or EVEN RIGHT IN OUR OWN BACKYARDS.
There are people there who want to destroy Christianity - Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, whatever, as well as any other religions that impede their goal to conquer the world.
Think about it.
Catholics and Protestants and Orthodox Christians are all part of the same tree, and that tree is serious danger of being cut off at the roots.
There is a perception among Protestants.............................
Splitters
LOL! As an ex-Episcopalian Catholic, this really made me chuckle.
My husband said, since the rest of the Protestants look at us as "Catholic Lite" or "Just One Step From Rome," why not go the whole hog? :-D
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