Replies

"Unfortunately it is posts like yours on this thread that contribute to the rancor between Catholics and Protestants on these threads."

Excuse me, P-Marlowe, I thought it was threads like this that contributed to the rancor between Protestants and Catholics. Would you care to explain to me exactly how it's my posts that are creating the rancor? Honest question, I don't like these fights at all, and welcome your suggestions. The last time I asked one of Harley's Calvinist mentors how these conversations could go better and be less hurtful, I was basically told to go and shove it. Then my faith was attacked. You can check it out on the "Medieval Mistakes" Thread.

"You can't seem to simply disagree, you have to question the motives of those who disagree with you."

On the contrary, I have agreed to disagree, and my faith has been attacked after I did so. These "history" threads are full of statements that assign sinister motives to Catholics, which you apparently feel comfortable with. Moreover, they are littered with disinformation about Catholic teaching and bizarre beliefs.

"Yes indeed, I am saying that, as I have known Harley for several years and I have yet to see him utter one ill word against Catholics."

P-Marlowe, would you care to guess how many posts against the Catholic Church Harley has made in the last 2 months? A couple? Five or ten? A few dozen? One-hundred? Five-hundred? What would you guess would be a ballpark figure?

Honest question, P-Marlowe, how would you feel about someone intentionally mis-representing your faith, and doing so for months on end, despite having been corrected on it? What if you thought that your faith was actually true, and that in misrepresenting it and maligning it, a person might potentially impede the path to salvation for others?

P-Marlowe, this I can tell you: the person in question does not believe what he himself writes, but he attacks and misrepresents the beliefs of others. Moreover, there is only one faith that traces it's roots to the time of the Apostles, and only one Faith that it absolutely consistent with Scripture. This faith is the faith which the person in question has chosen to attack.

"I agree with much of that."

That's well and good, P-Marlowe, but the point is that you said little light was being shed. You asked for it, and you got it. God desires that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. God loves all men, and draws close to them at all times, and God does not take pleasure in the destruction of the wicked man but rather desires that they turn from their wicked ways and be saved. As an important caveat, however, if the just man turns from the paths of Righteousness to evil, he risks the eternal wrath of God, despite having formerly been a righteous man. That is, if we become unfaithful, we too can be cut off.

By the way, P-Marlowe, I think that anti-Catholicism is something that you do not understand because you have not experienced it. I have had Protestant friends make statements such as, "it's no big deal, I don't see why people make such a big deal out of it." They stopped making those statements once they become Catholic. I will remind you, P-Marlowe, that the Ku Klux Klan is a Protestant organization that historically targeted three groups: African Americans, Jewish people, and Catholics. Anti-Catholicism is anything but benign, and not a matter of agreeing to disagree. If your experience of Protestantism is anything like mine, you simply take anti-Catholicism as a given within your religion. Anti-Catholicism is foundational to Protestantism, and this thread seeks to keep alive animosity toward Catholics and Catholicism. (Or do you see another motive at work here? If so, can you please point that out to me, and support it from the articles themselves? I'd love to see why, from your perspective, you feel these are loving articles about Catholics that improve relationships between Christians.)

P-Marlowe, I would rather see the level of religious discussion on this forum elevated, and there are people on all sides of the discussions who can contribute to much more more edifying and productive conversation. Threads like this, however, combined with a number of anti-Catholic posters, make their appeal to the lowest human sentiments: prejudice and bigotry. Until Protestants step in and 1) recognize anti-Cathoicism for what it is, and 2)Speak out against it, Catholics will be responsible for defending the faith against the mischaracterizations and attempts to portray Catholicism in the worst possible light.

Would you care to explain to me exactly how it's my posts that are creating the rancor? Honest question, I don't like these fights at all, and welcome your suggestions.

Well, if you don't like these fights, you might wish to avoid the current series of threads that Harley is posting. The series is on the History of the Reformation, which is the beginnings of the Protestant Branch of the Church of Christ. I could not help but notice that your first post on this thread was to accuse either the author or the poster of writing in a 3rd grade style. I believe that was hyperbole and intended to do nothing more than throw coals upon the fire.

I don't know if you've realized it or not but about 80% of the threads in the Free Republic Religion forum are Roman Catholic Threads. A good percentage of those threads are highly critical of Protestants and are dedicated to the idea that the Roman Church has a lock on the truth and that all other churches are in apostasy. Generally I try to avoid those threads as every time I post on them and make any attempt to defend the Protestant Church against the propaganda of the Catholic Church and Catholic Church Theologians, I am accused of "Catholic Bashing".

On the contrary, I have agreed to disagree, and my faith has been attacked after I did so.

I doubt very seriously if anyone is attacking your faith. What they are attacking is the basis for your faith, i.e., whether you have any scriptural grounds for your doctrinal stands or whether your rituals or practices are in violation of scripture, etc. At any rate I certainly haven't seen it on this thread. Your faith is your faith. It may be in vain, but nevertheless it is yours.

P-Marlowe, would you care to guess how many posts against the Catholic Church Harley has made in the last 2 months? A couple? Five or ten? A few dozen? One-hundred? Five-hundred? What would you guess would be a ballpark figure?

For the most part the threads that Harley posts appear to be pro-Reformation and pro-Calvinist threads and it usually evokes a negative response from our Catholic posters. The fact of the matter is that the Reformation was based upon the premise that many of the teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church were not only non-scriptural, but were actually in violation of the plain language of scripture. Thus it is nearly impossible to post a pro-Reformation thread without the thread getting into the practices and beliefs that the Reformers were opposed to. That may seem like "anti-Catholicism" to you, but that is because it does not comport with your world view. Quite frankly this thread is a Protestant Thread (one of only a few posted each week) and there are plenty of Catholic Threads on Free Republic where Protestants don't usually go and where you are free to discuss your peculiar doctrines and practices without criticism from anyone. Lately, however, it seems that the Protestants simply can't post any thread without at least two or three Catholics that I can think of coming in and proclaiming how the Protestants have it all wrong and how the only true path is through Rome.

I will remind you, P-Marlowe, that the Ku Klux Klan is a Protestant organization that historically targeted three groups: African Americans, Jewish people, and Catholics. Anti-Catholicism is anything but benign, and not a matter of agreeing to disagree.

It was NEVER a mainstream protestant organization and to equate the criticism that goes on here with the KKK is beyond the pale. Frankly, I think you should ask that your post be pulled.

Until Protestants step in and 1) recognize anti-Cathoicism for what it is, and 2)Speak out against it, Catholics will be responsible for defending the faith against the mischaracterizations and attempts to portray Catholicism in the worst possible light.

Very little of that occurs here. You guys just are so sensitive that any challenge to your peculiar practices and beliefs is seen as Anti-Catholicism. Well, in the old days the protestants and catholics solved their differences by burning each other at the stake. I don't think the persecution you receive here on Free Republic is worthy of mention in light of the persecution that both Protestants and Catholics received in the past. My suggestion is that if this stuff is so painful to you, perhaps you should avoid it.