>> A Calvinist could make the same sort of argument and assumptions about a Catholic who sins, confesses, repeats the sin, confesses, repeats the sin, confesses. <<
Oh, that’s certainly true. But I do believe that God repeatedly forgives the sinner, providing he has the “intention of amendment.” That’s a Catholic doctrine that says confession is only valid if the sinner truly desires to avoid the sin. The Hollywood stereotype of the confessing gangster is load of horse maneure not because the priest wouldn’t offer absolution, but because the gangster knows full well it won’t do him a lick of good. But even the alcoholic whose ashamed of his drunkenness behavior, confesses, and then goes right back to the bottle is forgiven.
As for my mindreading Calvinists, it may not be fair, but it’s correct enough I think more FReeping Calvinists need to face that fact. They write off the Calvist denominations which permit all manner of sin as if they aren’t really Calvinist, but that’s just denial. The flip side of “if you’re truly saved, you won’t commit grave sin” is the notion that “if you do commit sin, and you’re truly saved, then the sin must not be grave.” And that’s why the largest Presbyterian denominations were the first to become helplessly tolerant of all manners of sinfulness: the PCUSA, the UCC, the Disciples of Christ, etc.
Calvinists are largely accurate when they describe many Southern Baptists as Calvinistic. But a key difference between Southern Baptists and Presbyterians, for instance, is that the Southern Baptists aren’t rigidly Calvinist. enough to make syllogisms that differ from conventional wisdom. (Here, of course, I mean conventional among Christians, not worldly sense.)
I didn't want to write that "Calvinists need to quit acting as if the PCUSA liberals aren't Calvinists" because, well, I'm the first one to say that liberal heretics from the Catholic tradition aren't Catholics. But my attempt to avoid saying that was just clumsy and kind of wound up saying it anyway. So let me put it this way:
Calvinists need to recognize that Presbyterian liberals are Calvinist heretics in the same way that social-justice Catholics are Catholic heretics. They aren't good Calvinists or Catholics; in a very real way, they aren't really even Christians. But the churches which they've apostasized from are Calvinist, and Catholic, respectively. The Calvinist origin of the PCUSA is as relevant as the Catholic origin of the social-justice "Catholics." If Calvinist denomination after denomination falls to liberalism, instead of merely escaping into ever more fragmented denominations, Calvinists need to confront why this happens, not just dismiss the "heretics" as not really Calvinist. Their reasons for heresy are Calvinist reasons.
Which takes me to why I believe the papal-episcopal polity of Catholicism is superior to the congregational-coalescence polity of Presbyterians. Catholics are obligated not to divorce themselves from the institution when it goes bad, but to wrest it back onto the right course. Presbyterian congregations just divorce themselves from the larger community. And God hates divorce. Not only as it expresses itself in the severence of the institution of marriage, which is a living symbol of the relationship between God and his church, but as it expresses itself in all forms of the severence of any holy bond. Any bond which can be severed isn't very holy, so what does it say about the bonds among Presbyterians that they can be severed?
It is as meaningful and consequential theologically for you to say that the PCUSA tolerates sinful behavior as for an anti-Catholic to say that the sexual cover ups in the Catholic church show that it tolerates sin. Sorry to pull out the big anti-Catholic gun there, because I don't think it's fair (I would be very wary of Catholic clergy and suspicious of conscious hypocrisy because of it though). It seems to me that your arguments against Protestants are easily reversed and used against Catholics. It doesn't show anything about which theology is correct. The problem of the ultimate consequence of sin was solved for us by Christ. But the problem of sin and its consequences in this world remain even for the saved. Our natures are corrupt; Christ within us is good.The problem of sin within the Church is the problem of sin. It will always be with us until the end of times.