I think you misunderstood me. I did not mean to make this a Catholic v. Protestant argument. Countries where Catholicism is strong fair no better. Look at the northeastern United States where the RCC is more influential than say the deep south. People are more liberal and the leaders elected in no way reflect the teachings of their Church. The problem cuts across denominational lines.
BTW- I love that quote from Jerome. If Christ was the Word in the flesh then ignorance of Christ is ignorance of scripture indeed. Ties in nicely with our conversation.
You wrote:
“I think you misunderstood me.”
No, I don’t think I did. Honestly.
“I did not mean to make this a Catholic v. Protestant argument. Countries where Catholicism is strong fair no better.”
You’re missing the point. Protestant ethos is everywhere you find “modern” society. Protestantism ultimately produced what we call “Modernism” for instance. Wherever you find people - be they Protestants or Catholics or other Christians - you will find they have been tainted by Modernism. (That includes you, me, everybody). Protestant influence - through Modernism and Liberalism - is worldwide, completely pervasive among Christians.
“Look at the northeastern United States where the RCC is more influential than say the deep south.”
You’re just proving my point. In the South, the Church is not influential in society, but its Catholics are more authentically Catholic. I would rather be a Catholic in North Carolina than Boston. The Church is booming in the South and people are more generally and genuinely committed to the faith there. In the North East the faith is suffering, the Church is suffering and it all goes back to the pervasiveness of latter day Modernism that came out of the congrgationalist backed, liberal Protestant and Ivy League atheist culture complex. The South happily skipped all of that. Remember, the Church is made upof people. Yes, it’s guided by God so it still reaches some people no matter what the obstacles. But, when the culture become pervasively “post-Christian”, not so much anti-Christian but post Christian, then millions can be lead by the culture more demonstrably than by the Church. People supplant the Church and its teachings with Obama, television, class envy, drugs, sex, materialism, Buddhism, whatever! And that’s what has happened. And that is what Protestants have aimed for: supplanting the Catholic Church. It’s just that it happened in a way they did not expect or intend. Rather than bringing done the Catholic Church in a “righteous” movement, they created tens of thousands of sects. Rather than having proclaimed the truth which they had believed was hidden, they have emptied the very idea of truth of any import and relativism runs rampant. Unintended consequences.
“People are more liberal and the leaders elected in no way reflect the teachings of their Church. The problem cuts across denominational lines.”
The EFFECTS of Protestantism, Modernism and Liberalism, do cut across all lines. That’s exactly why I pointed out the quote from Pius X. Catholics have known about this for a very long time. Protestants still haven’t figured it out. Those who do figure it out generally become Catholics.
“BTW- I love that quote from Jerome. If Christ was the Word in the flesh then ignorance of Christ is ignorance of scripture indeed. Ties in nicely with our conversation.”
I’ve always liked the quote too.