Posted on 08/07/2010 3:38:50 PM PDT by Salvation
Read post 260 again and are you going to admit to people that you plagarized that post 260 from Sojourners magazine?
Great questions and I’ll be waiting to see the answers, albeit not with bated breath.
My understanding is Catholicism teaches that once a Catholic, always a Catholic. It’s irrelevant what you currant beliefs or practices are or where you go to church.
Apparently then, the Catholic church is always adding to it’s numbers and never removing names, except in the case of death.
Now, some Catholics claim that those who vote liberal aren’t really Catholics since they have denied themselves or ex-communicated themselves. What appears to be the case, however, is that the Catholics and the RCC , who are more than willing to distance themselves from those who claim Catholicism but vote liberal in politics, are more than willing to count them as members for their membership roles and bragging rights about being the biggest church or religion in the world, with one billion strong and counting.
It all depends on what you’re trying to prove whether you count someone as Catholic. If it makes the church look bad by claiming them as members, then they aren’t really Catholics. If it makes the church look good by claiming huge numbers of adherents, once a Catholic, always a Catholic. Count ‘em based on being baptized or by conversion because of marriage, regardless of the sincerity of heart or follow through, or the integrity of the reason for joining.
INDEED.
MORE OF THE VATICAN DOUBLE STANDARD DANCE.
MORE OF THE ALICE IN WONDERLAND DUPLICITY DANCE.
MORE VATICAN HYPOCRISY.
Finding faithful and active Catholics who vote conservative is the exception, not the rule. I don’t really care what a few Catholics say strong Catholics SHOULD vote like because I know what most of the DO vote like. I’ve seen it. Being a strong Catholic is no guarantee of voting conservative. On the contrary, if someone tells me they’re Catholic and politics comes up, their political position never surprises me. It’s liberal. Count on it.
In my experience, exceptions to that are in the minority.
Thankfully, in this conservative County, more are conservative than in my average experience elsewhere. Still . . . there are plenty of liberal very active, practicing RC’s here, too. Thankfully, the chairwoman of the GOP women’s group is an RC. She’s a good Christian woman—I wouldn’t call her the most passionate practicing RC, however.
There isn’t a thing that Catholics can accuse non-Catholic of that they don’t engage in themselves to a greater or equal degree.
THAT’S been one of the MOST shocking things about RC’s year after year on FR.
Catholics voted for Gore in 2000, just like they voted for Clinton in 92 and 96, in 2004 when Hispanic Protestants were voting for Bush by 56%, Catholics did vote for Bush by 52%, they then voted for Obama by 54% in the next election.
Nothing changed about the Catholic vote related to FDR, either in their presidential vote or their Congressional voting, they continued voting Democrat, Gallup says they even went Democrat in 1956. see post 269. They eventually voted Republican in 1972 and then back to democrat in 1976.
With the recent flood of Mexican Catholics coming into America, church going, white Catholics are becoming more Republican. Not right wing, but more Republican.
I've commented on the youthful yearning for stability, order, structure in a post above.
These items are similar. And, as many converts to Mormonism and other cultish groups manifest--comprise a serious vulnerability that is well exploited by the Vatican.
1. CERTAINTY: Who has not felt the existential hurricanes in our era with the shredding of so many Biblical values in the market place and body politic?
2. It would be surprising indeed if a group that CLAIMED, with a shred of a convincing argument, did not have an attraction for many existentially adrift and uneasy souls. Certainty is a priceless comodity in a furiously UNCERTAIN world and era. It matters relatively little that the proffered Vatican "CERTAINTY" is largely sham and largely not even based on the CERTAINTY OF SCRIPTURE.
3. HISTORY too holds a similar attraction. Yet, here, the uninformed is most seduced by false testimony; rubbery history and disingenuous hogwash from the Vatican. However, fantasies are comforting for all of us. Sadly, this one can be spiritually deadly for millions.
4. PRETENDING TO BE IN EXISTENCE 300-400 YEARS BEFORE THE FACTS IS A PRETTY HUGE SCAM. However, the uninformed and undiscerning existentially desperate awash in a sea of chaotic modernity are ripe for the picking. Proffered tomes are easily convincing because the search for historical anchoring vs anchoring in the living Word of God is so shallow while the social cultural distress is so increasingly extreme.
5. The desire for UNITY IS ONE OF THE MOST SAD, PATHETIC AND ABSURDLY PARADOXICAL ITEMS ON THE LIST! The pretend unity under the Vatican umbrella is a HUGE SCAM, SHAM, FARCE. One can pretend and fantasize--but only by moving in, lock stock and barrel into Alice's rabbit hole.
6. Even the desire for AUTHORITY is a sadly grossly misplaced attraction and trust.
7. We've seen repeatedly how grandly the VATICAN AUTHORITY has protected millions of infants from the murderous actions of countless politicians the Pope has gone out of his way to meet with and prance about with in great pomp and circumstance . . . and certainly this vaunted and grand authority has rarely even withheld Communion from such murderous politicians.
8. "AUTHORITY?" RIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT . . . About as much Biblical and redemptive authority as last year's slug slime. The HOLY SPIRIT'S anointing--IF IT EVER RESIDED IN ANY HALLS OF THE VATICAN AT ALL--LEFT THE BUILDING LONG AGO.
9. Like all the other items on the list, PAPAL, MAGICSTERICAL AUTHORITY is a farce in terms of the BIBLICAL AND HISTORICAL reality. However, the Vatican CERTAINLY exhibits GREAT PRODUCTIONS OF PRANCING PONTIFICAL POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE AUTHORITY just like the religious leaders in Jerusalem 2000 years ago who were so thankful they were not like the publicans, [Proddys] et al OVER !THERE!
10. In an insane culture awash in satanic chaos and farce . . . even a SEEMINGLY SLIGHTLY LESS FARCical structure and set of fantasies can be attractive to the existentially weary. The unsuspecting and shallow existentially adrift are even more vulnerable.
11. May God have mercy on such deluded souls now anchoring to a log floating in the hurricane of silly satanic seductions pouring out of and residing in ALICE'S WONDERLAND SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY AND REALITY MANGLING. There may be added temporary comforts afforded all the structure, ritual and sham. However, when God's realities become starkly more evident as the Vatican slips ever deeper into the satanic globalist constructions on 'reality,' such comforts will likely become thing indeed, if not out-right justifiably terrifying.
QUix: “The desire for UNITY IS ONE OF THE MOST SAD, PATHETIC AND ABSURDLY PARADOXICAL ITEMS ON THE LIST!” —> ok, so you say so
Certainty is what orthodoxy offers, yes
History —> McKnight observes that many feel a “historical disenfranchisement” with Protestantism and want to be connected to the entire history of the Christian church and not just the period since the Reformation.
VERY INTERESTING.
THX.
Looks like another "church" has degenerated to the point of promoting satanic symbols in their worship.
In this case . . . there’s some . . . quasi reasonableness in choosing it as a symbol of Peter’s being crucified upside down at his request.
There’s plenty of other stuff from hell to be concerned about under the Vatican umbrella, however!
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