I grew up in a Protestant denomination that emphasized personal holiness and "entire sanctification", in practical terms that involved: going to church 3 times a week, revivals, tithing, praying for missionaries and meals, nightly family extemporaneous prayer and Bible reading. It also meant no movie theaters, no dancing, no tobacco use, no alcohol, no playing cards, no Sunday newspaper, no Sunday shopping. It meant camp meeting and district assembly every summer, oh, and a week of church camp as well. No family could have been more fully involved than mine.
I'm not saying all of that properly understood isn't fine, but I am saying: THAT WAS IT. I don't ever remember anything that could even remotely be considered instruction in how to apply all that Bible reading to personal conduct. Personal holiness in practical terms consisted primarily in what one didn't do. I was a preacher's kid, one would think that if there was some secret level of spiritual development I would have known about it.
No wait... I forgot James Dobson, and with good reason. Three years of therapy to get that mess out of my head, thanks a lot Jimmy.
Great, I think I blacked out for about 10 minutes, where was I?
Oh yes, it was Bible, Bible, Bible, interpreted however the Sunday School teacher, childrens church director, preacher, evangelist or youth pastor chose to interpret it. Much scorn was heaped on the Catholics who drank, smoked, danced and ran to confession every Saturday... as if that was all that was available to them and it wasn't their fault if they didn't make use of the enormous deposit of spiritual help.
There never seemed to be any introspection on back-biting, calumny, detraction, or GLUTTONY! The very word "charity" was a dirty word because the Catholics had used it to replace agape apparently (hey, I didn't make this stuff up). And of course the fact that all we had to do whenever we were "under conviction" was tell God we were sorry. Talk about a case of mass projection.
That was the thing, we were using everything the denomination had to offer and comparing ourselves to the absolute bottom line minimum Catholics, rejoicing in our self-righteousness and completely missing the point that we were as spiritually pathetic as the worst of Catholics.
Oh there were gems among all the places I lived... my mind may be playing tricks on me but I recall that most of them were ex-Catholics.
It kinda makes sense of what you're saying through the lens of the mistakes of Calvin especially
My experience both on FR and in real life agrees with yours. My boss is ex Catholic and is now a force in a rising wanna be mega church. He actively recruited me when I accepted employment; there have been other examples in the area of that as well. Given the apologetics that I learned, from among other places, here, he has not mentioned that rather new age feelgood non Biblical "Bible believing" cult in quite some time.
No wait... I forgot James Dobson, and with good reason. Three years of therapy to get that mess out of my head, thanks a lot Jimmy.
Anything in particular or just general semantics?
Oh yes, it was Bible, Bible, Bible, interpreted however the Sunday School teacher, childrens church director, preacher, evangelist or youth pastor chose to interpret it. Much scorn was heaped on the Catholics who drank, smoked, danced and ran to confession every Saturday... as if that was all that was available to them and it wasn't their fault if they didn't make use of the enormous deposit of spiritual help.
I never smoked very much and am not very fond of dancing...
What is more horrifying to me is to see a Catholic receive our Blessed Lord in Eucharist and do what you and I have both described we observed as protestants. Sadly,I think we all have been guilty of this at times. Lord have Mercy on us !
The line to confession ought be hours long,but it is not.
I need confession frequently