Think I'll steer clear of this war.
Posted on 07/15/2011 5:01:33 AM PDT by tcg
....some of my colleagues in the world of Catholic media, journalism and the Press have attributed the positions of this Church and Bachmanns past membership to just "being a Protestant." As someone who has worked ecumenically for decades I reject that dismissal. The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod does not represent many Protestants. It is an Anti-Catholic body.
....I have worked with, prayed with and collaborated with MANY Protestant Christians, for over three decades, who would NEVER call the successor of Peter the Antichrist. The colleagues to which I refer go further, they seemingly accept the notion that if Protestant Christians felt otherwise they would no longer be Protestant. That is not only overly simplistic, it fails to recognize the substantial issues which divide the broken Body of Christ.
....Some of the other articles I have read ...attempt to dismiss it by pointing to the authors purported political leanings. So, let me speak to that for a moment. I have political leanings. I like Michele Bachmann's positions on the issues which matter most to this Catholic voter. She is pro-Life and defends marriage and the family and society founded upon it.
I appreciate her pledge to reign in the ever expanding size of the Federal government, which I fear threatens the principle of subsidiarity. Finally, I had been impressed with her intelligence, her oratorical skills, her background and her presence. All of this made her my second favorite possible candidate, until now. My first choice is obvious to anyone who reads my ongoing political commentary.
However, her political and policy positions were not the point of Joshua Green's article and focusing upon them may be a form of deflection. Green raised the issue of Michele Bachmann's long standing identification with a Church body which is clearly Anti-Catholic....
(Excerpt) Read more at catholic.org ...
Will some of those same people ask this candidate, whom they seem to agree with on issues, about her affiliation with a Church which espoused Anti-Catholicism? For example, how will Sean Hannity or Bill O'Reilly, just to name two high profile media personalities, handle this disturbing fact out of Michele Bachmann's very recent past? I hope the answer is "straight on". ...
As someone who was beat up by Catholic kids for walking past their church and school to get to my Lutheran Church, back in the 50s, and then told that their priest said it was justified, I find your comments pathetic.
“One question is of special concern to me. Will she get a pass?”
Will Romney? And along those lines, why does Pelosi get a pass from Catholics on abortion? Did she inherit Ted Kennedy’s?
A sure way to get my eyes to glaze over is to put the word “anti-Catholic” in a story.
Luther was not shy about his views on the matter. It’s not at all surprising that a Lutheran body today would continue this tradition. But what does that matter? The problem with Jeremiah Wright’s church was its *political* views more than its theological ones. Anti-Americanism is a *political* position that you better believe affects the Chief Executive’s policy.
What would a President Bachmann do with this alleged “anti-Catholicism”, eh? Break ties with the Vatican? Sic the Justice Department on the dioceses?
Sorry, I just don’t get the point of Fournier’s argument here.
The left is desperately seeking a means of driving a wedge between Catholics and Protestants. I grew up Methodist in a family mixed with Baptists and Catholics.
I guess those differences never really meant anything to me.
We have all lived in harmony in spite of these differences and we need to consider the motive of this author and not react in a way that causes division. We all disagree on these points but are still allies.
Obama got a pass for his anti-american church.
Think I'll steer clear of this war.
Perhaps you should spend your time worrying about the country and who is running it.
If Obama stays in, you will be kneeling on your prayer rug facing Mecca, or die.
stopped listening to Hannity when he shilled for Rudy Guilliani back in 08...
O’Reilly is just a moron and I do not know what his real politics are.
as far as Bachmann? who cares what religious group she use to belong to...
Most Southern Baptists and other bible belt churches have defamed Catholics over the 6+ decades I have been alive...I would vote for a member of one of these if they held American values.
on the other hand I would really have to search my soul to vote for a Mormon (you listening, ‘Mittens’?)
As the Lutheran (LCMS) of closest affiliation I know to Ms. Bachmann’s synod (WELS) can you shed light on whether this brouhaha about calling Roman Popes “the Antichrist” has any basis in contemporary devout Lutheran congregations? AFAIK, this was a position popular among many evangelical congregations of past centuries (not just Lutherans), but with the contemporary trend of the Roman church backing out of the role of playing the machine in secular governments and becoming less strident towards Christian congregations of other denominations, few evangelicals take this literal view seriously.
Pelosi’s political views are disgusting, and she should be publicly excoriated for them if not excommunicated.
But to return to the original topic, it’s like some of my fellow Catholics all of a sudden woke up and found out that the Reformation happened.....”oh no....people are (gasp) anti-Catholic! They believe the Pope is the Antichrist!!!”
Uh, where the blazes have some of you been for the last 500 years? Do you not also realize that we Catholics are, by definition, anti-Protestant? Do you not know how many Catholic prelates have felt free to speculate on Luther, Calvin, Cranmer et al. in the bowels of hell?
If people are going to be so thin-skinned, let the grownups do the theological disputation.
People are getting their heads cut off for being Catholics in the Middle East. And Americans get all bent out of shape about a politician attending a church where Lutherans believe what Luther believed. Sheesh.
“The left is desperately seeking a means of driving a wedge between Catholics and Protestants.”
The whole point of the navel gazing article.
Where did you get that from?
Name one person who has apologized to the Catholic Church.
Ahhh... must be getting closer to election season. The Republicans are beginning to eat their own.
Obama won the election in spite of his affiliation with
Jeremiah Wright.
Simply using that fact as a blunt instrument will suffice. Why? Most
Of the American public won’t discern between what Wright was preaching and what Bachmann’s pastor is preaching.
The fact that FReepers are smarter than the average citizen sometimes
causes us to think too much sometimes.
My take? Focus on what unities Christians: J E S U S.
It’s ok to debate this, but don’t let the enemy divide us over it.
Unfortunately this is not the left...this is a (conservative?) Catholic deacon I think. Proving once again we are our own worst enemies.
Tell me Deacon Fournier or anyone else, what the heck will Michele Bachmann do as President that will have ANYTHING to do with what her position is on the nature of the Antichrist?
Anyone? Anyone?
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