Hi, Michael. I note that you have said you are an ordained minister. Does that mean you are a pastor or does it mean that you are a deacon?
A lawyer and a couple of cops helped with that.
Being the grandson of a Baptist minister and the son of a Deacon, I have to ask if that SOB is really a Christian.
Some are just jerks that need an arse whipping.
/johnny
Because the entire concept of “Protestant” invites each individual to be their own “Pope”.
One interpretation is as good as another, as long as I convince myself that I am being guided by the Holy Spirit.
Thus, anyone claiming to be in authority, who disagrees with me is an anathema.
I’m a lapsed Protestant who’s lapsed precisely because so many of the Protestant clergy insist on supplanting the bible with Marxism and sodomy and enthusiastically support truly subversive activities like the current invasion by illegal alien minors.
Don’t worry about these people on FR. They are mostly Catholic-haters. Anything, then, that looks remotely Catholic is something they will attack.
Prayers for you.
The Left is disproportionately represented in church matters. They have an agenda, and want to have a deciding role in church affairs.
Why are you concerned with political forums?
Sorry you had such a distasteful experience. Which continuing church, might I ask?
Many people here will simply not understand the sacramental part of your vocation. That is part of the execrable heritage of the Reformation I’m afraid. You will be up against this your whole life and I think you will drive yourself batty trying to expect anything different from those firmly in the Protestant camp. Of course they will resist your vocation—your priesthood is the heart of what their ancestors were Protesting and Reforming in the first place. Your priesthood cannot and will not fit into their paradigm, because they have constructed a paradigm specifically to exclude it. Bluntly, your very existence is an attack on their theology. That’s why the hatred, misplaced though it be.
To answer your question, yes they are Christians, they have been baptized into the Church same as you or I. It’s just that the legacy of the Reformation has left them with such a stunted, deformed version of Christianity that they have learned to hate what Christ gave us. That is the world as we have inherited it. Our response can be either to despair the fact or try to repair it as best we can by showing people what they lost when they abandoned the ordained priesthood and the sacraments.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of Anglican/Catholic/Orthodox threads and ping lists you are welcome to participate in here and where you will find people who hold dear to the tradition of the Universal Church in regard to the priesthood and where you will find a sympathetic ear. You may find us proselytizing a little bit of course, but one thing’s for sure, we Catholics and Orthodox will get your vocation 100%.
What did you expect? Are you not in good company? Didn’t Jesus say they would hate you as much as him?
Having said that it is very difficult to be a pastor. I would not last very long before they kicked me out. But I know that you are stronger...........................
I’m a protestant and I have a great pastor. In general, I get along wonderfully with clergy of essentially all denominations. I am a mature enough Christian to enjoy and profit from their opinion without feeling the need to knee-jerk agree with all of them.
Maybe this one’s problems are just with people ON-LINE. I think we all know we’re a little different on-line than in person. :-)
One final thought: my pastor is a very hard-working pastor. He takes his “shepherd of the flock” role VERY seriously. Between studying, visiting the sick, doing good in the community, preparing and giving sermons and Bible study, etc., I doubt he wastes much, if any, time on line in political forums. Maybe the pastor doing the complaining is spending a bit too MUCH time in political forums?
Why? Because most of them are shysters out to milk the flock of their life savings. A vast number of them have no training in theology/Biblical studies, whatsover, they just went from being used car salesmen or Amway salesmen to “preaching”. What do they all have in common? The gift of gab.
I find that my opinions and postings more often than not generate more hatred than anything else.
So it is time for reflection. Are we being hated because we told the truth? Maybe it was the way we said it. Or maybe we are stubborn in our positions and they have responded to it.
I try not to do “fly by posting” but most people don’t have thinking caps any more even when you post well reasoned responses. I find part of my therapy is trying to post better, it helps me clarify my thoughts. Once in a while I get some one asking a clarifying question, and I try to ask them also of others. So, what would God’s Spirit and Word tell you about this situation? He would be a better counsel that us.
Here is were we learn to do better, you might say “working it out with fear and trembling”, so keep at it...............
am coming up on my first year as an ordained minister in a continuing Anglican church, and I have noticed that participating on political forums (even when the topic is religious) I find that my opinions and postings more often than not generate more hatred than anything else. Among the things I often hear are that the laity are the real priests and that I am a Pharisee, that my vocation disqualifies me from offering an opinion on anything Christian because I am too narrow minded, and (my personal favorite) because I look too Catholic I must be a child molester.
Be careful of the assumptions you bring to the discussion. The term "priest", for one, is going to rub many the wrong way.
And, yeah, some folks are just plain ignorant. The Internet is an ignorance aggregater.
Are these people really Christians?
I wonder about that here, sometimes.
John 3. A person must be born again, to be saved once they’ve really been given a new heart by The Lord, then we’re all priests.
If anyone actually hates you and they’re actually a Christian, then they’re probably not “saved”, but a churchgoer alone.
We go through Christ for a relationship with God, we don’t need priests, that’s one of the big differences between Protestants and Catholics (as far as I can tell, but I’m not Catholic).
Another hit piece on Protestantism.
This is akin to asking if you stopped beating your wife yet.....
It’s presuming guilt and instead of just manning up and making the accusation, it engages in major league passive/aggressive impugning of another’s character and attitude by presuming guilt and *innocently* asking a question and then putting the person so accused in a position of defending themselves against a false accusation.
And of course, when the Protestant denies hating clergy, then it’s automatically presumed that they’re lying.
It’s a disingenuous debate technique used by someone who cannot build a case on facts.
I’m a Methodist ordained elder, a former Army chaplain, and I now minister in a rural area. My experience is much different than yours. I can remember only a few times in the past decade when a lay person was even rude to me.
I don’t usually post on religion topics but I wouldn’t worry too much about what ignorant people say online.
I will lurk in and see if there is any good fruit being produced.
Then, when I see that there is not... I leave.
That would be the measure our Lord would use.
Oh look someone else beating me over the head with the word hate.
So, half a day later ... are you happy you posted this question, or sorry?