The diminished -stature of moral norms can arise just as well if one asserts justification by Faith + works...Just look at your religion...Most of the clergy are queers...No one believes the scriptures...Divorce is forbidden but annulment is encouraged in it’s place...Every Catholic I know drinks to the state of drunkenness which seems to be alright as long as it’s done in the presence of a Mary statue...
What you obviously have no clue about is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and his influence upon the spirit of the born again Christian...You people seem to attempt to please Jesus by the works you do...WE attempt to please Jesus because we love him and he loves us...No strings attached...
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Oh the Catholic Church has more than its fair share of degenerates (especially in high leadership). One can make a good case that the current Pope is an Apostate.
Catholics are notoriously weak on scriptural knowledge too. I shall not attempt to defend them, because it’s hopeless to do so.
I attend a Protestant Church now because there is no way (to my mind) to rectify the current Apostate status of the Magisterium and Pope to what traditional Catholic doctrine has taught about God’s guidance of such a body on doctrinal affairs.
That being said, there are plenty of lowlifes in Protestant churches. I was raised in a Protestant family and within the last 3 years have rejoined a Protestant church. I call myself a “tweener” because I’m in between both sides of the Christian “extremes”.
I know it sounds like I’ve been harsh (even disrespectful) to Protestantism, so allow me to give a compliment (just to show that I’m aware of very noble persons who are Protestant).
When I was at Boston College in grad school back in the early 1990s, there was an argument within the theology department as to whether students should be required to take at least one class that was apologetic to traditional Catholic teaching. This argument had been going on for quite some time, as the Jesuits who ran the school actually chaffed against such teachings, if you can believe that. In fact, the Jesuits had been chaffing against it since the end of WWII (but I digress).
There were only a small handful of professors in the theology department who supported the pastoral approach to this class (instead of it being a purely academic one). Once of these professor was a Protestant professor of New Testament Studies. He was a great instructor. I thought to myself, “It’s sad when Protestants support Catholics actually teaching their own faith to one another more than Catholics do.” It’s also the moment when I began to realize that the Catholic Church’s troubles were much more internal than external. A huge part of the Catholic Church’s problem is that it’s be co-opted by people are just aren’t Catholic at all. Hell, they aren’t even Christians in most cases. But I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.
None of this affects my respect and love of the Christian apologetic tradition that goes from the Apostles through the Church Fathers, and up to the present day. The Church has struggled against many enemies internal and external over the ages. Some of that struggle has been tragic and some glorious. And whether one agrees with some or none of the Orthodox and/or Catholic tradition, hopefully one can agree that they tried in good faith to transmit the Faith of Jesus Christ as they understood it. Even though they did not ultimately embrace Paul’s theology of Justification, they did not alter his letters or edit them in any way. They kept the texts just as he wrote them nearly 2000 years ago.
Not quite...