Posted on 04/05/2005 10:01:52 PM PDT by Coleus
For the last quarter of a century, this non-Catholic has had a pope. Now that John Paul II is gone, I am even more of an orphan than the Christians in the Roman church. For they will surely have another pope, but that one may not be mine, since I haven't converted.
I am sure I am reflecting the views of many Protestants. Who else but John Paul II gave voice to my faith and my values in 130 countries? Who else posited personal holiness and theological clarity against postmodern self-deception and egotism? Who else preached the gospel as tirelessly as this man?
What other clergyman played any comparable role in bringing down communism, a godless system? What other world leader—spiritual or secular—understood so profoundly how hollow and bankrupt the Soviet empire was, so much so that this tireless writer never bothered to pen an encyclical against Marxism-Leninism because he knew it was moribund?
Has there been a more powerful defender of the sanctity of life than this Pole, in whose pontificate nearly 40 million unborn babies wound up in trashcans and furnaces in the United States alone? What more fitting insight than John Paul II's definition of our culture as a culture of death—an insight that is now clearly sinking in, to wit the declining abortion rates in the United States?
In Europe some time ago, a debate occurred in Protestant churches: Should John Paul II be considered the world's spokesman for all of Christianity? This was an absurd question. Of course he spoke for all believers. Who else had such global appeal and credibility, even to non-Christians and non-believers?
Of course, there was the inveterate Billy Graham. There were many faithful Orthodox and Protestant bishops, pastors and evangelists.
(Excerpt) Read more at christianitytoday.com ...
Yes, but the NT is theology based on the OT. To say we stole it from catholics is quite ridiculous. we stole it from malachi
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.So even in theoretically meditating on God, you are overlaying it with verbal entreaties to Mary. You are thus sharing God's glory with another.
If you can see your way around that, that's between you and God. But stop acting like you couldn't possibly understand why a Protestant might see that as Mary worship.
That is quite unfair. we were having a good discussion, and nobody was mentioning statues. The thread is about Protestants accepting a pope. You really should know, we would rather die
OK, we're getting into semantics here. Let me retract slightly and say that Protestants cribbed the New Testament from the Catholic Church. We wrote it, discussed it, canonized it, and interpreted it for 1,500 years before Protestantism came along.
Your hatefulness isn't helping one bit. I really think you need to stop.
Honor your pope and act like a loving Catholic. Not a hate filled one.
I don't know why you are being so hard on me. I asked people to stop bashing Catholics a couple of times on this thread.
I am asking you nicely to back off.
All the time.
NORFOLK, Va. (ELCA) -- The Association of Lutheran Social Ministry Organizations (ALSMO) has set the stage to take its place alongside Catholic Charities U.S.A. as the largest charity in the country. The ALSMO annual meeting here April 26 unanimously approved a "strategic alliance" of more than 250 Lutheran social ministry organizations across the United States and Caribbean with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS).In 1995 about 89,000 volunteers helped 83,000 employees serve 1,763,000 people in non-residential services and 106,000 in residential services, including 20,000 elderly in independent living and 43,000 elderly in nursing facilities. The combined income of the Lutheran social ministries was $2.4 billion and expenses were $2.3 billion.
For comparison, Catholic Charities USA reported total income of $1.93 billion and expenses of $1.86 billion in 1994.
Awesome post.
"But stop acting like you couldn't possibly understand why a Protestant might see that as Mary worship."
I would suggest innocent ignorance.
But tell us which part of the Hail Mary prayer you see as worshipping Mary?
I see. So according to you, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were written by catholics, as well as the letters of Paul, Peter, etc.? Would it surprise you to learn that all of those people were Jewish Christians, and the scholarly research of modern times can trace the synoptic gospels as well as Paul and the others to the first century A.D. when the Pontiffs of Rome were still the Secular leaders of Edom?
And that's just one protestant denomination. There are 26,999 others (using your figures).
Lutherans are not Fundamentalists. Interestingly, they are one of the nearest sects to Catholicism, theologically speaking.
you see what you want to see
Hey bud, I'm not the one trying to analogize Judge Greer's mother with St. Mary. A sillier argument I cannot fathom.
Did you get that Malachi? Leaders of Edom
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