I see you are determined to sneer and lob insults at a group, rather than seriously consider what I took the time to point out. I made a factual discussion of the unintended consequences of many historic events to point out the inevitablity of human sin and how difficult it is for even the best-intended persons to avoid negative consequences. It’s why we need a Savior; and again, I appeal to you as a Christian to take joy in your salvation, and avoid trying to use any church of Christ Jesus as a point of determining moral superiority over others whose faith is a conscientious choice. I’m not your enemy here.
“I see you are determined to sneer and lob insults at a group”
No you don’t.
“rather than seriously consider what I took the time to point out.”
I considered those things seriously several decades ago—about four decades to be a bit more precise—when I was a young man. I presume all intelligent adults have dealt with these things. Your poorly composed lecture contained within it the assumption that I had not considered these things, and was therefore not an intelligent adult. Aside from that, those things are not germane here.
“I made a factual discussion of the unintended consequences of many historic events”
Neither of your examples dealt with the unintended consequences of a person’s actions.
The interstate road system did not enable teenagers to travel or go to college far from home. Parents allowed that. Nor did the Interstates result in an increasing rate of sex in the back of cars, as no Interstate is required for that. Sex in the back of cars has been occurring since cars had backs. The increase in both fornication and teen pregnancies resulted from a decline in our moral fiber, and the Protestant churches were the first to cave on that.
“Or how about Ronald Reagan...Is he solely to blame for the breakdown of the family?”
Very sneaky, the way you slipped that word “solely” in there. That is the first use of that word or concept in this discussion. With it, you slip in the notion that I said Luther was “solely” to blame for all the bloodshed caused by the Protestant heresy. Let me see now, when you try to make people think that someone said something he did not say, what category of action is that?
Of course there were “other forces in society that were operating at the same time.” Any intelligent, educated, non-leftard of my generation knows that.
The 170 words you spent on Eisenhower and Reagan were a waste of my time. If I want to be lectured to by an eighth-grader, I have a son who actually is one.
“It is useless to try to continue to blame Luther for theological differences that have stood the test of time for 400 years.”
As I recall, Luther didn’t have any theological differences with the Church when he rebelled. He was complaining about abuses, and his complaints were pretty much valid. As for standing the test to time, time is not the test of theological differences. A heresy can, theoretically, endure forever.
“There are as many people growing up in one tradition who switch to the other as there are in the other direction”
Neither are the actions of humans the test of theological differences. One might as well argue that atheism is correct because church attendance is down.
“Why carry forward old blames and hatreds?”
If it weren’t for the small cadre of vicious, lying protestants here and their endless war on the Catholic Church, I wouldn’t think about Protestantism twice in a year.
I bow out of these arguments frequently; but sooner or later some particularly noxious rant catches my attention on the wrong day, and I give in to my impulse to contradict evil.
“and avoid trying to use any church of Christ Jesus as a point of determining moral superiority over others”
Oh, don’t you even dare accuse me of that.
There is an old saying: never argue with an idiot; passers-by may find it difficult to tell which is which.
I’ve been here since 1998. I saw all this start. It started with a few narrow-minded, vicious, bigoted protestants attacking the Catholic Church. It is perpetuated by attacks on the Catholic Church by narrow-minded, vicious, bigoted protestants. Without those narrow-minded, vicious, bigoted attacks on the Catholic Church there would be no threads like this.
Now, the very people who instigated and perpetuate this nonsense blame it on Catholics, and people who have arrived in the middle can’t tell who is the idiot.
“over others whose faith is a conscientious choice”
None of those who post narrow-minded, vicious, bigoted attacks on the Catholic Church here have made any conscientious choice, nor would they capable of it.