"FWIW I'm sure that John The Baptist didn't need to hear voices or see visions for the casual observer to think he was a hamburger or two short of a happy meal. The guy ate grasshoppers and yelled "Repent!!!" at everyone who walked by."
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Great Point! It should make everyone think twice before they are so quick to condemn those fundamentalist "fire and brimstone" preachers.
I may be quick to condemn Protestantism for its doctrinal deviations from Catholicism (such as sola Scriptura, denial of apostolic authority, and denial of free will), but it would never occur to me to condemn the "fire and brimstone" preaching. The high-charge no-nonsense call for repentance, often sounded in fundamentalist Protestant settings, is an admirable tradition from which Catholic homilists must learn, and sometimes they do.