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(Esteemed RM: I blew it in my first attempt tp post this. Could I ask you to delete the previous sanctimonious rant in favor of this one?)

Guys, please forgive me if I come across all sanctimonious and everything. And don't for a minute think that I am claiming any kind of moral superiority or even success in controlling myself on threads such as these.

But, with that apology and introduction, may I implore you not to descend to the level of abuse to which we have been subjected?

While it's not a view I hold, as I hope is evident, there is a persistent strand or trajectory among some Xtians that involves the solas and the sense of OSAS, and it's not on its face groundless.

Kierkegaard says that you can't fall out of Love, which is kind of a OSAS attitude, and one could be forgiven for getting that view from parts of, say, Romans 8, where we are told that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

And while certainly some people in this school SEEM to fulfill the ancient definition of:
A Christian is a man who feels
Repentance on a Sunday
For what he did on Saturday
And is gonna do on Monday,
Still my experience is that I can confess the same sin year after year after year and feel like I'm making no headway on it, but am Still confident that God is eager to work with me to unhook me from that particular set of chains. So I share their confidence that though my sins be scarlet, I can turn again and again back to a God of whose acceptance I am confident. So we're not THAT far apart, maybe.

I think the article on which this thread crystallized is ludicrous and embarrassing, but I see beauty in our separated brethren's insistence on the unmerited redeeming love of God in Christ Jesus, even if we have serious and grievous differences about a number of important issues.

So, as I say, forgive me and don't throw this in my face when I fall, as I almost certainly will, but, well, I'd like to ask you to be gentle.

Feel free to ignore me. I'll probably be my usual nasty self in a minute or two.

You do know that a whole lot of what gets fought over is vocabulary and specialized definition seen from how it looks from outside the specialized meaning group.

I am very happy to be a catholic, and know we know we don't earn our salvation, that we are saved by grace, and being the people Jesus wants us to be is a long hard process.

I know wonderful non-catholics who know that being the people Jesus wants them to be is a long hard process. It gets called sanctification. And although they think about stuff with different vocabulary, a lot of what they describe seems to be pretty much the same thing I go through, take two steps, and fall on my nose, get up and do it again for the love of God.

Then again, I've known both Catholics and non-Catholics who are shallowly catechized in their faith who seem to think that if they do the right action, like in a magick formula, all is well, without any transformation whatsover.

I leave it to God and ask him to deal kindly and mercifully with all of us with our own shortcomings and failings, and sometimes misguided desires to please him by beating each other up with his word in hopes that we can save each other, and honor what we try to do for good, and minimize and forgive us when our own motivations really aren't there.

Jesus Christ, son of the living God, have mercy on us, forgive us of our sins, and lead us to eternal life. Amen.