Evangelicals: Change of Heart toward Catholics

The Black Cordelias ^ | July 28, 2008 | The Black Cordelias

[annalex]

My fear is that there are not enough orthodox Catholics and to many Rick Warren style Evangelicals to turn this country back from the abyss.

So's mine.

[Petronski]

There isn’t much difference in the Church/church today than the American Red Cross.

Speak for your own "Church/church" there, chester.

The Catholic Church--as founded by Christ circa AD 32--has made no errors on the Gospel message...just as He promised.

[silentreignofheroes]

Felt a little pin prick?

[Petronski]

Why do you ask? Were you trying to prick me?

[silentreignofheroes]

No , just don’t be so defensive. There’s no reason , is there ?

[raynearhood]

I’m not presuming to speak for Harley D here, but, if I read his comment correctly he was referring more to the bane of the “social gospel” than anything else. redgolum made a similar comment and annalex agreed, that the fear is there aren’t enough Orthodox Catholics and too many “purpose driven” evangelicals out there that the Gospel message is being missed.

Your defenses are often snappy, well thought out, and often funny. I think you jumped the gun this time, though.

[Petronski]

I’ll tell you quite frankly and bluntly, regardless what other Catholics might have said (or been understood to have said) that the gulf between the Catholic Church and the Red Cross is measured not so much in distance—for it is too far—but rather more in time, for light only travels at ~186,282 miles per second...

[Petronski]

Don’t be so defensive?

It was you who implied I had been pricked.

I hadn’t noticed, and still cannot tell, what you mean.

[sneakers]

What a wonderful, encouraging article!

Thank you for posting it!

[AnAmericanMother]

Couldn't agree more. (Plus the anti-Catholic undercurrent in all Charles Kingsley's otherwise splendid adventure books always distressed me, so I was glad to see him get his comeuppance.)

As a renegade Episcopalian turned Catholic, Newman spoke to me where I lived.

Also, since I was a history major, his statement "To be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant" really hit home with me. I read 16th-17th English history, which had landed me right in the middle of the Counter-Reformation. It only took me 30 years to get the message . . . one of God's stubborn wayward sheep.

Another good book for Episcopalians/Anglicans thinking about taking the plunge into the Tiber is This is The Faith by Canon Francis Ripley.

He was the head of the Catholic Missionary Society in London, so he naturally gauged his argument and reasoning towards Anglicans!

[Bosco]

I’m not presuming to speak for Harley D here, but, if I read his comment correctly he was referring more to the bane of the “social gospel” than anything else. redgolum made a similar comment and annalex agreed, that the fear is there aren’t enough Orthodox Catholics and too many “purpose driven” evangelicals out there that the Gospel message is being missed.

There is a faithful remnant.

Listen to one of our services.

[raynearhood]

7. Secularism. With the collapse of the Mainline churches as the backbone of American religion over the past thirty years (since about 1975), Catholics and Evangelicals are the only ones left standing in this country to present the Gospel. Secularism is on the rise and is ruthless. Evangelicals are now learning that only Catholicism has the intellectual resources to combat the present secular age. And, with the pope, we have a pretty effective means for communicating the faith and representing it to the world. There is nothing an Evangelical can do that will match the power of one World Youth Day.

A moment of wretched honesty on my part. I watched World Youth Day from a distance - mostly from the threads posted by NYer - and I felt a bit of the terrible sting of envy. There is no doubt that there were tons of young Catholics being taught and/or exposed to traditional Catholicism in an exciting way. I wish I could see Reformation theology being presented in a similar way.

Promise Keepers was supposed to do that for Christian fathers and husbands, but ended up highjacked by the "purpose driven" evangelicals. There used to be great traveling Youth Convention called CYI (Christ in Youth). As a young Bible College student, I worked with this group, organizing, making flyers, putting together packets. It was a great success for a couple years in the late 90's... also highjacked.

The problem, in my opinion, isn't that "evangelicals" can't do anything, it's what "evangelicals" have become. It would be wonderful to see a return to sound theology by evangelicals from the social theology they presently follow. I know of no Reformed Christian that accepts the "purpose driven" drivel. I think that Catholics and Reformed Christians would have a tougher time reconciling, as our theology tends to be diametrically opposed.

Of course, I still think that we should have sane debate over our differences, as opposed to some of the stuff that goes on here, on other forums, and in the "marketplace." Call me crazy, but I like sane debate.

[Bosco]

A Review of and Response to "Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium

Here's a quote that summarizes ECT:

The simple fact is that any honest Protestant or Roman Catholic can see that this document, for all its assiduous claims otherwise, compromises both the Roman Catholic and Protestant positions. Both sides have to admit that one can not firmly believe that the message he preaches from his pulpit is true and believe that the message preached by the other is equally true. The contradictions are too large to be hidden by the language of a document such as this.

[stevio]

I am a Christian whose vehicle is Catholicism. To put aside internal bickering would be a godsend.

[Biggirl]

It would be a real blessing if both Catholics and Protestants did stop fighting on this site and realized that we must stand together in a increasing secular and dark world.

[LiteKeeper]

I agree with the quote. There are too many differences. And chief among them is the teaching about Mary.

[LiteKeeper]

Evangelicals are now learning that only Catholicism has the intellectual resources to combat the present secular age.

Uh, no. John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul, Ravi Zacharias, William Lane Craig, JP Moreland, Gary Habermas, Alvin Plantinga...to name just a few, are some of the best minds in America, perhaps in the world...and they are all Evangelicals.

[Salvation]

Stunning article!

[annalex]

I heard of one or two of them, but the question is not that the Evangelicals are not smart but that their theology, by definition anti-clerical, is not a sufficient resource to combat secularism.

[Clemenza]

Anti-clericalism was supported by the founding fathers (including Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin) because they knew how the clerisy had corrupted earlier experiments in Republicanism and were partially responsible for the wars of religion that all but decimated Britain and the continent.

It was the politicized clergy and hostility to Republicanism by the Catholic Church that caused said Church to be hated by many American citizens for years. It was only through assimilation (and adaptation of American Republicanism) that Catholics became accepted.

Clerical-influenced governments and quasi-theocracies are as hostile toward our Republic as communism and Mohammadism. Some of us prefer Washington and Jefferson's America over Salazar's Portugal and Franco's Spain.