Former Catholic, born again fundamentalist Baptist ping
Secularized Catholics are better at being protestants than protestants are evidently.
Navel-gazing dinglebob. (The author, I mean.)
When you can repeat a few words or some such, and believe yourself absolved, it’s apparently perceived to be of little consequence.
I think there are several considerations. First of all is the fact that for 40 years, since Vatican II, Catholics have been allowed and sometimes actively taught to ignore the teachings of the Church. Only now, under BXVI, is this horrible era being brought to an end.
In addition, there’s no such thing as “The Protestant Church.” That is, there are lots of different Protestant churches, some of them more liberal, some of them less liberal. Since the very liberal ones are down to about five elderly members now (like the liberal Catholic parishes), the more alive Protestant churches, whatever their specific denomination, will have more dedicated members who have actually made a choice to be there.
Finally, there’s the fact that many Catholics do not leave the Church when they cease to agree with its moral or other teachings. They are cultural products and they just keep going because that’s what they do. On the other hand, Protestants who have made the effort to find an orthodox Protestant church will be more committed because they have actually made the effort in the first place, rather than coasting into it.
What you are seeing with Obama’s attack on the Church right now, btw, is an attempt to get the lousy, coast-along, “dissenting Catholic” group into official power in the Church. It’s not going to work, but he’s going to make it very hard for the good Catholics.
I’m still trying to figure out how anybody who claims Christ, be they Catholic, Baptist, Amish or whatever, could vote for 0bama, the most pro baby death politician of all times.
Yet, many of them did.
I think the dichotomy of Catholic vs. Protestant in this instance is a false one. Even among Protestants, there will be great differences regarding acceptance of this behavior (abortion, premarital sex, homosexuality, stem cell research, children outside marriage, gambling, divorce) between denominations. Probably greater thhan what this poll described.
For example, Episcopalians, ELCA Lutherans, UCC, etc, are quite probably more likely to sanction this behavior than are Traditional Anglicans, LCMS Lutherans, some Baptist Groups, and non-denominational “born again” Christians are.
Another problem I see, regarding the rearing of children, is far too many Christians leave the responsibility of teaching spiritual matters and values of the their children to the “church” rather than themselves. Considering the liberal infiltration of so many seminaries, it would not be surprising that the younger generation has adopted a more lax attitude toward morality.
It’s called Free Will. We were gifted by God with the ability to choose our behaviors. We can decide to conform to His Will, or not, and we assume the responsibility for it. That works for every human, churched or unchurched.
The RCC needs to put more emphasis on the primcy of God’s word rather than the primacy of Rome’s word.
In charity, too many Catholics haven’t seen the direct link from God to the words of the Bible, and the best way to fix that would be for Rome to recognize that God’s Word is supreme, without the filter of Roman authorities. I think the RC C would amplify their effectiveness if they were to do this.
Seems that I know a lot of cradle Catholics who reject the church’s teachings yet call themselves Catholic for whatever reason. And then you have political ‘cafeteria’ Catholics who have invented their own God to try and assuage their conscience. I think a lot of weaker Catholics use their example to help justify themselves. This is why Pope Benedict seems to be a blessing so far. He seems to stand for what is right.
For one, it’s a view and perception of sin...The Catholic church is far more liberal than Protestant churches when it condemns the totality of sinful practices...
Gambling is encouraged in the Catholic church...Not so in many Protestant churches...Drinking alcohol is encouraged in the Catholic church...The Protestants to a degree agree with God on this issues that alcohol creates all sorts of problems...
One of which is we all know that it’s far easier to talk a girl out of her clothes when she’s consumed copius amounts of the juice...
In the Catholic church, only heinious type sins are condemnable and require forgiveness...It’s not uncommon for a Catholic to g for a full year without confession and repentance...
Jesus hates ‘all’ sin...Many protestants confess their sins, big or small, daily, or hourly...
After Vatican II, many Ccatholic leaders wne nuts with liberalizing everything. As a result you see what we now have; an uneducated so-called Christian group who call them selves Catholic when, in fact, they are neither Catholic nor Christian. For othodox Catholics it has been a continual struggle to stand up for moral principles and for the basic belief in Jesus and his mercy.
The tide is turning, but unfortunately it has taken so long that severe damage has been wrought to millions of human souls who are more into the new-age religions than Christianity.
All anyone has to do is read:
“The Little Number of Those Who Are Saved”
by St. Leonard of Port Maurice
http://olrl.org/snt_docs/fewness.shtml
An example for those fallen away and disobedience.
Note to my Catholic friends: Educate or cleanse your faith of the “ethnic Catholics” and “cafeteria Catholics,” to say nothing of milquetoast clergy.
The Catholic private schools in my area (San Jose) seem very liberal to me. They have the Day of Silence for Gays, they were openly supporting Obama, they were against Prop 8.
If their schools are liberal, it means they are teaching those kids to be liberal.
I will say that I think the mainstream protestant churches have also gone very liberal. The Methodist church that I grew up with in the 70s is very different from the Methodist church of today. I’m not a Methodist anymore. It’s too liberal for me.
What, exactly, is an orthodox Protestant? There are so damn many sects.
Besides, isn’t the gist of Protestantism that you read the Bible, have a chat with Jesus, and make up your own mind about everything? How hard is it to stick to that?
Duh.
Again, duh.