“Can we conclude every Catholic has no problem serving satan if they stay w/the RCC?”
In all the time I have been reading this forum, I have wondered if someone would one day come along with a comment like this; a comment that directly connects the individual Catholic with “serving satan” simply by being a member of the Catholic Church.
pnsn has done it with this “conclusion” offered in question form.
Yes, the religion forum guidelines does allow a poster to write about a particular profession of faith in very inflammatory words-—as long as those words are not directed at the individual.
Yet-—even those who may not necessarily be “thin-skinned’ could easily and logically perceive that when such style and language is directed at a particular religious profession (in this case Catholic) that it has its impression and impact on any person of that faith.
But now-—”if every Catholic has no problem serving satan if they stay w/the RCC”—now, it is pointed directly at the individual Catholic.
In other words—don’t we Catholics realize that if we remain Catholic we are serving satan? So we have no problem with that? If we don’t come out and be saved, aren’t we serving satan? And isn’t that the ultimate apostasy and blasphemy and falling away into hell—to serve satan?
This is why I have increasingly found that coming to this forum is to know that unless I stay on the devotional and prayer threads (or Catholic Caucus threads) that I am just being thin-skinned to be on another thread where the on-going themes are all that is wrong with Catholicism, if I find it objectionable and if I recoil from it.
There are some here whose posting history is almost exclusively to denounce, deride, denigrate and deplore anything and all things Catholic. The subjective, anecdotal “all Catholics are....”(fill in the blanks) posts are offered again and again and again.
Popes are called Nazis—or Marxists—whichever fits the current thread theme. The 98.5 priests who have been faithful servants are marked and categorized wholly and unjustly as evil predators and as practitioners of “craft”. We are group-identified as morally lax, indifferent and/or arrogant—all this by limited and personal judgments.
Catholic beliefs and practices are called blasphemous and from the pit of hell-—addressed to Catholics on this forum who practice the Catholic faith -—and we are not to take it personally?—we who are practicing Catholics?
We who truly practice our faith know what it is like to live in our own parishes, to have relationships with our own parish priests, to have communio with our fellow Catholics, to know that it isn’t true that we “don’t crack our Bibles” because we know about our parish Bible study classes and our small communities that meet in homes and our growing number of lay communities that are affiliated with religious orders.
We know our daily Masses in every parish have at least 100 people every morning to participate in Mass, bringing their books with them that contain the Bible readings for all the Masses in the given year. We know of the parishes in our urban areas that hold Masses at noon where many people come on their lunch hour to go to Mass. They know of the parishes where there is not only a morning Mass but an early evening Mass, where people can stop for Mass on their way home from work. There are are often over 100 people there.
They know that quite a few parishes have chapels for adoration that are open 24 hours a day and are never empty, not even in the midnight hours. These chapels have been in existence for many, many years.
They know that many parishes have groups that meet during the week to pray together.
We are not seen. We are not known. We are not very visible to those who don’t know about us. But we are there.
There are also many good Catholics who have come and gone on this forum, who found that they could do more for their Faith by not spending much time at the keyboard; they found that it served no good purpose to explain and defend when explanations and legitimate defenses were not the agenda; the agenda is to denounce Catholicism—period.
“The RCC has it’s (sic) roots in the demonic”.
Is this truth because you say it?
I very much miss some of those Catholics who are no longer here, but I understand why. I am there now myself. Those Catholic FReepers were good people, sincere people, conservative people; they were/are people who deserve the admonition of Peter 2:17, “you must respect the person of every man”.
I also miss the presence of some of the thoughtful, courteous Protestants—men/women of good will who I see hardly ever post here anymore.
So, pnsn, I think your question (which I have offered at the top of my post here) is quite direct: “can we conclude every Catholic has no problem serving satan if they stay w/the RCC?”
I, as a Catholic, have given my life to the Lord Jesus. I know He is my Savior, my Redeemer and that in His Cross I have salvation. I acknowledge all that is offered in the “little Gospel” (Luke 1:68-79) by Zachariah; that I have “knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of my sins”
There are a lot of Catholics who, like me, would say the same.
What are you to do about us, your brothers/sisters in Christ Jesus, pnsn?
There are plenty of Proddy congregations with folks more or less overtly conscioiusly or unconsciously serving satan, too. Some of us have noted this repeatedly.
And, there are RC's who feel that more or less all Proddys serve satan automatically . . . and they've said so on FR repeatedly.
Some RC's appear to be mean-spirited, harshly personal, vindictive, blood-thirsty in their tones and posting styles as indicated by their word choices, etc.
RELIGION is a fiercely held and contested playing field.
That's not new.
Personally, I believe the fierce iron sharpening iron aspect of FR is a blessing.
The challenges to our faith are going to become more and more intense.
Eventually, authentic Christians of every stripe will lay aside the petty distinctives--even those they THOUGHT were crucial and believe and act as blood brothers IN CHRIST'S BLOOD AND SPIRIT . . . MORE OR LESS REGARDLESS.
Some of us do in some contexts already.
It is not a horrible thing for fierce exchanges to surface internal crud that needs taken to The Cross, crucified and left their--even if daily. That is a gift. That is a Grace. That is a blessing. That is an OPPORTUNITY to BECOME MORE LIKE CHRIST. Praise God for the RC or Proddy who surfaced the crud in us or whomever.
That's much better than not having it surfaced and having it keep us out of heaven or cause us to lose a great blessing etc.
Some of us are able to engage in such exchanges with some amount of humor. That's a good sign. That which can't handle well or survive fierce satirical humor is likely too wimpy, TOO PRISSY, too self-righteous, too-idolized, too brittle, too unChrist-like . . . to begin with.
Judging even sinners out of a bad-faith, personal pique, human critical judgment sort of place is extremely hazardous.
Calling brothers on their crud is part of our Christian duty.
There is a difference. They may APPEAR and SOUND the same. The heart difference is crucial.
FR is NOT Rome's coloseum with lions and bears. FR is NOT the Spanish Inquisition.
It is little pixels and symbols on a screen.
If folks' experience of and handling of their RELIGION--certainly of their 'faith,' cannot well handle growthfully and redemptively little pixels on a screen, then they probably need to start over in a new venue with a new FAITH and trash their RELIGION altogether--regardless of who's side they are on.
RC's often cite rather wrongfully, imho, that the gates of hell will not prevail against the RC INSTITUTION.
Yet, they run around chronically wailing and whining that Proddys are prevailing toooooo successfully against their petty distinctives and they simply MUST have authoritarian redress from the AUTHORITIES on FR.
Gimme a break. Grow up.
For one, GATES are DEFENSIVE. Christians are to assault satan's kingdom and prevail.
Two, if Proddys are scoring too many points for comfort against RC hogwash--
B) Ignore the Proddy assertions or
C) Adjust the particulars more toward authentic Biblical Christianity or
D) avoid the Religion Forum or the contentious threads.
.
Otherwise, consider the source and whistle on down the road. It's "only" Proddys, after all.
Or sharpen your communication skills and use the Proddys' and their assaults as an OPPORTUNITY to grow up.
Or continue wailing, whining, throwing dust in the air, appealing to a rubberized history that never was; a rubberized 'Bible' that God had nothing to do with and a magicsterical bureaucracy that is an insult to God and man.
Just avoid being surprised, thin-skinned, wailingly pathetic and otherwise tastelessly disgraceful when Proddys have something to say about such things.
Standing ovation! Thank you for voicing the feelings the Catholics on these threads feel daily. We who have sons, brothers, cousins, uncles, and dear friends who are priests who have sacrificed the richness and rewards of family for the loneliness of service know that the accusations about the "priest craft" are nothing but vacuous lies by petty and empty persons, but we still feel the pain.