This really is the problem in a nutshell.
Suppose two people are talking about New York City. One says, "It's a lovely place with museums and theaters and wonderful restaurants,and the people are so nice!"
Another says, "It's dirty and cruel, and the people are dangerous and rude."
Our response would be, at least one of those people is mistaken.
In general, the "Protestant" response is, or seems to be, "There are two New Yorks, the real one and the demonic one, and the second guy believes in the demonic one.
WE would say, the Muslims are sadly and disastrously mistaken about the one God. THEY would say, "They do not worship the one God -- but some other god."
This is a crucial philosophical difference, and it lies near the heart of our differences.
Of course it's exacerbated by what are cultural issues. For the 'gesture language' of Catholics, kissing is merely a sign of respect, like kissing your crazy great aunt who smells bad.
But Protestants with their colder English and Northern European gesture language make more of kissing. And then their cultural chauvinism and provincialism makes it hard for them to accept that the gesture of kissing could have such a range of meanings and affects attached to it.
But the interesting and important part of the disagreement is just as you have expressed it.
We Catholics tend to think there is one God about whom polytheists (who generally have a kind of super-god behind their pantheon), Buddhists, Muslims, Taoists, Jain, and a host of others are wrong in very important ways.
Protestants, in general, whatever they actually think about God, angels, and demons, tend to conclude -- or at least say -- that critical mistakes mean they are worshipping another god, as though there were many or as though what one conceives in one's error has an existence outside oneself.
To me, probably because of some incapacity of mine, that seems simply incoherent. But they seem to understand one another.
Sorry for the length. The simplest things take the most words.
Very good post
To paraphrase the Dawg: "Stinkin whities! Why can't they be like us lovin latins!?"
Protestants, in general, whatever they actually think about God, angels, and demons, tend to conclude -- or at least say -- that critical mistakes mean they are worshipping another god, as though there were many or as though what one conceives in one's error has an existence outside oneself.
You're right! Protestants see idolatry everywhere. That's what happens when someone reads and understands the Bible. ++Paul++ reiterated in many of his epistles that immorality itself is idolatry. If you get a chance check out the prophets of old. Whoaa-Dawgies, talk about people obsessed with idolatry. Something about law written on stone, I believe. A certain thread runs throughout Scripture that describes antithesis. As the theologian John Frame puts it:
The Bible often divides people into two classes, antithetically related. There are the sons of Cain and of Seth (Gen. 4-6), Israel and the nations (Ex. 19:5-6), the righteous and the wicked (Ps. 1), the wise and the foolish (Prov. 1:7), the saved and the lost (Matt. 18:11), the children of Abraham and those of the devil (John 8:39-44), the elect and the nonelect (Rom. 9), believers and unbelievers (1 Cor. 6:6), practitioners of the wisdom of the world and of the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1-2), those who walk in light and those who walk in darkness (1 John 1:5-10), the church and the world (1 John 2:15-17).
Check out the rest of the article. I hope that leads to a better understanding of whitey.
Thats picture perfect reply!! LOL! Your Good!
But what you've said is exactly the point I was getting at. Thanks for posting it.