I can speak to this a little bit. While I am fairly new to posting on FR I’m not new to lurking and have been here on a daily basis for many years now lurking through the RF and reading the threads.
To be honest the reason I began posting was in response to the “negative press” being posted by others. So in that sense I should say thank you to you and other non-Catholic Christians for awakening within me the the desire to defend my Catholic faith.
While we are not to read the minds of other posters in the RF I don’t think it can be denied that the spirit in which that “negative press” is posted is less than charitable in most cases. There exists an air of triumphal derision in some of those postings that is quite unseemly.
I sympathize with Salvation and other long term “FRoman Catholics” who’ve beeen defending the Faith day-in and day-out for years, trying to do so in the most charitable manner possible. Sometimes that hasn’t always been possible and for me personally I couldn’t allow them to carry the burden by themselves any longer.
You are absolutely correct about the Catholic Church, however. Because we have been given the fullness of Truth and Faith (I know you will disagree) we have an obligation to defend the Faith. As it has been said the more that has been given the more that will be required. And each one of us responds according to our individual charism.
Having said all that, I recognize the spirit in which the OP was offered and I did respond in kind even though I didn’t agree with all of the conclusions that were proffered.
Peace be with you.
What the Bible says, though, is that we are not to depend on our reason. We are to “trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding.” We are not to think we can follow “what’s *right* *in our own eyes.” And we’re to remember that there’s a way that seems right to a man, but it leads to death. We are blind. We aren’t to interpret things ourselves, but go to God for interpretation.
Let’s also consider some things about sin, Hell and salvation. We’re responsible for sin. To God, we’re like violent criminals in prison who don’t see the rrors of our ways, and justify ourselves no matter what we’ve done. But if, for example, someone who has murdered someone’s child says, “yes, I was wrong, but I admit so I’ve worked very hard and I’ve more than made up for what I’ve done wrong,” (Cont’d)