Yes.
Yes. But the issues addressed were theological & structural ones.
Allow me to summarize the article from what I saw...Let me first say what the article commended about Catholics and Catholicism:
1. It said that it's NOT "a demonic institution."
2. It said Catholics were "people who were very, very nice."
3. Catholics were "very kind" to this pastor when his elder sister died.
4. "When I was an unmannerly and disobedient brat at school the Mother Superior attempted to discipline me and show me a better way."
5. "When my family arrived in a new and strange land (California), the nuns befriended us, fed us, connected us with others who could help us, invited us to a New Years Day dinner, and in the cosy confines of the convent introduced our family to the unsettling phenomenon of North American football."
6. "A Catholic family provided us with a house and more tokens of kindness than I could possibly relate."
7. "Catholics have touched my life in ways that I shall never forget and shall always appreciate.'
8. "...it is so sad when Protestants are strident and unkind in their efforts to win Catholics to Christ! ‘Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one,’ said Paul (Colossians 4:6a). How often our apologetic has been ‘salty’ in an unsanctified sense!"
9. "The Appeal of Love I believe that my neighbour, the Catholic, needs Christian love. It was by their love that I recognized the true followers of Jesus Christ."
10. "I knew that there was a God. I had learned from the Catholic Church that he was a righteous God and a God who judges."
11. "Whatever I say to my Catholic neighbour, I want it to be accompanied by deeds of kindness."
12. "...I want them to have no doubt that I love them. When I speak the gospel to them I want my actions to speak just as loudly, telling them that they are loved of God and loved by his people. I want them to see the Lord’s face in mine."
13. He comments quite positively on Catholic "solemnity, the sobriety, the sense that we were in the presence of Someone wholly ‘other’ than ourselves. It was striking because that sense is only a distant memory for most evangelicals, and many feel well rid of it. Many are rushing headlong to embrace a full-filled, non-threatening, cheery and up-beat approach to worship. rbid that we should feel any fear and sense of humiliation...it was striking to sit in the Catholic Church. While it is true that some Catholic churches are adopting the evangelical prescription for success, in this particular parish there was still a sense of solemnity. I felt I was in the presence of the Holy One, and it made me long for days when evangelicals would flee from the Ringling Brothers approach to church and remember that we worship our ‘Father who is in heaven!’ I believe my Catholic neighbour is struck by the loss of awe in evangelical churches, and is left unimpressed."
The theological "attacks" focused on:
a. ..."a system and in the grip of a religion that is so far from true Biblical Christianity."
b. issues of authority (the Bible alone) and of salvation (by faith alone) & grace vs. works-righteousness & the pride & even Pharisaical legalism that tends to accompany it.
c. his background of saying "hail mary's" and rosary ritualism
d. "...I recall the days when I knew by experience that there was no peace for the wicked, that there was no rest in the round of activities prescribed by Rome, that there was deep within a longing for a different, a better way.
You said: Don’t think the attacked parties should respond as they see it?
Indeed, respond...
But did you address a, b, c, d above in your response? (I didn't see it)
Instead, the grounds of your response proved to be the exact same thing you accused others of doing:
You attacked the...
...stewardship of others' time...
...inward motivation -- as if we know what that is for others ("insecurity of faith" is the way you implied it)
...comments as being "demonically" sourced...when here the author said that the Catholic institution is NOT demonic...IoW, you escalated it all...
...direction of even challenging other Christians' systems' beliefs at all -- and if you don't believe other Christians are to be challenge other Christians, then why were you doing that?
It's almost like saying you don't believe in revenge, but then proceed on to a vengeful reaction.
Well, I’m amazed. You have expended untold hours scribbling away in a pointless effort to win me over to your point of view.
The real effect of which is to make me - and any other normal person edge away from you and whatever beliefs you associate yourself with.
If you feel that you have the need to change somebody’s beliefs, buy yourself a ticket to Syria or Iraq or Libya and have at it.