Book by fundamentalists lack moral certitude.

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I purchased a book for my children called Health from a Christian Perspective. It is a typical health textbook put out by Abeka books, a fundamentalist Christian bookseller.

The majority of the book is quite thorough and well done. Its stance on moral issues, however, disturbs me. On issues such as abortion and drug use it advises “Biblical discernment”, citing some verses pertaining to the issue. While the verses cited, of course give evidence against it, no where are these practices condemned, nor is a definitive opinion given. As far as the birds and the bees are concerned, it ignores the issue altogether. I am shocked. A young person could easily rationalize these behaviors.

This indicates a theology that tells the believer to make up his own mind about moral issues. If that is the case, it explains the diverse points of view I hear from those of the fundamenalist persuasion.

Is this truly the case? Does fundamentalist Christianity condemn these issues, or are they left to personal interpretation?
 
“Fundamentalist” Christianity has no central authority. And, they subscribe to Sola Scriptura. So, it is not surprising that a book written by one would defer to “biblical discernment.”

Most evangelicals/fundamentalists strongly condemn abortion. But, there is no universal position because there is no central authority.

Buy your child Catholic books.
 
Protestant do have a centual authority, God and His Word
 
This theological system is mortally dangerous to the soul. 😦

“First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (2Peter 1:20).

“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies…And many will follow their licentiousness and because of them the way of truth will be reviled. …” (2Peter 2:1-2)

Many people I know who hold to this belief that the Bible is “it”, (even replacing Jesus with it, I’ve seen it), commit all sorts of sinful acts, but don’t believe they are sinful. (I do as well, but I know I am wrong).

In my mind, those that replace the Word of God with the word of God are committing a grievous error and even heresy (free choice). It is grieveous because it fails to condemn sinful acts. They must be evangelized to the Truth. I will not be using Abeka again.
 
allischalmers said:
Protestant do have a centual authority, God and His Word
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If this were true, then all protestants would believe the same doctrine. Which, of course, they don’t.

It’s an untenable position and you can’t defend it.
 
1ke said:
If this were true, then all protestants would believe the same doctrine. Which, of course, they don’t.

It’s an untenable position and you can’t defend it.
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And it’s directly contradicted by the Bible:

2 Thessalonians 2:15 So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us.

I’m going to have to get out of here before I convert myself.
 
allischalmers said:
Protestant do have a centual authority, God and His Word
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First, I don’t like the term “Fundamentalist”. Protestants themselves have a hard time discerning the subtle differences in denominations that move one tradition to the Fundamentalist camp and another denomination to another category. For example, Karl Keating’s book implies in one section that all Calvinists are Fundamentalists, that once-saved-always saved is a primary factor to consider. The problem with this, though, is that it’s not quite true–Presbyterians, for example.

As a relatively new Catholic who was raised in the Nazarene denomination and attended Free Methodist university for years, I can say that the issue of authority is extremely important. I can take a single issue like abortion, for example, and bring it before ministers from the Lutheran (ELCA), Lutheran (Missouri Synod), Episcopal Church, and the Free Methodist Church. Each minister is likely to offer a significantly different, if not altogether oppsing view on this fundamental issue of life and death. If the Scripture is the source of information, why the opposing views? If it’s the Holy Spirit (as the Episcopal Church says of their ordination of a practicing homosexual as bishop), then is the Holy Spirit contradicting Himself?

The Bible says that the Word of God and the Holy Spirit will never teach opposing views. There is only one place where faith and reason are truly what they are supposed to be–dovetailed, as it were–and that place is the Catholic Church.
 
Ceil-1 said:
I purchased a book for my children called Health from a Christian Perspective. It is a typical health textbook put out by Abeka books, a fundamentalist Christian bookseller.
Click to expand...
We home-schooled our kids for three years and it was one of the best experiences of our lives. It also helped us to become a more closely knit family. Most of out textbooks were from A Beka. There was one book that had some “information” that named Catholicism by name in a negative way. The problem is that A Beka puts out textbooks that are otherwise head and shoulders better than other home-schooling materials. They are slick and keep the kids’ attention spans. We just had to skip over negative or vague parts and inject our own religion into the coursework. Since we had total control over what we taught, this did not prove to be much of a problem. There are much worse (from a Catholic perspective) materials out there than A Beka. The homeschooling material put out by Bob Jones (if I remember the name correctly) University Press were slick, but absolutely and consistently hostile to Catholicism. We never used any of those materials.
 
1ke,

Then, would you recommend that our dialogue with Protestants, in general, focus on the moral issues rather than dogmatic or theological ones? I think that’s where the “men are separated from the boys”, so to speak in terms of belief.

I can understand one’s confusion with, say the real presence, or need for sacramental confession. I could not understand the ill-will and animosity purported by certain Protestant groups (which happen to have this OSAS and Scripture only bent). I always suspected such an attitude to be inspired by the enemy, and now I am convinced of it.

I’m pretty sure, in fact I know, a Lutheran person would agree that abortion is intrinsically evil and must be opposed. The same goes for a Methodist. Those two denominations are so balanced in their beliefs. Methodists are among the best Christians I’ve ever met. Even most Baptists seem to know wrong from right. I feel somewhat unified with them. With others, it’s a brick wall.
 
MagicKirk,

You are probably right. There is much worse out there. Someone suggested that they are just trying to be noncommittal so as not to offend anyone.
 
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