Mentality of Fundementalists/Extreme Protestants

[Retro_Ace]

I’ve noticed something that many Catholic’s defending the faith seem to lack the understanding of when talking to Fundamentalists and some Protestant’s which is the emotional/mental reasoning that keeps them from understanding our doctrine

1. Intercession is mediation-To them, Intercession and Mediation are one of the same, they are inseparable when someone goes to heaven, they do not need to pray for them anymore and if you do that your going to Hell, intent and justifactions are irrelevant
2. Veneration in the Catholic sense is idolotry-The very artistic nature of veneration and feast days are idolotry because “Look how decorated and show-offy your doing with these saints and Mary, how can you not call it worship?!”, they often say its different with patriots and history because Veneration of Saints and Mary have a supernatural flavor to it while History and Patriotism are often secular and not tied to any supernatural sense
3. Gnostic-like view of the world-To them, EVERYTHING is the devil, taking the word of “The Devil is The God of This World” fullest and that basically we convert, pray, and cower in our homes and sometimes sing, and anything entertainment, certain foods, and music are enpowered by the devil no matter what. The world will be better when God raptures us to purge the world and everything is all better, civilization is irrelevant because Jesus will eventually replace it all with a new one for them, creaiton is a mere accident
4. Often say “Jesus loves you!” after fear-mongering messages and often try to shirk any responsiblity. They see themselves as “mere messengers” and do this kind of pseudo humbling often trying to say “It’s not about me! It’s about Jesus!” and finnishing it with “Jesus Loves You!” so basically its them saying “See? We’re not being hateful and fear-mongering! No are we taking credit! We’re being good messengers!”
5. Nobody wants to hear us, so it must be true!-They take Jesus’s words of “those hating the truth” and take it to mean if anyone disagrees with them then it automatically means its true
6. Oppressed minority-They think that the true word of god would never have such a massive amount of believers so they paint them all as brainwashed and they themselves as an opressed minority, often using the decorative nature of the Catholic Church to look like a pompous bearing down tyrant and the Fundementalists as these poor little opressed people who are tryng to be seduced by even looking at mere cartoon character regardelss if its a postive figure

7.Jesus came so we don’t any organized religon anymore-To them the concepts of priests, heirarchy, its all no longer needed, no sucessor order to the Jewish System, we only need “sunday service” and prayer and thats it

 

[jschwartz]

At the end of the day, Scripture is in the hands of the Church. The Church decided in the early years what books would be counted in the canons. They decidedly chose to reject Thomas, Philip, and other Gnostic Gospels. The Church historically only looked at Scripture through the lens of Tradition, with an interpretative tradition of the Church Fathers and the Ecumenical Councils. God’s inspiration fell upon His people throughout the ages, whether it be Tertullian and Origen, Augustine, Aquinas, Teresa of Avila, or Julian of Norwich, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, or Barth, Berry, Kung, Tillich, etc. So to interpret Scripture without proper hermeneutics is just absurd. The Jews are the original People of the Book, and they interpret the Torah and Prophets and Writings through the same lens of Tradition and Talmud and Midrash. At least Mainline Protestants acknowledge this, and are not of this sola scriptura mentality. They have sophisticated theologians and a respect for Church tradition, as well as Experience and Reason, what we would classify as the Anglican three-legged stool or the Wesleyan Quadrilateral.

 

[Retro_Ace]

At least Mainline Protestants acknowledge this, and are not of this sola scriptura mentality. They have sophisticated theologians and a respect for Church tradition, as well as Experience and Reason, what we would classify as the Anglican three-legged stool or the Wesleyan Quadrilateral.

I’m aware, I’m referring to certain protestant groups and the “non-denominational” groups. James Patrick Holding is a Protestant who I hold in high regard for example

Often I ask my fellow Catholics to debate with who I call “orthodox” Protestants intelligently and remember that their concept of “orthodox Solo Scriptura” is different from what JP Holding calls Fundamentalists’ “Sola Scriptura Extremis”