M
Matariel
Guest
Ugh. This isn’t the first time this has happened.
I picked up the *Bible Baptist Tribune *today, it was sitting on the coffeetable. My Baptist grandmother had left it there. There were several off-base things in there, but most of it was okay.
Or, at least I thought that it was okay until I came across an article about world evangelization. There was a map, showing the areas of supposedly “reached” and “unreached” people.
I was upset. Foremost, the majority of Catholic-dominated countries were shown as “formative/nominal churches”.
The ones that weren’t were the South American countries, which were shown as “emerging” and “growing” churches; in other words, the new-fangled, Protestant-planted sects were the only ones considered, the Catholic Church was considered nominal and “opposed to Christ”.
Secondly, the Orthodox-dominated areas were shown completely nominal, and the Coptic Orthodox Church, and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church were shown as completely nominal, too. Only the Protestant areas (United States) and places where there was servere Protestant missions aimed at converting Catholics were shown as blue (“emerging church”) and green (“growing”).
In other words, even though there are Catholics and Orthodox, many very devout and living in poor regions, and some even suffering and dying for their faith-- are all nominal and need to be converted to evangelical Protestantism.
That is so presumptuous and judgmental, it’s beyond belief.
The article stated (in a paragraph entitled, Spiritually Unfriendly Forces):
“Today we must challenge the claims of world religions opposed t Christ, such as Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. We must also counter the false teachings of Catholicism, the cults, and the New Age Movement.”
They put Catholicism right in the same category as “the cults” and the New Age Movement!
Why do alot of Protestants (not all) do this? This is one of several times I’ve seen this, repeatedly. There was even a previous article in the Bible Baptist Tribune that talked about a man who tried to convert an Orthodox priest, and saying the Orthodox priest was nasty to him. They also sayed that they encountered an Orthodox woman crying, because “she didn’t know why that boy [Jesus] had to die on a cross”. Sounds like a made-up story to me.
They have no right to paint the Orthodox and Catholics like this.
The Orthodox and the Catholics have done one hundred more times evangelization than the Protestant sects, but then they’re accused of all being “nominal”.
What justifies this? What causes this kind of presumption? What causes this judgmentalism? Is it a part of evangelical Protestantism’s (supposed) anti-Catholicism and anti-Orthodox mentality, considering them all nominal…?
It really gets me steamed, seeing this kind of sweeping accusations of nominality against the Catholic Church and the Orthodox churches. It’s just not right.
I picked up the *Bible Baptist Tribune *today, it was sitting on the coffeetable. My Baptist grandmother had left it there. There were several off-base things in there, but most of it was okay.
Or, at least I thought that it was okay until I came across an article about world evangelization. There was a map, showing the areas of supposedly “reached” and “unreached” people.
I was upset. Foremost, the majority of Catholic-dominated countries were shown as “formative/nominal churches”.
The ones that weren’t were the South American countries, which were shown as “emerging” and “growing” churches; in other words, the new-fangled, Protestant-planted sects were the only ones considered, the Catholic Church was considered nominal and “opposed to Christ”.
Secondly, the Orthodox-dominated areas were shown completely nominal, and the Coptic Orthodox Church, and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church were shown as completely nominal, too. Only the Protestant areas (United States) and places where there was servere Protestant missions aimed at converting Catholics were shown as blue (“emerging church”) and green (“growing”).
In other words, even though there are Catholics and Orthodox, many very devout and living in poor regions, and some even suffering and dying for their faith-- are all nominal and need to be converted to evangelical Protestantism.
That is so presumptuous and judgmental, it’s beyond belief.
The article stated (in a paragraph entitled, Spiritually Unfriendly Forces):
“Today we must challenge the claims of world religions opposed t Christ, such as Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. We must also counter the false teachings of Catholicism, the cults, and the New Age Movement.”
They put Catholicism right in the same category as “the cults” and the New Age Movement!
Why do alot of Protestants (not all) do this? This is one of several times I’ve seen this, repeatedly. There was even a previous article in the Bible Baptist Tribune that talked about a man who tried to convert an Orthodox priest, and saying the Orthodox priest was nasty to him. They also sayed that they encountered an Orthodox woman crying, because “she didn’t know why that boy [Jesus] had to die on a cross”. Sounds like a made-up story to me.
They have no right to paint the Orthodox and Catholics like this.
The Orthodox and the Catholics have done one hundred more times evangelization than the Protestant sects, but then they’re accused of all being “nominal”.
What justifies this? What causes this kind of presumption? What causes this judgmentalism? Is it a part of evangelical Protestantism’s (supposed) anti-Catholicism and anti-Orthodox mentality, considering them all nominal…?
It really gets me steamed, seeing this kind of sweeping accusations of nominality against the Catholic Church and the Orthodox churches. It’s just not right.
