What is your opinion of this article about Evangelicals vs. Roman Catholics? Please read before responding. God bless!🙏

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A church with reasonable concepts that I, in good conscience, could believe in. My beliefs are what many would consider new-age, so that probably tells you are lot of what you need to know.

I believe the best any if us can do, with regards to the spiritual, is speculate. So it would have to be an organization that shares that concept.

For me to participate, it would not be able to claim it is a one true church. That would be a deal-breaker for me. LOL.
 
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QwertyGirl said:
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Brendan_64:
If it is the one true Church then you ought to try to accept that you are wrong and the Church is right, even though that may not be easy.
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Every religion believes it is the one, true religion.
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Not anymore.
For about a century, there has been a strong movement in the West that explicitly or implicitly teaches that there is no one truth, or rather that each person defines, or finds, which religious truth is meaningful for them.

This used to be limited to unitarians, but now has spread, in a dilute form, across much of Christianity.

In some books or classes they make reference to Jesus, but almost in the sense of the common Jesus experience, part of our shared cultural heritage, which draws us together. So Jesus is still useful, for unity, but each one can draw their own meaning.

This Relativism plus shrinking doctrine is arguably the established religion in much of the West now.
 
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I was speaking about traditional religions. I apologize for not clarifying.

Most religions still believe they have the answers, head and shoulders above any other religion. Even if they believe no one has the answers, that is what they believe, and they believe they are most correct (over religions that think otherwise) in holding that belief. That was really the point I was trying to make. Sort of like, in business, every company thinks their way is the best way (if they are worth their salt, at least).

Also, there is a difference between church and religion, of course.
 
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Some “Evangelicals” do have an advantage over Catholics and vice versa.

I’m well aware of the alternatives young Evangelicals have (I’ve grown with them) but I don’t know if Catholics have them. In some ways, Evangelicals have been doing the Benedict Option for years.

Unlike Catholics, “Evangelicals”, especially in Reformed circles in America, the memories of the Presbyterian splits are still fresh and J. Gresham Machen’s words are very much being confirmed. It’s not unusual to see those denominations kicking out pastors because they’ve been found guilty of heresy of some sort. Again, the events of the early 1900’s still haunts them.
 
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I have the same feeling about Evangelicism as I do about Mormonism. They have a defective product, but they work hard at promoting it. While we Catholics have the gold, and we (far too many in positions of power and authority) act as if it is yard weeds, or as if we are ashamed of it, or as if it’s not important, or as if we don’t actually believe all that nonsense. It is utterly maddening.
 
QwertyGirl said:
Even if they believe no one has the answers, that is what they believe, and they believe they are most correct (over religions that think otherwise) in holding that belief
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In most fields of knowledge, there are some theories or tenets that are deemed to have more truth than others. A physician will tell you that there are some principles overwhelmingly established, while on other principles there is room for disagreement.

Often there is some truth in many different theories, which does not preclude one theory from having the most truth.

One can find beauty in any painting, even mine. That does not mean Leonardo’s Last Supper must have the same amount of beauty as my pitiful scribble .

The fact that religious truth can be found in many religions does not mean the fullness of truth can’t be discerned somewhere. Equality of truth is not necessarily found.
 
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Would you rather people remain with no faith, no true belief, or worse yet with the intent to undermine the Catholic Church? Even Jesus allowed those that could not follow him to walk away.
 
Sounds like Evangelicals are doing a lot of accomodating. And compromising in the process? Anyway, Jesus didn’t dance to anyone else’s tune: Matt 11:17
 
Pattylt said:
And Evangelical numbers are decreasing as well. Perhaps not as dramatically as Catholisim but they also didn’t see decreases until recently so there may be catching up going on.
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Neither group in America are shrinking right now. The percentages are stable, which means they’re growing enough to keep up with the pace of overall population growth in America. Even if the percentages fall, they can still be growing but the general growth rate is larger than theirs.
For example, 20 out of 100 is 20% at year 1. Year 2, it’s 25 out of 150. That’s 16.7%. It shrunk as a percentage but it grew by 5.
Pattylt said:
The comments were betterhan the article in my opinion. Both sides chimed in and had some interesting points. If Evangelicals continue to water down the theology in order to fill the pews, what does that mean for Christianity? Does evangelical faiths have a reckoning coming? If everyone just ups and moves on when they don’t like the theology in their current church, how long before you have many churches with one member?
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Which Evangelicals? Some do, some don’t.
It really depends on what they don’t like. I don’t imagine most attending don’t know what their churches’ stances on the hot buttons social issues are. A number of churches around where I live even explicitly write on their websites their traditional positions on those issues. They aren’t doing bad in post-Christian Canada, which we’ve been for much longer than the US.
 
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Most Catholics don’t know their faith. It’s so easy to raise up a child with knowledge of the Catholic faith. It’s not difficult to
create and implement official programs where scripture, the catechism, the Early Church Fathers, the lives of the saints and martyrs, etc., are studied from earliest childhood. It’s not difficult to insist that the laity knows why, instead of simply what to believe, but too many in the hierarchy don’t want to be shepherds. They want to be FIRST in authority and position. Now, they are waking up to the reality that whole countries are leaving the Catholic Church. You would think that the great tragedy of losing England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Europe, and huge swathes of other nations would behoove them to heed the signs, but no, they depend on guilt, culture and tradition to keep people in the faith. When millions of laity leave out of an unsatisfied thirst for God they respond with consternation that anyone could leave the Catholic Church.
 
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I would suggest that you read John^:60-71. Some, who did not understand what Christ was teaching (e.g. the Apostles) stayed the course; others abandoned Christ - and I suspect that those in the section I note felt they did it in good conscience.

Just possibly, the Holy Spirit guides the Church (at least, that was what Christ promised) and if that is true, then like those over the last 2,000 years who have been confronted with doctrines they either did not understand or had problems accepting, we too need to put aside out own intellectual pride and submit to Christ.

And if anyone says that is easy, that person is a liar.
 
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What if the Holy Spirit has guided the Church and that’s why there are Eastern Orthodox and Protestant Christians?
 
glencor63 said:
Would you rather people remain with no faith, no true belief, or worse yet with the intent to undermine the Catholic Church? Even Jesus allowed those that could not follow him to walk away.
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How do you define “no true belief”?

If you were on a ship in the middle of a stormy sea and someone was onboard who didn’t agree with the ship’s rules, would you rather they jumped overboard and swam away somewhere else?
 
I mean people that are closet atheists. They don’t believe in God. They have never believed Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
 
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To the topic at hand, I find the comment by Matt in VA to be somewhat problematic. I seriously doubt that the Right (by which I presume he means the Republican Party) is going to totally fall into chaos.

But I hope that people reading this thread have followed hearings for judgeships. It has, to put it politely, been enlightening. According to the rules, personal faith expressions are not only off limits to question, but are also not to be considered in determining fitness for a judicial position.

There have been direct attacks on those proposed for both the Supreme Court and Federal judge positions on the Catholicism of the individuals, including a suggestion by one Democrat currently running for President, that the individual would need/should remove themselves from the Knights of Columbus as that was a radical right organization (read: it opposes abortion).

Hillary made an open and well publicized comment about religion needing to be a private matter - with the clear meaning that whatever you think about the morality of abortion, you need to keep to yourself. That same issue can be applied to any number of other issues the Democratic Party embraces. The current round of Senators and members of the House have openly embraced and voiced that anyone who follows Catholic teaching on morals has no place in the public sphere.

In short, they are already at the gates. Obama and staff and legislators made no bones about it when they refused to grant an exception to healthcare packages which included abortion. It is past time to wake up and smell the coffee; the radicals of the Democratic party are steering the rest of the party on a path which is going to bring us (Catholics, and Evangelicals who hold the same moral values and principles) in direct conflict with the laws which are being proposed right now.
 
I think some here have misunderstood the writer’s point. The point was the reader of the blog felt the Catholic Church is not as prepared as Evangelicals. He felt “Evangelicals” were more likely than Catholics to have adopted what Rod Dreher calls the Benedict Option.
And bear in mind, Dreher is a former Catholic who has been critical of the Catholic Church for yielding too much to secular forces.
 
We can hope and pray that they are moved by the Holy Spirit and/or called back by Christ to believe in the one true Church. I think it is unlikely though that such people will leave to join another faith.
 
There are Orthodox and Protestants both of whom have chosen to refuse to acknowledge the authority of the Pope (Orthodox) and the Magisterium (the teachings of Christ and the guidance of the Church in them - the Protestants). Both have left the Church that Christ founded.

I don’t recall Christ saying anything and then adding “Well, you can accept some of what I say and reject what you don’t like”.

And as I noted; some left Christ because he would not back down when they had a hard time understanding his teaching on the Eucharist, and some stayed - whether they “got it”, or understood what he was saying.

Given that the Orthodox in large part separated over authority, I seriously doubt the Holy Spirit was leading them to deny the authority handed down by Christ and followed for over 800 years.

And I seriously doubt the Holy Spirit was prompting the Protestants to reject 1500 years of teaching on sacraments and other matters the Protestants rejected.
 
Yet, God has used the Protestant Reformation to spread the Gospel to every continent. Explain? Some historians postulate that the United States of America wouldn’t exist without the Reformation.
 
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