kim wilson:
heresy: NOUN: 1a. An opinion or a doctrine at variance with established religious beliefs, especially dissension from or denial of Roman Catholic dogma by a professed believer or baptized church member. b. Adherence to such dissenting opinion or doctrine.
Still, heresy seems a very light criticism compared to depictions of Catholics melting in hell or being called the “Whore of Babylon.”
I find it interesting that you have chosen a definition which represents the term specifically in reference to the Catholic Church, rather than the wider definition available in the second half of the
American Heritage Dictionary’s entry, or that in the
OED. What they show, however, is partly displayed above: the effect of the accusation of heresy is a twofold, in that it both condemns the activity of the other and validates the ideology of the self. In other words, it does not merely say, “You are wrong”, but, instead, “You are wrong because you disagree with us.” This has an interesting effect when we compare that with just exactly what ‘heresy’ is, from a Catholic perspective.
In the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, heresy is listed among the “ruptures that wound the unity of Christ’s Body” (paragraph 817). So, heresy is characterised not merely as difference of opinion, individuality, or dissent, but rather as an attack upon the Body of Christ. Heretics are violent assailants of the Church, then, a description remarkably reminiscent of that of the Thief in John 10:10, which is usually read as a description of Satan. It seems remarkably similar to the charge against the Whore of Babylon, in that she was found “drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus” (Rev 17:6).
Returning to the
CCC, we find a more thorough definition of heresy, when it is described as “the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same” (2089; my emphasis). That “must” is important.
Now, we turn to the concept of mortal sin, a sin “whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.” (1857) Heresy concerns a grave matter, because it is refusal to accept something which “must” be believed and because it is an assault on the Body of Christ. It is, from a Catholic ideological viewpoint, committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent because it can only be committed by someone who has been baptised, i.e., by someone who theoretically belongs to the Catholic Church and can no longer unknowingly deviate from Catholic dogma (which is the difference between ‘heresy’ and ‘incredulity’, in para 2089). Thus, heresy is a mortal sin.
Of mortal sin, it should be noted that, “If it is not redeemed by repentance and God’s forgiveness, it causes exclusion from Christ’s kingdom and the eternal death of hell” (1861). Heresy is a ticket to
Hell, then.
The
Catholic Encyclopedia follows the same logic, saying, in its entry on the ‘Gravity of Heresy’, ‘Now faith is the most precious possession of man, the root of his supernatural life, the pledge of his eternal salvation. Privation of faith is therefore the greatest evil, and deliberate rejection of faith is the greatest sin. St. Thomas (II-II, Q. x, a. 3) arrives at the same conclusion thus: “All sin is an aversion from God. A sin, therefore, is the greater the more it separates man from God. But infidelity does this more than any other sin, for the infidel (unbeliever) is without the true knowledge of God: his false knowledge does not bring him help, for what he opines is not God: manifestly, then, the sin of unbelief ( infidelitas ) is the greatest sin in the whole range of perversity.”’
So, the accusation that Protestantism is a heresy is tantamount within Catholic ideology to an accusation of the perpetration of a violent, malicious crime against the Body of Christ, a crime which, as a mortal sin, will result in the perpetrator going directly to Hell.
Brigand and fuel for the fires, or prostitute and fuel for the fires? The charge against Protestants is certainly no less than the charge against Catholics, and the two are so similar that I have to suspect that they were issued in the same era, one in response to the other.
Personally, I would rather go for “there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift” (Rom 3:22-4), but that is a minority viewpoint.
Every single person is in the wrong before God: and God alone can “put us in the right” 
This is a message board and he wanted to talk about what he is experiencing!Alot of us went through the same thing and it leaves you with questions,this is not a stupid thread and I do think it is over the line to call it that:banghead: