Thursday, October 31, 2013

Protestants have poisoned the world

So says Mark Shea.  As the ship continues to sink into the abyss, Mark throws away yet one more shard of his former life and finally declares that while some Protestants are no doubt lovely people, the Reformers were evil liars who poisoned humanity.  Did the Reformation bear some fruit?  Yes, as did Judas Iscariot's betrayal of Christ!  This is a far cry form Mark Shea, c. 2005, who admitted the flaws of Protestantism, and its errors, while still holding up important recognition of the Church's own culpability at the time, as well as the positive witness that Protestants have brought to the world. 

I get that the individualized interpretive base upon which Protestant reformers leaned on is now a cancer in the post-modern world of relativity.  But here's the thing folks.  The Protestant Reformers were, for lack of a better word, Catholics.  The Catholic Church had stood over the very environment out of which humanism and its influence on the Reformers grew.  Again, nothing wrong with pointing out the fundamental flaws, esp. the fundamental flaw, of the Reformation.  But be honest.  The mechanisms were already in place in a world where there was only One Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.  A lesson for those who act like what the Church has no responsibility for teaching its flock, or what the latest Pope is saying is no big deal.  Just shut up and obey.  It didn't work in the 16th century.  I don't see it doing well today.

2 comments:

  1. Well a nice big middle finger to Misters Shea and Chesterton too. I mean ... really? Protestautism is worse than say... Islam? (which was attacking Catholics before it was cool)

    And protestantism is worse for the poor? really? Is that why we have all that migration of the poor from those horrible protestant countries to all those Catholic ones? Remember how Mexico was having to deal with all the castoffs of the US? Oh wait...

    To reference this Hoyt article:
    http://accordingtohoyt.com/2013/09/03/curing-our-common-cold/
    Last I checked, the poor in Catholic countries were starving, while those in Protestant nations are obese.

    Seriously though, I've sometimes wondered how much the reformation mirrored the split between Israel & Judah. How much of it may have been God's punishment ...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Whoops also meant to post this

    http://accordingtohoyt.com/2013/10/17/paradise-regained-again-and-again-and-again/

    ReplyDelete

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