Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 294
March 26, 2012
Annunciation
Why Women Cannot Be Priests
March 25, 2012
Ladyday, Frodo Baggins and Happy New Year
Conversation
Tabs
What About those Awful Catholics?
There are plenty of people out there who want to dismiss the Catholic faith because of bad Catholics. "How can you follow a faith" they wail, "which has suppressed women, tortured and raped little boys and killed millions of people?"
Every Catholic has to admit that there are bad Catholics. Really bad Catholics. Vile, evil, wicked and depraved people who are Catholics.
However, since when do we judge any group or nation or religion only by their worst examples and by only by their followers and not by their beliefs?
Let's say we want to decide if America is a great country or not. Would it be fair to judge America by the corrupt politicians, the murderous gangsters, the greedy Wall Street bankers, the drug addled movie stars, the serial killers and the inhabitants of our worst jails? I don't think so.
Sure we'd have to take them into account, but we'd also have to consider the great and good Americans, the ordinary good folks, the noble, brave and best examples of American citizenry. We'd also have to weigh America not only by the actions and decisions of her citizens, but by her founding principles, her documents of state–the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
Same with the Catholic faith. Consider the whole thing objectively.
Or just remain an ignorant, brainwashed bigot.
Atheism: The Opiate of the People
Yesterday there was an atheist rally in Washington DC. that attracted about 10,000 people. (compare this to the March for Life with probably 30 times that number) I thought it might make an interesting exercise to turn the atheist's guns back on themselves. Using the kind of rhetoric the atheists and mainstream media use against the Catholic faith, here's how it would go:
Nearly a thousand atheists gathered in the Mall in Washington yesterday for a rally. The dismal weather reflected their sad message. An aging college professor from England spoke about atheism and tried to enthuse the crowd. Several comedians and television presenters also spoke.
The speakers tried to be enthusiastic about a message which is alternately sad and angry mish mash of political correctness, tired left wing activism and an out of date sexual libertarianism. The aging activists tried to make their message sound radical and controversial, and if they actually had any power it would be, for beneath the benign activism and pleas for 'tolerance' atheism is actually the most murderous and vile belief system the world has ever seen.
The fact of the matter is: atheists are killers. It began with the French Revolution where rationalists and atheists killed millions with their efficient killing machine the guillotine. Not content to simply wipe out their enemies, the rationalist mobs went on the rampage looting and thieving and destroying ancient works of art, architecture and culture.
The French Revolution was just the beginning. The killing continued in wave after wave of atheistic violence. The Russian Revolution, the Chinese Revolution, the Nazi Revolution, the Stalinist Regime, Communism, the Khmer Rouge–all were avowed enemies of God, the Jewish religion and the Catholic Church. The gas chambers, the killing fields, the concentration camps, the slave labor, the medical experiments on living subjects, the torture, rape and murder of little children–all this is the fruit of atheism.
Atheists are in favor of abortion and euthanasia. This means they are misogynistic haters of women. They invade the womb of a woman and tear her child from it–leaving untold psychological and physical damage to the poor woman who they then throw out into the street without any concern for her welfare.
Atheists favor abortion. This means they dismember little children who are still alive in their mother's wombs. If they don't do that they scald off their skin with chemicals, then pull them from the womb and kill them. They kill old people and terminally ill people in their beds without their consent. Atheism and utilitarianism are two ugly sisters who happily imprison, torture and kill millions of innocent people to create a 'better world'.
The Lords of Atheism reign supreme from their posh studies in Oxford, Cambridge or the Ivy League. Dining at the high table with the rulers of the world, they inhabit their mansions and summer homes and live high off the hog while the poor suffer at their hands. All the atheist rulers are rich–most of them old, rich, white men who conspire together to eliminate black people through abortion and "population control." and "reproductive health."
They churn out their vile propaganda–destroying the faith and trust of innocent children and harmless people who only want to practice a faith that inspires them to love and forgive one another, feed the hungry, clothe the naked and help the poor.
The harsh and unyielding atheists instead attempt to brainwash innocent children in their 'secular' schools by insisting that they cannot say prayers at school. They cannot learn a theory of the world's origins that includes an intelligent designer. They forbid with force all teaching of religion and so abuse children by denying them the innocent beauty of a simple faith.
Yes, atheism is the true opiate of the people. The vast hoards suck it up like a drug. What a delight it is to them to never have to think about heaven or hell or a final judgement. They can now do whatever they like. They can pursue their own selfish pleasure and become more and more numb. Like drug addled addicts they have smoked the opium of atheism–wallowing in their pleasure, they think they will never have to take responsibility for their actions.
The opium of Atheism allows them to live in a dream world where they can indulge themselves for their whole life and never have to give account for what they've done. How can they live in such a dream land–such a land of manufactured, seductive lies and a sweet belief that when they die they will "simply cease to be"? What shallow and sad wishful thinking!
This is merely a lie concocted by those who are afraid of death and the afterlife. Instead of facing the fact of heaven and hell and judgment with courage and determination they have fooled themselves into believing that there is no afterlife and that they will simply go to sleep one day and not wake up.
One could criticize atheism and atheists in such terms, but of course that would be unfair. It would be sheer exaggeration and propaganda based on bigotry, ignorance and hatred.
And we wouldn't want that now would we?
March 24, 2012
Are Catholics Christian?
Living in the Bible Belt has its moments. There's a gritty reality to the religion in the South, and fairly often you feel like you really are living in a Flannery O'Connor story.
One of the crunchy parts of living here are the "separated brethren" who seriously ask, "Are Catholics Christian?" It's a difficult question to answer, not because there is no answer, but because the answer is on the one hand so obvious, yet if the question is being asked you realize that the answer is not obvious at all. In fact, you realize that the person asking the question is only doing so because he already truly believes that Catholics are not Christian.
The way forward is to define what we mean by "Christian". Catholics define "Christian" as any person who is baptized and who has faith in Jesus Christ. Insofar as this goes, most Christians from every denomination would agree. This definition of "Christian" is a baseline. It's the foundation.
The problem comes with Evangelical, Biblicists who don't actually have a clear definition of what a Christian is except to say that a "Christian" is someone who has "accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior" or someone who has "been saved" or someone who has "asked Jesus into their heart." The problem with this definition is that there is no objectivity to it. Just what does it mean to "accept Jesus into your heart" to "get saved" or "accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior"?
Very often this means that the person in question has had a particular type of religious experience. They have gone forward at a revival meeting or prayed the sinner's prayer or wept for their sins and turned to Jesus. It doesn't take long to see that if this is the criteria for being a "Christian" then (allowing for a few slight differences in language) that most Catholics have done precisely this. If the sinner's prayer is a way of rejecting the world, the flesh and the devil and believing in Christ as Savior and Lord, then this is precisely what happens within the Catholic baptism rite. Repenting of one's sins and accepting the forgiveness of Christ is precisely what happens when a Catholic goes to confession. Repenting of sins and accepting Christ is precisely what happens at Mass.
The Evangelical is not comfortable with this because it all happens with "somebody just reading prayers out of a book." But why should the Catholic liturgy with set prayers and set music and hymns be any worse than the "liturgy" of the Evangelical preacher who follows a set formula for preaching, for giving the altar call and using the same emotional music (Just As I Am Without One Plea) Are not both liturgical set pieces? I think they are.
So, are Catholics Christian? Of course. They've repented of their sins. They've accepted the forgiveness of Christ. They've rejected the world, the flesh and the devil. They' decided to follow Christ within the faith of the Church.
This comparison between Evangelical and Catholic Christianity is something I have written on extensively in my book More Christianity. In it I compare the Evangelical way of looking at some aspect of Christian tradition and show how Catholicism does not contradict the Evangelical's faith, but fulfills and complete it.
The question therefore is not, "Are Catholics Christian" or "Are Evangelical Protestants Christian" but How much of the Christian faith do you embrace? Evangelicals tend to follow a reduced, minimalist version of the faith.
Catholics wish to have it all.
Think a cheese cracker and water or a five course Italian banquet.
I know which I'd prefer.
March 23, 2012
Female Cardinals
Mark Shea has picked up a story about the possibility of female cardinals in the church. I don't mind this at all, as long as their robes are brown…
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