Next you will tell me that Mormons want to be called something else.
Maybe they do, I wouldn’t know. If a Mormon tells me that the word Mormon is offensive to him, I’ll use something else. This isn’t a matter of PC, it is a matter of civility. If a man wants to be called Robert, I don’t address him as Bob. What ever happened to being civil? The good doctor asked me how old I am. I am old enough to remember when conservatives believed in traditional values. And civility is a traditional value. Maybe it isn’t with generation X.
I assumed that gamecock, in posting the piece that spoke of “Romanism”, was implicitly endorsing it. If I was mistaken, and gamecock actually does not approve of such usage, then I am very happy to apologize to him.
I am not quite sure why several Protestants here are all worked up. Someone posted an article mocking certain aspects of the Catholic Church. That is where this began. I pointed out that the thing being mocked has biblical precedent. I also noted that Calvin and Luther did no miracles. Maybe that was not so nice on my part, but at least it was a rational argument, and not just mockery. The argument was that authenticated miracles are, if anything, evidence for not against a religion. (Well, maybe the part about the sick cow was mockery, I admit to that. Mea culpa.) I can understand if someone might have been annoyed by my posting about Luther and Calvin. What I cannot understand is why anyone who indulges in mockery and incivility would be upset at being criticized for mockery and incivility. At one level, I am happy that some Protestants continue to use terms like papist and Romanist. It is a confession of intellectual bankruptcy on their part. And that works to the advantage of Catholicism. In spite of that, I regret it, because I think it gives a very bad witness to non-Christians.
I no despiser of Protestantism. I have been asked to speak on religious subjects at quite a few Protestant churches and colleges, including conservative and evangelical ones. I have several very conservative Protestant pastors and theologians (some of national reputation) as my good friends. These good men do not go around mocking Catholicism and using silly terms like papist. They are grown-ups. They realize that it hurts the cause of Christ.
Hey! Kindly leave us out of this discussion. Being neither Catholic nor Protestants, we have no dog in this fight.
That said, the article struck me as mean-spirited. I can just imagine that the author wrote it with a sneer.