“The Catholic church fought the easy divorce laws, and the Protestants stood back silently because the elites told them this was the evil Catholic church trying to foist their beliefs on America.
And when abortion was made a “choice” up to the time of birth, the protestants also were told that the evil Catholics wanted to foist their beliefs on America, so most were silent (I say most, because Dr. Koop back then did oppose abortion, but I can’t remember any other prominent Protestant doctor or church leader who did the same).
When Catholics opposed euthanasia in Oregon, again the media went by the meme that the evil Catholics were trying to foist their out of date beliefs on society.
Now with “gay marriage” the Bible churches are the target, but actually it is the Catholics and LDS churches who have been most active in opposing these laws.”
Have you noticed also it has been the Protestant churches embracing homosexuality and abortion? The Episcopagan on the leading edge? Others like the Presbys and Methodist are splitting over this. Yet we the Catholics were forcing our beliefs on everyone?
You know I don’t think that is correct. Catholics just held true to our beliefs while all others showed their true colors and came out of the closet!
Anglicans and Episcopalians are “genetically” closer to Catholicism than the confessional reformed churches and Baptists. If you want to see how the Presbyterians lost their property and their brand to liberals early in the 20th century, I would recommend a book by Gary North called Crossed Fingers, basically explaining how theological liberalism acts as a parasite to otherwise healthy churches, flushing out the conservative Sola Scriptura caucus, taking the property, but losing the candlestick of Christ’s presence.
Meanwhile, the true Christians escaping these denominational collapses always regroup and rekindle the flame. It is one of the greater misunderstandings between Catholics and Protestants. In a sense it is to be expected. Catholics, I believe, tend to think institutionally, and so judge Protestant institutions on their institutional merits. But the operating paradigm is different. We are more like refugees constantly escaping a pursuing enemy. I’ve seen it happen. We don’t have much power in this world. But we do have our Bibles, and each other, and the candlestick, and that’s enough.
BTW, I appreciate your posting the article. I know you had some bad experiences with some Baptists, so I also appreciate your going past that to see the good in this article. I know there are some just as you described them. Bear in mind some of us Baptists have both good and bad experiences with Catholics. Someone I love was forced into something terrible by her Catholic family for the sake of reputation and convenience, which thing I am certain no good FR Catholic would approve. But despite this I have refused to generalize, and would rather find the good when I can, and the common ground when it is there, without trying to tiptoe around the real differences when they are important.
And so that’s why I wanted to thank you for posting this. It gives me hope.
Peace,
SR
a lot of the problem is not the believers in the “mainline” churches, but that they allowed non believers into their seminaries and training colleges... because being a minister was a good career...