Posted on 02/11/2013 9:42:59 AM PST by marshmallow
With Pope Benedict XVI’s shocking resignation this morning, Evangelical Christians might be tempted to see this the way a college football fan might view the departure of his rival team’s head coach. But the global stakes are much, much higher. As Pope Benedict steps down, I think it’s important for us to recognize the legacy of the last two bishops of Rome that we ought to honor and conserve: an emphasis on human dignity.
As a Baptist Christian, I disagree with Rome on many things, of course, and some of those things relate to the nature of the Petrine ministry, the relationship of the Bishop of Rome to the rest of the church, the merging of civil and ecclesial power, and so on. It might surprise previous generations of Protestants that one of the primary emphases of the Vatican in the last generation has been on the dignity and liberty of the human person.
When the world was threatened by Soviet totalitarianism, Benedict’s predecessor, John Paul II, communicated a vision of human flourishing and freedom that sparked resistance movements in his native Poland, throughout occupied Eastern Europe, and to the rest of the world. Benedict, then a cardinal, worked internally to root out Marxist mash-ups with Catholicism in the so-called “liberation theology” movements of Latin America and elsewhere.
Since assuming the papacy, Benedict has called for a counter-witness to the bloody persecution of Christians by Islamic authoritarian regimes in Africa and the Middle East, to the church-outlawing police states of China and North Korea, and to the soul-decaying secularism of Western Europe and, increasingly, the United States of America.
Benedict has countered the sexual revolution with an Augustinian view of the meaning of human personhood. A human person, he has reminded the world, is not a machine. We are not......
(Excerpt) Read more at firstthings.com ...
Very well written.
Some guidelines from a Baptist for you.
Other than that, it's refreshing to hear from an evangelical that doesn't start an article about the Catholic Church with tales of pedophilia.
Evangelical Christians might be tempted to see this the way a college football fan might view the departure of his rival team’s head coach. But the global stakes are much, much higher.
Last I checked the author is a Baptist.
So what? It’s obviously what caught the eye of the aggressively anti-Protestant poster.
You impute motive where none exist.
I’ve read a number of things written by Ratzinger/Benedict.
He was an impressive man. I’m sad that he is stepping down.
Couldn’t agree with you more. I got into an argument the other day with a former Senate aide. She told me that my use of the term “illegal alien” was dehumanizing and racist. I informed her that it was merely a statement of legal fact. After several go-rounds I finally patronized her and told her she was right, I’m quite obviously a racist. Of course I’m an American of purely Hispanic descent, a conservative with an advanced degree, married to an attorney and spent 26 years in law enforcement. I know a little something about the law. Funny thing is, she considers herself a Republican and I had previously thought she was fairly bright. Now I consider her just above a democrat....
I agree with you. Not all crimes are crimes of morality, beyond the fact that to knowingly violate any crime under law suggests a disregard for the law, which is one point of moral concern.
That said, you are correct that “anchor baby” and “illegal alien” do not “dehumanize” the persons they refer, nor does it make them morally less than all persons; but it does faithfully describes their legal state which is and needs to be noted as a legally suspect condition. They are not “less than human”, they are simply “less than legal” in the sense that they are not in a legal state of residence here. (yes, I include “anchor baby’s” in that for I do not believe the Constitutional provisions regarding citizens expected that massive numbers of births here to parents NOT legally here to be part of those provisions).
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