Posted on 02/14/2014 7:17:17 AM PST by marshmallow
Atlanta Pastor Barrett Owen said months of continuous news about Pope Francis I and his concern for “the least of these” inspired him to go public with his growing admiration for the Roman Catholic leader. He’s not the only evangelical who values the new pontiff’s approach.
A Baptist preacher in Georgia said months of exposure to television and online news reports about Pope Francis I just finally got to him.
And that’s a good thing, said Barrett Owen, pastor of National Heights Baptist Church in Atlanta.
“It seemed like he had a critical mass of news stories that just resonated with me,” Owen said. “He consistently overwhelms me how determined he is to give such a positive face to Christianity.”
Contributing to that media mass were articles and blogs published by agencies like Religion News Service and Christianity Today, often extolling the humility and least-of-these approach to ministry of the world’s most visible Christian leader.
So what did Owen do? He added to the deluge of evangelicals-who-love-the-pope commentary by penning a Feb. 7 blog on the topic for ABPnews/Herald.
Titled “#popecrush” after the trending Twitter hashtag for social media users infatuated with Pope Francis, the blog starts right off with a list of 10 things Barrett said he admires about the pontiff.
They include Francis choosing to ride in compact cars instead of limos, sneaking out of the Vatican to secretly visit homeless people and refusing to condemn homosexuals.
“The 10 items I listed in just seconds,” he said in a telephone interview. “They just came off the top of my head.”
(Excerpt) Read more at abpnews.com ...
As long as the Pope follows the Word he’s OK with this ex-Catholic Baptist......but I haven’t heard of anyone having leg tingles over him.
Something tells me these are the fake, liberal, black, social justice “baptists.”
May I ask - what compelled you leave the Catholic Church and become a Baptist?
“He consistently overwhelms me how determined he is to give such a positive face to Christianity.”
As if this is a problem to begin with. Hmmm.
In other news, Jesse Jackson now admires Ronald Reagan, and Captain Hook is BFF with Peter Pan.
I’ve got no problem with Catholics, but some of the pro-Catholic propaganda on this board is a bit rich. Less is more, fellas.
From their website:
Bible Freedom is the belief in the centrality of scripture. We teach that every human being has the capacity and the freedom to read and interpret the Bible as she or he sees fit.
Yikes
This saddens me, but I’m not shocked. Our Baptist forefathers wouldn’t recognize this generation of Baptists. Thankfully there are some traditional Baptists left, but they are the exception.
Here is what Charles Spurgeon, the great 19th century Baptist, had to say on the matter of the pope of Rome:
“It is the bounden duty of every Christian to pray against Antichrist, and as to what Antichrist is no sane man ought to raise a question. If it be not the popery in the Church of Rome there is nothing in the world that can be called by that name. If there were to be issued a hue and cry for Antichrist, we should certainly take up this church on suspicion, and it would certainly not be let loose again, for it so exactly answers the description.”
“Popery is contrary to Christ’s Gospel, and is the Antichrist, and we ought to pray against it. It should be the daily prayer of every believer that Antichrist might be hurled like a millstone into the flood and for Christ, because it wounds Christ, because it robs Christ of His glory, because it puts sacramental efficacy in the place of His atonement, and lifts a piece of bread into the place of the Saviour, and a few drops of water into the place of the Holy Ghost, and puts a mere fallible man like ourselves up as the vicar of Christ on earth; if we pray against it, because it is against Him, we shall love the persons though we hate their errors: we shall love their souls though we loath and detest their dogmas, and so the breath of our prayers will be sweetened, because we turn our faces towards Christ when we pray.”
Keep waving your banners of Rome. But, let it be said here, plainly, by the believers in Jesus, alone, that the Romanist organization is lost in its own self-aggrandizement and errant doctrines. There is no hope for it, there is no admiration of it or any of its bathrobed men, there is no light in its words.
Hopefully, this will clear up any possible false hopes RCs around here may have that this constant self-promotion will result in folks swimming the Tiber.
Yep. Fake “baptists.”
“Our Baptist forefathers wouldn’t recognize this generation of Baptists.”
Correct. In our church back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, the youth groups were taught the history of the Baptist church, apologetics, etc. Now, most Baptist churches are quasi-religious but are primarily social clubs and entertainment centers. Would I love to find a preacher who teaches in-depth Theology! Even here in TN where there are five Baptist churches within a couple miles of every home, they’re mostly fluff.
As for the pope, no true Baptist would admire him or his position. Baptists and cults do not, and should not, mix.
Been listening to some of these sermons from John MacArthur on Catholicism on and off. Good stuff
http://www.gty.org/search/Catholic
It is starting to become obvious why Pope Benedict resigned for “health reasons”. The Vaticans PR was taking a beating in the western press because of his hardline tone. Now the “good cop” takes the reigns.
It speaks more to your need than to Dutchboy88's responses on these threads. He is doing what God asks every member of His body to do. Are you?
Bible Freedom is the belief in the centrality of scripture. We teach that every human being has the capacity and the freedom to read and interpret the Bible as she or he sees fit.
Yikes
Good catch. Reminds me of these threads, wherein the uber-liberal PC(USA) praises the pope:
Fascination with Francis stirs Protestant hearts
Fascination with Francis stirs Protestant hearts
Yes,as a Catholic!
"Make snap judgments about people when you don't even know who they are."
Matthew 7:1
Reversed Standard Version
A homosexual friend of mine has also praised the pope for various things he’s said/done. Tells me a lot.
Actually, he was pretty close except for the black description. They are “progressive” and “moderate” by their own words. See their website.
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