Posted on 08/21/2008 7:49:14 AM PDT by NYer
You wrote:
“So, you’re saying that the joy that Presbyterians (for the sake of argument) know is false?”
John Calvin, John Knox and the Puritans never stuck me as joyful.
Yeah, they missed all the fun putting people in the Rack and Iron maidens. Pulling off unneeded limbs for the Inquisition was a hoot.
That's not the point. If the young lady in the original story had found 'true joy' would it realy be 'true joy' if he Christian conversion had landed her in a non-Catholic church?
The news article is from a Catholic source. The words "converted to Catholicism" is very specific vs "converted to Protestantism" which encompasses 30,000+ denominations. Had this story appeared in a non-Catholic news article, I imagine they would have used the words: 'Woman without hands or legs discovers true joy after receiving Jesus into her heart'.
You wrote:
“Yeah, they missed all the fun putting people in the Rack and Iron maidens. Pulling off unneeded limbs for the Inquisition was a hoot.”
As historians know, the Inquisition never used the rack or iron maidens. No limbs were ever pulled off either. All of those types of torture are forms of maiming and were prohibited to the inquisition and the inquisition never tried to acquire those forms of torture.
About this, see Edward Peters, Inquisition. He knows what he talking about. He also wrote a book called Torture. He was the lead medieval historian at the University of Pennsylvania and he was also the lbrarian for the Henry Charles Lea library (on the inquisition).
John Calvin, on the other hand, practically cheered on Servetus’ burning and John Knox called for the assassination of Queen Mary. Nice bunch that.
You wrote:
“That’s not the point. If the young lady in the original story had found ‘true joy’ would it realy be ‘true joy’ if he Christian conversion had landed her in a non-Catholic church?”
I don’t know. It seems to me that converts from paganism often find more joy in Catholic Christianity than in Protestantism. Not to mention I have seen conversion stories of pagans who became Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons and they always say they found joy too.
It seems to me that Protestants in this thread are doing a lot of complaining about....what exactly? Are they upset she became Catholic and found joy?
“**many** Protestants claim Catholics find Christianity when they become Protestants”
You mispelled “very few”.
- A8
That would probably depend on whether they told her she was ELECT (Yay!) or arbitrarily chosen by god from before creation as a reprobate damned for all eternity (Boo!).
No, I didn’t.
Well, yes they do.... often in the context of said folks having once been in the evil clutches of the Catholic Church. ;-)
Be that as it may, quibbling about this headline reminds me of nothing so much as the Pharisees quibbling with Pilate about the wording of the sign on Jesus' cross.
LOL!
I rejoice that this woman has been brought into the sheepfold.
I think that if an article was posted titled “Catholic Nun Rescues Orphans From Burning Building” It would be occasion for the usual suspects to spew anti-Catholic hatred. The only headline that would satisfy them would be “Catholic Nun Is Reminded Of Fires Of Hell In Rescue Attempt And Denounces Catholicism To Give Her Life Over To Jesus, Who Has Never Been Anywhere Near Any Catholic Church, So There”
Spoken like a true Maronite!
I don't know who's complaining. It's just that the story title sounded a bit odd. It seems to me the emphasis should be on converting to Christianity, peoiod.
you wrote:
“I don’t know who’s complaining. It’s just that the story title sounded a bit odd. It seems to me the emphasis should be on converting to Christianity, peoiod.”
It is - Catholic Christianity. Period.
Do you get just as upset about the name of this organization:
How about this one:
http://www.angelfire.com/ky/dodone/
How about this one:
http://www.angelfire.com/ky/dodone/hisbio.html
And this one:
Or this one:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/2594/
Or this one:
Or this one:
http://www.reachingcatholics.org/index.html
Are you beginning to see a pattern?
ROFL!!
I have yet to be 'upset' about any of this. I just thought the story title sounded a bit odd.
Also, today is not my day for patterns.
What line of work are you in that you have encountered a large enough sample of pagans converting to either Catholicism / Protestantism and that your continued contact with them post conversion qualifies you to judge the amount of joy the converts find in each?
Does one's self report of joy in their decision yield such quantifiable results?
You wrote:
“What line of work are you in that you have encountered a large enough sample of pagans converting to either Catholicism / Protestantism and that your continued contact with them post conversion qualifies you to judge the amount of joy the converts find in each?”
My line of work was not my reference point nor did it have to be.
“Does one’s self report of joy in their decision yield such quantifiable results?”
No, nor does it have to since I made no claim whatsoever to anything quantifiable.
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